NORFOLK ISLAND

8 team members
Adopt-a-country school: Te Uki Ou School
Accommodation: Private/Tereora College
Dining: Princess Ann Hall

Administrative Centre:     Kingston
Languages:     English, Norfolk Language (Pitcairnese/Tahitian)
Currency:     Australian Dollar

Norfolk Island is an Australian territory located in the South Pacific Ocean, east of Australia. Known for its unique island pines dotted along the coast, the island’s area is 34.6 km².
East Polynesian seafarers from the Kermadec Islands in the 14th and 15th century were the first settlers on the island.
However, the island’s main inhabitants were from the two English penal colonies that were established with the arrival of Philip Gidley King in 1788.
Settlers from Pitcairn, descendants of the mutineers of the Bounty and their Tahitian wives, followed in 1856.
With a small population of about 1800 the majority of people are Protestants and speak a combination of English and ‘Nurfolk’. Brought by their forebears, ‘Nurfolk’, is a unique mixture of 18th century English and Polynesian.
The Tahitian influence of the Pitcairn settlers has resulted in some aspects of the Polynesian culture being adopted, such as the hula dance and certain foods.
The island was placed under the authority of the new Commonwealth government to be administered as an external territory in 1901.
By 1979 Norfolk Island was granted self-governance by Australia, under which the island elects a government which runs most of the islands affairs. It is the only non-mainland Australian territory to have achieved self-governance. The Australian government maintains authority on the island through an administrator.