Norfolk Island – Hell in a Pacific Paradise

To the east of Australia, in the South Pacific Ocean, lies the small Norfolk Island. It currently belongs to Australia, but in the first half of the 19th century, Norfolk was an English penal colony where the most dangerous criminals were exiled from England and Australia. Norfolk is a small island, only 34.6 square kilometers. The highest point on the island is Mount Bates (319 meters). The entire island is covered with arable land and pastures, and the population is just over 2,000 people. Norfolk was discovered by the famous English navigator James Cook in 1774, and from 1788 the island began to be used as a place of exile for prisoners from England. In 1814, the colony was abandoned as too costly, but in 1825 the prison was restored, and dangerous criminals—both criminal and political—were sent there. Even minor offenders were deported from England. For thirty years, Norfolk became a penal colony with a strict regime. The penal colony was finally closed in 1854, but the prison buildings are still carefully preserved on the island and have become a tourist attraction.

The history of Norfolk as a penal colony begins with the discovery of Australia. In 1787, the English government, seeking to relieve the metropolitan prisons of criminals, began sending transports with convicts to Australia to colonize the new territory. Among those sent were hardened recidivists, whom the Australian administration, trying to get rid of them, began to send to nearby islands. Already the following year, in 1788, "under the command of King, a special transport was sent to Norfolk Island; although, according to King’s report, he had to endure a severe struggle with the forces of nature and the inaccessibility of the shores, the idea of occupying as many points as possible was not abandoned, and the colonial authorities pursued it."

In 1814, the colony was abandoned as too costly, but in 1825 the prison was restored and designated for the most notorious criminals. The Governor of New South Wales, Ralph Darling, said: "My goal is to make this settlement a place of the strictest punishment, close to death." Prisoners worked in quarries and at the mill, where they manually turned heavy millstones; they were forced to wear heavy shackles and were mercilessly flogged for the slightest infractions. The island, which could have remained a peaceful Pacific paradise, for 30 years—until 1854—turned into the harshest penal colony. Several times, convicts unsuccessfully staged uprisings. In 1856, part of the population of Pitcairn Island—the descendants of the mutineers of the ship "Bounty"—resettled on Norfolk. In memory of this event, the most important local holiday, Bounty Day, has been celebrated annually on Norfolk on June 8.

A peculiarity of the penal colony on this remote island was the double recidivism. Convicts from England were sent to Australia and Van Diemen’s Land (later Tasmania). Upon arrival, they committed new crimes, were prosecuted, sentenced, and sent to penal settlements. One such settlement was Norfolk Island. A similar place of detention in Tasmania was the Port Arthur peninsula with the town of the same name. Here, those convicted of the most serious colonial crimes gathered; the worst were always kept in chains. Work was mandatory, but proper supervision could not be established. Disorders and riots often occurred here, ending with gunfire. The "ring" of the worst prisoners kept both inmates and authorities in fear, who could never enforce discipline with full severity. Each prisoner, besides common food, could freely buy provisions and go to the kitchen to prepare them; these culinary activities, accompanied by disputes, joking, and gluttony, significantly reduced working hours but became so entrenched that the administration had to tolerate them. Mutual corruption among prisoners was complete. They were housed in three locations on the island: Kingstown, the main one, Longridge, and Cascades, kept in barracks, and during the day engaged in agricultural or other work on the island.

In 1824, the British government instructed the Governor of New South Wales, Thomas Brisbane, to occupy Norfolk Island as a place for sending "convicts of the worst description." Its remoteness, previously considered a disadvantage, was now seen as an advantage for holding "twice-convicted" men who had committed new crimes since arriving in New South Wales. Brisbane assured his superiors that "a criminal sent there loses all hope of return forever." He regarded Norfolk Island as the "nec plus ultra of convict degradation." The detained convicts were long considered hardened recidivists, or "twice sentenced to death," meaning people brought to Australia who committed new colonial crimes punishable by death but were spared the gallows on condition of lifelong detention on Norfolk Island. However, recent research using a database of 6,458 convicts on Norfolk Island showed that reality was somewhat different: more than half were held on Norfolk Island without ever receiving a colonial conviction, and only 15% were spared the death sentence. Moreover, the overwhelming majority of convicts sent to Norfolk Island committed non-violent property crimes, the average detention period was three years, and the scale of punishments imposed was significantly less than previously thought.

His successor, Governor Ralph Darling, was even harsher than Brisbane, wanting "every man to be shackled so that his example might deter others from committing crimes" and to "keep [Norfolk Island] as a place of the severest punishment, short of death." Governor Arthur in Van Diemen’s Land also believed that "when prisoners are sent to Norfolk Island, they should under no circumstances be allowed to return. Transportation there should be regarded as the ultimate punishment, not just death." The correctional facility on Norfolk Island was not considered a place for reforming convicts.

Testimonies passed down through generations point to the creation of "Hell in Paradise." The widely spread and popular notion of the harshness of correctional institutions, including Norfolk Island, comes from Marcus Clarke’s novel "For the Term of His Natural Life," which apparently is based on the works and memories of witnesses. However, although Clarke conducted initial research, he selected the most sensational examples possible.

After the convict uprising in 1834, Father William Ullathorne, the Vicar General of Sydney, visited Norfolk Island to comfort the mutineers who were to be executed. He found it "the most heart-rending scene I have ever seen." Being obliged to inform prisoners who received reprieves and who were to die, he was shocked, recording as "a literal fact that every man who heard of his reprieve wept bitterly, and every man who heard of his death sentence knelt with dry eyes and thanked God."

In Magistrate Robert Pringle Stuart’s 1846 report, there were mentions of food shortages and poor quality, inadequate housing, horrors of torture and incessant floggings, prisoner insubordination, and corruption among overseers. Bishop Robert Wilson visited Norfolk Island three times from Van Diemen’s Land. After his first visit in 1846, he reported to the House of Lords, which for the first time realized the monstrosity of crimes committed under the British flag and tried to correct this evil. Wilson returned in 1849 and found that many reforms had been implemented. However, rumors of renewed atrocities brought him back in 1852, resulting in an exposé listing the atrocities and blaming the system that gave one man in this remote place absolute power over so many people. Only a handful of convicts left any written testimony, and their descriptions (quoted by Hazzard and Hughes) of living and working conditions, food and housing, and especially punishments for seemingly minor offenses, invariably horrify, describing a settlement devoid of any human decency under the iron rule of tyrannical autocratic commandants. However, these conclusions were based on a number of overused (mostly published) sources that were not verified or questioned during detailed archival research. Such work is currently underway, which, for example, has challenged the sensational version of Norfolk Island’s past, demonstrating that the widespread assumption that convicts on Norfolk Island made "pacts of murder and suicide," i.e., drew lots to choose a killer and a victim wishing to "escape" from Norfolk Island, is a myth.

The actions of some commandants, such as Morisset and especially Price, seem excessively harsh. All but one were military men raised in a system where discipline was severe. Moreover, commandants relied on a large number of military guards, civilian overseers, former convict constables, and convict informers who provided intelligence and carried out their orders.

Only Alexander Maconochie among the commandants apparently concluded that cruelty would breed disobedience, as demonstrated by the uprisings of 1826, 1834, and 1846, and he tried to apply his theories of penitentiary reform, which included both rewards and punishments. His methods were criticized as too lenient, and he was replaced, which returned the settlement to its former harsh rule. However, recent studies have also shown that the level of punishment under Maconochie’s regime was much higher than previously thought, as the average number of lashes per flogging—93—was higher under Maconochie than at any other time in the history of the second penal settlement. The second penal settlement began to be wound down by the British government after 1847, and the last convicts were transferred to Tasmania in May 1855. It was abandoned because transportation to Van Diemen’s Land ceased in 1853 and was replaced by penal servitude in the United Kingdom. Norfolk Island entered the history of the English penal colony system as one of the most terrible places of detention. According to Engels, "it is hard to imagine more cruel and degrading punishments systematically designed to destroy the victims of the law physically, spiritually, and morally, and to crush them below the level of cattle. The transported criminal falls into such an abyss of demoralization, disgusting bestiality, that the best nature must fall within six months; whoever wishes to read the eyewitness reports of New South Wales or Norfolk Island will agree with me that all that has been said above is far from the reality." To this day, on one of the islands near Norfolk, there is a cemetery with many unnamed graves of deceased convicts.

Sources:

Lavrentyev M.V. Norfolk Island – English Penal Colony in the First Half of the 19th Century.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Norfolk_Island