NORFOLK ISLAND
Over two hundred and thirty years ago the First Fleet set in motion the founding of modern Australia and Norfolk Island – and on Norfolk, Foundation Day is a great way to find out all about the Fleet, the men and women who were a part of it, and just how close we were to seeing a very different history of Australia.
Foundation Day Norfolk Island is often associated with the mutineers of HMS Bounty and the grim history of convict transportation, but the reality of its settlement is far more colourful, complex – and intriguing. There is archaeological evidence of ancient Polynesian habitation of the island, but when the first European settlers arrived after Captain James Cook ‘discovered’ Norfolk in 1774 these early occupants were long gone.
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