Norfolk Island is one of those destinations we put on the "back burner" as an easy place to visit for when we get older. The reality - that time has come, so we've booked a week at Endeavour Lodge through the Norfolk Island travel service from 28th August to 4th September.
East Polynesians were the first to settle Norfolk Island, but they had already departed when Great Britain settled it as part of its 1788 colonisation of Australia. The island served as a convict penal settlement from 6 March 1788 until 5 May 1855, except for an 11-year hiatus between 15 February 1814 and 6 June 1825, when it lay abandoned. On 8 June 1856, permanent civilian residence on the island began when descendants of the Bounty mutineers were relocated from Pitcairn Island. In 1914, the UK handed Norfolk Island over to Australia to administer as an external territory.
As of the 2012 census, there were 2,188 permanent residents on the island.
