Norfolk Island is not a "Territory of Australia". The United Nations Association of Australia has
described such claims made by certain Australian politicians as "patently ludicrous". When the
Pitcairners were persuaded to re-settle in Norfolk, there is no doubt that they were told that the
island was a gift to them from Queen Victoria. And in the first month of their landing, 7,000 of its
8,000 acres were almost certainly promised to them.
Their right to self-government was honoured for forty years, but was withdrawn in 1896 when a
New South Wales Governor decided that the islanders were "incapable of governing themselves".
This removal of their rights was deeply resented by the locals but accepted for years out of
ignorance - they were not told that, although Australia requested Great Britain to proclaim the island
as a full Territory of Australia, that request was never granted.
Norfolk may be a territory "under the authority" of Australia, but it is certainly not owned by it. It finances its own education, its police, its airport - in fact receiving from Australia not a great deal more than it returns to it.
A shrinking but vocal minority would like to see Norfolk absorbed into Australia, perhaps for imagined welfare benefits.
Another small group stands for total independence. They resent the interminable "select committees" which the Australian government sends to 'study' them, despite the fact that Norfolkers have clearly demonstrated their ability to govern themselves .They wonder what Australia has to teach them when they have no unemployment and, without saddling their citizens with income tax, have incurred not a penny of foreign debt.
In the middle stand the largest band: those who (provided Australia does not impede the progress of internal self-government) will be happy to live by George Hunn Nobbs' words of a century ago: "The land is a goodly land, and needs nothing but a contented mind, a persevering spirit and a grateful heart to render it productive and pleasant."
George Hunn Nobbs