Next March the Norfolk Island Museum
will be partnering with The Travel Centre to present a week long event that
celebrates our maritime heritage. Despite being such a little island we
certainly hit above our weight when it comes to the quality of our maritime
stories and it is wonderful to be able to share these with our visitors in a ‘history soaked’ week of events! The
Travel Centre has put together a fabulous package including airfares,
accommodation and a range of activities for the week which will run from 15 to
24 March next year. Please help us tell others about this event by letting us
know of individuals or groups who may like to receive information about the
week and we’ll arrange for a package to be sent to them.
The title of the week: “From the Sirius to the Bounty” gives a clear indication of the substance of our maritime
heritage. These two ‘big’ maritime stories bookend other perhaps lesser known
but also fascinating parts of our maritime history. The story of the earliest
Polynesian seafarers who lived here is important as this island is the only
point of Polynesian settlement in Australia. Many islanders today
have found artefacts such as stone adzes in their back garden or at the beach
and of course we have a great array of artefacts from the archaeological digs
behind Emily Bay. How the Polynesians came, why and
when they left are just some of the questions surrounding this earliest part of
the islands history.
Jumping forward in time an important part
of our heritage today comes from our whaling history. One of the first
industries to be started upon arrival by the Pitcairners, whaling brought vital
cash into the economy. It was a dangerous activity as evidenced by the number
of graves in our cemetery and an industry that stopped and started a number of
times until finally finishing in 1962. The Resolution
is another key local maritime story that goes to the heart of this island’s
ultimately unsuccessful attempts to control shipping of fresh fruit and
vegetables to mainland markets. Our modern day lighterage activity and the
skill of our local men in unloading ships attracts visitors to every unloading.
All these stories will be fully explored during the week.
Of course the wrecking of HMS Sirius on Norfolk Island in 1790 left us
with Australia’s
most important shipwreck site and material. On the 223rd anniversary
of her wrecking at midday the 19th March, we will be looking out
over the site where the devastating wrecking occurred. The importance of her
artefacts cannot be understated – they are the most significant array of First
Fleet cultural heritage held in Australia.
Last, but certainly not least is the most
famous mutiny story ever told – the mutiny on the Bounty. We will try to separate Hollywood fiction from fact and
fully explore all the circumstances of the mutiny; that most remarkable voyage
of Bligh in the longboat and the voyage of the mutineers back through Tahiti
and eventually on to Pitcairn Island.
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