Geographer Ian Bowie visited the Island in December 2024 and has allowed the Society to re-publish some of his reflections on the Island’s history.
The Sequent Occupations of Norfolk Island. Downloaded 14 December 2024 from Mr Bowie’s personal website https://ijsbowie.wordpress.com/2021/05/05/the-serial-settlements-of-norfolk-island/.
Mr Bowie has given advice on historical sources:
“As to some particular potential resources, you might want to visit https://www.library.gov.au/research/access-collection/australian-joint-copying-project-ajcp/ajcp-public-record-office-pro and https://www.library.gov.au/research/access-collection/australian-joint-copying-project-ajcp/using-ajcp. The AJCP is a remarkable resource of colonial period data, funded as part of Australian Bicentennial project [though other countries were involved] and the Colonial Office and Admiralty files are of especial relevance for Norfolk Island. Mostly information from these files is raw data, for the use of researchers really, but Cathy Dunn has made considerable use of it for her publications on Norfolk Island’s first penal settlement (https://www.australianhistoryresearch.info/) and https://blog.une.edu.au/convicthistory/2023/10/12/norfolkisland_firstsettlement_directory/. Cathy has interests in the second penal settlement too. NSW State Records hold Births Marriages and Deaths records for Norfolk Island e.g. volume 4 of the NSW which are searchable (https://mhnsw.au/guides/births-deaths-and-marriages-registers-1787-1856/ ) although individual records are more easily found at https://www.nsw.gov.au/family-and-relationships/family-history-search (see also https://www.bda-online.org.au/files/NI3-Residents.pdf). Again most of that would be of interest to researchers. Of more general interest would be other holdings in the National Library and NSW State records (https://mhnsw.au/guides/norfolk-island-guide/) partly reflecting the fact that the Island has been governed as if it were part of NSW at times [I haven’t found comparable records for the Van Dieman’s Land part of the Island’s history). The NSW State Library has its own extensive holdings also overlapping with those of the National Library (https://guides.sl.nsw.gov.au/life-in-the-colony/settlements) and they hold many splendid maps and photos.
“Obviously…there have been so many official reports from the report of the Nimmo Royal Commission onwards. I had a little difficulty with some of these notably earlier heritage-related ones because some authors have been tempted to retiterate errors. It was helpful to find archaeological reports such as https://journals.australian.museum/anderson-and-white-2001-rec-aust-mus-suppl-27-19/ [and the other papers in that supplement] and on the two penal settlements https://www.academia.edu/9205542/Duncan_and_Gibbs_2014_Norfolk_Island_Archaeological_Remote_Sensing_Project.Surprising finds included https://library.puc.edu/pitcairn/pitcairn/history.shtml and https://anglicanhistory.org/oceania/ni/e on the Project Canterbury website (mainly to do with the Melanesian Mission in great detail). Genealogical details on Pitcairners on Wikipedia led me to some interesting pieces of herstory eg https://historymatters.sydney.edu.au/2017/05/the-women-of-pitcairn-and-their-descendants/ (and reminded me of the novelisations of the stories of Teraura and Mauatua). The reseach of Tim Causer eg, https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/1331354/1/Worst_Types_Norfolk_Island_(2010).pdf offers a useful antidote to conventional wisdoms about the penal settlements which certainly were brutal but only rarely sadistic and reminds us that the great majority of convicts sent to both settlements were not convicted of heinous crimes.”