AUSTRALIA ~ Norfolk Island - Kingston - UNESCO ~

... Wonderful aerial view of a remote pristine island paradise in the South Pacific... Kingston is a living showcase of Polynesian, convict and Pitcairn Islander history... also one of the most haunted places in Australia... during the 19th century, this now-peaceful Australian retreat was a convict colony, home to criminals who’d been banished into exile... it was indeed the Hell of the Pacific, a place dominated by death and despair... Britain regarded these colonies as dumping grounds for their overflowing prisons... you can visit the settlement’s remains, an eerie yet beautiful collection that includes a jail, a cemetery, lumbar yard and salt house.. they are revered for their historical significance... with great matching stamp and unique special postmark for the 200th *Anniversary* of NI's Penal Settlement... Thanks a lot Helen!(✿◠‿◠)

Norfolk Island is an Australian territory that was once home to Polynesian settlers who left in the 16th century, and where Captain Cook landed in 1774. Kingston is the capital and main administrative centre.

The island was subject to two periods of penal settlement by Britain: the first from 1788 to 1814, the second from 1825 to 1855. The second penal settlement was intended to turn the island into a “great hulk or penitentiary”, a place of punishment for those recalcitrant male convicts who had reoffended since being deported to the Australian colonies. 

On 6 June 1825, 57 convicts reoccupied the island and by 1834, there were nearly 700 prisoners. They received harsh, inhumane treatment, including floggings, restraint with leg irons, poor food, inadequate housing and hard labour in chain gangs. Between 1828 and 1850, convicts were transported to and from the island on around 40 voyages. 

In 1853, Britain stopped the transportation of prisoners to Van Diemen’s Land, which is where the last of the Norfolk Island convicts were taken in May 1855. By 1855 the island stood empty once more. Never again would it bear witness to penal cruelty and inhumanity. 

In 2010 KAVHA was inscribed on the World Heritage List as one of eleven historic sites that together form the Australian Convict Sites.

 

Stamps:

Bicentenary of the second penal settlement on Norfolk Island 

(Issued 04-02-2025)

Explorers - Sir Paul Edmund de Strzelecki

(Issued 26-09-1983)