Norfolk Island Images

It is too easily forgotten how the island has evolved without such images. How much will have shifted in another fifty years? In the 1930' James Frederick Mitchell shot a trip through the Pacific. A part of his film is here because it portrays Norfolk Island as a target for cruisers and shows the activities at Cascade Pier.

You' ll also see the Cable Station in Anson Bay, the Chapel Mission and its Travellers Palm, the Branka House, the unbelievable Pine Avenue, parts of Kingston Village with the Crank Mill, Pier Store and what is now the Lions Club and the activity at Cascade Pier where the vessel was docked.

Afterwards James Mitchell went back to Norfolk Island and established himself here.

Northfolk Islanders Suggest Reception Center for Refugees | Australia Newspaper

Under a new proposition, Norfolk Island could become an off-shore treatment center for asyl seekers arriving in exchange for maintaining the self-government of Australia's territories. But while many inhabitants want to retain their independence, there are doubts that an off-shore tourist manufacturing center, on which their economies depend, would be catastrophic and prevent others from participating in such a program with the state.

This suggestion - drafted by the former Norfolk Islander and refugee Natasha Blucher and the chairman of the island's chambers of trade, John Brown - sketched out a possible system of treatment on the island "if the present regionally processed agreements with Nauru and Manus Island become untenable". She suggested a common prison system using the use of communal homes and shelters to allow applicants for political refugee and refugee status to enjoy a largely free life on the island.

It would offer a less trauma-free environment for refugees while promoting the coherent inclusion of two societies and upholding Norfolk Island's global image, the document says. There would be almost no need for new buildings on the island. It called for broad public consultations in the Norfolk Islands and called for greater involvement and benefit to the economy in the growing businesses that the system and related service provision financed by the federal government would have.

In recent months, the German government's off-shore manufacturing system has partly broken down after the Papua New Guinea Superior Tribunal declared the imprisonment of political refugees on Manus Island unlawful and ordered the institution to close. Now the German authorities are crawling to contain the radioactive precipitation without taking prisoners to the continent.

Blocher and Brown's suggestion, first made in January 2015, proposed that if Norfolk Island had self-government and stayed outside the Migration Act, it could grant provisional or long-lasting protective visa that would not grant the owners entry to the continent, thereby honouring the government's pledge. Since the Bundestag's ruling last year to lift the island's independence, Norfolk Island has been in a transitional phase.

From July 1, the island will be covered by Australia's migration and borders control regulations. Island residents are covered by the Medicare system and are entitled to welfare services, which includes the Pharmaceutical Benefit Scheme. It will also come under the Australia fiscal system and its legislation will be brought into line with that of the Confederation and New South Wales.

Last months high-profile Geoffrey Robertson, a member of Metropolitan Canada's top quality organization, filed a complaint with the UN in which he accuses Australia of recolonizing the small island in the South Pacific. Advocacy and insecurity about becoming part of the government of the Cumberland Resort and Spa is still rife, and the Cumberland Resort and Spa executive, Rael Donde, is among those who are working to preserve the island's independence.

However, he said that setting up off-shore manufacturing on the island was not the right way forward. "I' ll make this proposal[for an off-shore machining centre] at the next tour operator meet on the island and I can tell you now - the vast majority will oppose this proposal," he said to Guardian Australia.

It provides for an increased income for tourist enterprises - as well as lodging establishments hosting applicants for political asylum and air travellers - and for the management of goods and the provision of locally based service. One of nine Save the Childrens Nauru operatives who were fired for what later turned out to be unfounded, Mr Blocher said the suggestion was a practical concept that arose while working with homes and kids in the shelter.

I' ve seen humans move from suicidal menaces to massive suicides, and I have seen people's psychological wellbeing falling apart," she said. Blocher said she still held her opinion that every individual in off-shore warehouses should be immediately taken to Australia and have their claims processed by Australia.

It emphasised that the proposed solution was a proposition for the Norfolk Island Association and that it could give the German authorities a "strong incentive" to re-establish the island's self-government. "Being a Norfolk Islander who has lived in Australia for over 10 years, it is not my job to decide what is best for the fellowship that lives there today; it is of course always her job to decide what is best for her," she said.

It states that any incumbent center can never be a cohesive prison system "because it is not in Norfolk Island's interest to get internationally criticized for atrocities. But there are doubts that the authorities would reject this part of the agreement if the island approved the suggestion.

Mr Hamilton-Irvine is a member of the administrative board of Norfolk Island Peoples For Democracy, which calls for an impartial assessment of the trial to bring the island under Australia's rule. Hamilton Irvine said he would only endorse the island's proposed center for refugees if the UN decides that the island' s inhabitants should have the right to self-government.

He said that the machining center would only be run in a humane manner if it was run by the island' s inhabitants. "We have experienced how they treat the Aussie federation and how they treat people," he said. "The Norfolk Islands would be very distrustful of the German authorities, which operate something like a manufacturing center here, as we have seen how they run the centers elsewhere.

Former Norfolk Island Prime State Lisle Snell, who died when the Australia administration lifted the island's independence, said that as much as he wanted the island to be self-governed, he was not prepared to back a manufacturing center for it. It was proposed to the now repealed legislature about 18 month ago.

Before he could examine the suggestion, he said that a full EIA must be undertaken to make sure that the untouched island's natural environment is intact. He added, however, that he had not seen the full motion and was prepared to examine it further as soon as he had seen it.

Mr Matt Bigg, a grower who cultivates most of the island's freshness, said that things on the island needed to be settled by agreement and he had not yet heard of the suggestion. Mr. Bigg also said the island was struggling to find the resources to support its present populace and it can be challenging to house more inns.

Unexpectedly, he did not understand why Blucher and Brown had put the motion together and said the regime fought when the Commons took over. Hardgrave Gary, who was named as the trustee of Norfolk Island last year to prepare residents for the initiation of Commons wealth benefits from July, said while he had not seen the request from Blucher and Brown, it was not the first one had been made.

"There' s nothing new in this kind of foolish, wealthy plan for which this island has unfortunately become famous," he said.