It has been said by Australian politicians and others arguing in favour of the current “transition”, that Norfolk Island is “no different from an Australian country town”. There are at least four good reasons why this is not so. Let’s look at them.
The first reason is perhaps so obvious that we tend to miss it. The situation we are confronted with is rather like trying to stuff a flexible bag into an undersized box. You can stuff it in one side and close the lid, only to find that it is poking out somewhere else. Norfolk Island used to be an external territory with its own set of laws, regulations and practices. The Australian Government then declares it to be part of Australia and wants to stuff it in the “no different from an Australian country town” box: say like Cobar (pop. 3,817) in NSW, or Longreach (pop. 3,137) in Queensland. But then… but then if you want to travel to Norfolk Island you have to take an aeroplane, you travel from the international air terminal, and ideally still take you passport with you. You have to have customs and quarantine checks to get there. If you want to vote in the Federal election you vote in an electorate 1,900km away, and you don’t get a vote in the state elections. And then you don’t pay Australian GST either. Does that sound like any town you know in NSW or Queensland?
In any small country town in Australia you can always catch a bus or a train to the next larger town in order to get what you need, or you can have goods freighted in rapidly and at moderate cost. Or you can just get in your car and drive there, or to Sydney or Brisbane (Cobar is about 700km from Sydney, Longreach 1,000km from Brisbane), or even to Perth if you feel like it. What this expresses is the reality of the continuity of landmass under your feet and of the continuity of individual experience.
You can’t do these things if you are on Norfolk, which is almost 1,500km from anywhere on the Australian continent, and there’s a lot of water in between. Here the physical system is discontinuous, and so is the individual experience.
It defines what might be called a “quantum leap” between island and continent. It is the primary fact of economic and social life on isolated islands such as Norfolk, and the one that dominates all others. If you lose your job on Norfolk Island for whatever reason, the cost may be emigration. If you need to go to Sydney to consult a specialist doctor, the return airfare to get there is around $600-$800, and because there are flights on only two days a week you may need to pay for accommodation as well: and that’s before you pay the doctor’s bill. General goods ordered from Australia may take 5-6 weeks to arrive by ship, with freight costs of $500-$720 per cubic metre.
Small isolated islands such as Norfolk tend to be conservative, resourceful and to “make do”. These are characteristics that are shared with country towns, but it is the extreme nature of the isolation experienced by islands that contradicts any easy affiliation of one with the other. One particular aspect of this relates to natural resources and the environment, and the need for husbandry. Whereas in inland Australia if a few square miles of country are lost to salinization or land degradation (say), it is possible to move to new. No such opportunity exists on small islands: what you have is all you get.
Finally we may note Norfolk Island’s maritime history and distinct and separate culture. It is commonly unrecognised by Australians that the post-convict settlement of Norfolk Island did not happen by way of Australia, but from the eastern Pacific, by people who had never set foot in Australia, and in those early days, never did. And they brought with them their own culture, traditions, and language. They have their own anthems, their own festivals, their own flag. And they had universal female suffrage over one hundred years before Australia could claim the same.
So next time someone says to you “Oh you’re no different from an Australian country town”, you may need to consider whether they do so through unawareness or through prejudice. Unawareness is easier to forgive, and easier to correct.
[Other articles & letters on Norfolk Island at: http://www.norfolkonlinenews.com/chris-nobbs.html]
[This article first appeared in The Norfolk Islander and on Norfolk Online News, 25 June 2016]
*Dr Chris Nobbs is an economist and social commentator currently resident on Norfolk Island, where he was born.
