Norfolk is a small island dependent on Australia with a declining and aging population. Australia wonders if it is worth keeping it occupied. It has been that way from the beginning. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.
One way for a small island to generate some revenue is to contract out to print stamps for the worldwide stamp collector. The island petitioned repeatedly for the right to print stamps and Australia granted it right before World War II but the stamps themselves had to wait till after the war. It helps if the island is a part of the British Commonwealth, which Norfolk is by extension by way of Australia. The fact that many of the current residents of Norfolk are descended from immigrants from Pitcairn Island guaranteed there would be stamps, as they are big business on Pitcairn. However in 2016 as part of the reorganization of Norfolk’s administration, the separate Norfolk postal system was shut down and anything newer is printed by and for Australia.
Todays stamp is issue A22, a 5 Australian cent stamp issued by The Australian self governing dependency of Norfolk Island on October 27th, 1968. It was a single stamp issue depicting a mother of pearl carving of the Nativity in celebration of Christmas that year. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 35 cents whether mint or used.
Though a Polynesian settlement had at one time existed, Norfolk was unoccupied when spotted by Captain Cook in 1774. He named it after Mary Howard, the Duchess of Norfolk. She had asked Captain Cook to name an island for her but by the time he did unknown to him, she had died the year before. New Zealand style flax was growing there wildly and that attracted the first penal colony from New South Wales to better cultivate it. The flax became less valuable and it was decided that the penal colony be abandoned in 1814.
In 1824, Tasmania and Britain had ideas for a second penal colony specifically to house the worst criminals that had been sentenced to death but as was common then seen that sentence commuted to life in prison. Thus an island 900 miles offshore was ideal. In the 1850s the importation of convicts to Tasmania had ended and it was soon again decided to abandon the facility on Norfolk.
The facilities left by the penal colony proved attractive and 189 residents of Pitcairn Island landed in 1856. The were mainly descendants of the Tahitian wives of the HMS Bounty mutineers. The colony resembled Pitcairn, see https://the-philatelist.com/2018/11/29/pitcairn-islands-1967-an-island-with-more-stamps-than-people-this-one-overprinted-in-gold/ , but was less religious. A native dialect even developed that was a combination of 18th century English and Tahitian called norfuk. The island was administered by New South Wales both before and after the creation of Australia. An airstrip was built on the island during World War II to take advantage of it being half way between Australia and New Zealand.
Australia granted much self rule after the war but things did not go well. As Australian citizens, the young adults mostly leave seeking work and study opportunities and tourism is the only real industry. An appeal was made to Australia in 2010 for additional subsidies. The Australians responded by shuttering the local institutions and taking more direct control. The dole became Australia level generous but for the first time, Norfolk residents were expected to pay Australian income tax. This was quite a blow on the island and now there is talk of appealing this to the United Nations as a nation being held against it’s will by another. Meanwhile every year the population drops and there are now barely 1000 residents. I doubt the UN will take up their case as the Norfolk islanders are white. Interestingly the island has so few last names that the phone book included nicknames like Diddles and Rubber duck.
Well my drink is empty and I will pour another in remembrance of the former Norfolk postal service. Maybe I am just still thirsty. Come again for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2019.