Who Governs Norfolk Island

The story has changed and today Norfolk Island is one of the most tranquil and scenic Pacific islets. 1856 colonists came from the crowded island of Pitcairn, descendents of the mutiny Bounty team. Isle of Norfolk Island is almost one and a half thousand kilometers from Brisbane.

It is only 8 kilometers long and 5 kilometers broad. There are two smaller islets, Nepean and Phillip, in the southern part. It is suitable for both visitors and inhabitants, and there are two landing stages and a jetty that serves the island, but no efficient protection for visitors.

The island is ruled by an official who has been nominated by the Governor General of Australia. Norfolk Island Council deals with financial, industrial and economic issues. The most important of the six ships on Norfolk is the Sirius, 540 tonnes, the most important of the First Fleet's warships, which was destroyed in March 1790.

The other ships were all small sailboats under 100 tonnes. The Lord Howe Island is the southernmost island of the West Pacific and one of the most beautifull reefs in the whole-west. Situated about seven hundred kilometers northeast of Sydney, the island is about crescent-shaped, eleven kilometers long and up to one and a half kilometers broad.

On the west side of a six-kilometre-long lake is surrounded by a small ship-harbour. At the southeastern end of Mount Gower and Mount Lidgbird, two summits of 864 and 763 meters respectively offer a wonderful panoramic sight of the island. Approximately twenty kilometers southeast of the island there is a tooth-shaped vulcanic pinnacle named Balls Pyramid, which is 552 meters high.

Its name comes from the island's explorer, Lieutenant Henry Lidgbird Ball, commandant of HMT Supply, who travelled from Port Jackson to Norfolk Island in 1788. Lord-Howe Island is called after a British admiral. It has a constant populace of about 250 persons, whose primary industrial activity is tourism.

Constitutionalally, the island belongs to New South Wales. There are eleven ships missing on Lord Howe Island, another ten on the way. Losing the biggest ship near Lord Howe Island was the 1276 tonne Maelgwyn steel barge, which was left near the island.

On shore, the biggest of the ships is the 1597 -tonne - La Meurthe, losing in 1907. In 1229 tonnes, the island merchant, SS Ovalau, was killed by fire; the steamship Makamba, 1159 tonnes, went under but was recovered and dragged back to Sydney. Jacques del Mar, a 506 ton steamship, was not so lucky and ended his day at the North Passage entry.

This name was loss in Twofold Bay, 1835, but no formal records of the shipwreck were found. One of her bells is used by the Norfolk Island-Schule. Between Newcastle and San Francisaco with charcoal, a leakage jumped about 800 leagues away, and went to the island of Lord Howe.

Stumbled upon a coral wall as she tried to access the North Passage, sunk, except for the body and load, on 10 March 1877. In 1907, an armature retrieved by the alarm clock was revealed in a ceremonial at Macquarie Place, Sydney. Relicts on Norfolk Island included an anchoring and weapons exhibited in Kingston.

Smashed a cliff off Lord Howe Island and sunk about ten leagues off the coast on August 8, 1837. She' had 1,700 drums of semen on the plane, all wasted. This ship had called on Lord Howe to get ashore and was perished when heavy current tossed her over a cliff and she keeled over and sunk within thirty miutes.

After four weeeks the team was brought aboard a sailing boat and ended up in Sydney. Click here for the Norfolk & Lord Howe homepage.