On the eastern side of Norfolk Island, Broken Bridge Creek runs into the scenic Cascade Reserve and falls into the ocean at Cockpit Waterfall.
Photo Credit: Don Fuchs
Norfolk Island is the eroded remnant of a basaltic volcano active around 2.3-3 million years ago, and its coastlineconsists of cliff faces made of volcanic rock. The landscape, predominately made up of rolling plains and dense pine forests, is dominated by Mt Bates, which, at 321m, is the highest point of the submerged Norfolk Ridge.
Photo Credit: Don Fuchs
Nepean Island (foreground) is a small, uninhabited island located about 800m south of Norfolk Island. The island is about 10 hectares in area.
Located 6km south of Norfolk Island, Phillip Island (background) is a tiny, uninhabited, protected area. Once overrun by pigs, goats and rabbits, the island is now feral-free.
Photo Credit: Don Fuchs
Norfolk Island Golf Club is one of the only golf courses in the world located within a World Heritage Site, and it has some of the best views you could possibly ask for.
Photo Credit: Don Fuchs
The isolation of Norfolk Island is emphasised by its lack of a safe harbour. Without a place for supply ships to safely dock, Norfolk relies on a time-honoured but precarious and finely honed procedure known as ‘lighterage’ to receive cargo. Every few weeks, the process sees cargo transferred from supply ships to wooden boats known as ‘lighters’. These are towed ashore by motor launches, and the cargo is winched onto one of the island’s two sturdy piers.
Photo Credit: Don Fuchs
The World Heritage-listed town of Kingston is the site of Norfolk’s colonial and convict settlements. Visitors can explore the convict-era buildings and ruins, including the prison compound and the hospital.
Photo Credit: Don Fuchs
Visitors can wander through the Kingston cemetery, which features headstones dating back to 1789.
Photo Credit: Don Fuchs
Located within a number of heritage buildings in Kingston, the Norfolk Island Museum and Research Centre will help you to explore the island’s turbulent past.
Photo Credit: Don Fuchs
The headstones at Kingston cemetery provide detailed evidence of convict revolts and the lifestyle of Norfolk Island’s early inhabitants.
Photo Credit: Don Fuchs
The town of Kingston looks out on to Slaughter Bay, where Norfolk Island’s iconic lighter boats ferry cargo to and from supply ships.
Photo Credit: Don Fuchs
The ruins of the New Gaol are free to explore. The New Gaol housed convicts who resisted the penal colony’s harsh discipline. These convicts were sentenced to work on chain gangs, to solitary confinement, or to death.
Photo Credit: Don Fuchs
The John Christian Bailey boat-building shed is filled with the aromas of wood and epoxy, and the clamour of boat builders at work.
Photo Credit: Don Fuchs
Cemetery Bay (foreground) and Nepean and Phillip islands (background). Cemetery Bay holds graves dating back to the earliest convicts and settlers on Norfolk Island.
Photo Credit: Don Fuchs
At the clifftop above Anson Bay there is a BBQ picnic area and reserve. It’s a great location to catch a beautiful sunset.
Photo Credit: Don Fuchs
A lookout on the island’s north-west corner offers a great view of the pine tree-lined cliffs and the surf crashing onto the beach at Anson Bay.
Photo Credit: Don Fuchs
Walking down to the beach at Anson Bay is well worth the climb back up.
Photo Credit: Don Fuchs
St Barnabas Chapel was built by a Melanesian Mission between 1866 and 1920. The chapel is surprisingly grand for one in such a small, isolated location.
Photo Credit: Don Fuchs
The Hilli Goat Farm is family-run and provides visitors with an opportunity to experience Norfolk’s farm-to-table dining tradition. After witnessing the cheese-making process, visitors can enjoy freshly made goats cheese with a tasty spread of local food.
Australia’s Norfolk Island, located 1471km east of Brisbane in the Pacific Ocean, is the result of a volcano that existed some 2-3 million years ago. Its human history features inhabitants including Polynesians, First Fleeters, convicts and mutineers. Today, it is also perhaps Australia’s most remote community.
We sent Australian yachtswoman Jessica Watson to discover Norfolk Island’s homegrown treasures. Read her full feature in AG#136, out now.