Key milestones in Norfolk Island people’s history

700-600 years ago – Polynesian occupation

Oct 10 1774 – Captain James Cook on HMS Resolution discovered Norfolk Island

Mar 6 1788 – Lieutenant Philip Gidley King with 22 people (including 15 convicts) established the first penal settlement. This settlement closed down in 1814

Apr 28 1789 – Officer of the watch, Fletcher Christian, leads the Mutiny on the Bounty, south of the Pacific island of Tofua. Surnames of the mutineers were Christian, Young, Mills, Brown, McCoy, Quintal, Smith (Adams), Williams, Martin

Jan 1790 – 28 persons land on Pitcairn Island after the Mutiny – 9 Europeans, six Tahitian men, 12 Tahitian women and a baby girl

1823 – Two Englishmen, Buffett and Evans joined the Pitcairn people

Jun 1825 – Captain R Turton re-occupied Norfolk Island for the worst felons

1828 – George Hunn Nobbs arrived at Pitcairn

May 2 1856 – 193 Pitcairners leave aboard HMS Morayshire for their new home on Norfolk Island (George Hunn Nobbs on leaving Pitcairn) “Breakfasted for the last time, on Pitcairn, and that too with heavy hearts. Previous to embarking, many went to the graves … which has afforded us the melancholy …There were very few of its inhabitants who weer not on deck, to take, a long last lingering look at that much loved & ever to be remembered spot.”

8 Jun 1856 – 194 Pitcairn Islanders arrived to form the first free settlement (George Hunn Nobbs on seeing Norfolk Island for the first time) “Cloudey weather. Close in with Norfolk Island, very much disappointed in its appearance from the present point ov view, which is directly off the settlement, presents a succession of hillocks & shallow ravins, and scarcely a tree to be seen.”