'Administering the Norfolk Island penal station, 1825-55'

Abstract

This article seeks to explore how the penal station at Norfolk Island was administered, and will in the main focus upon the internal factors which impacted upon that administration and thereby seek to fill a considerable gap in prior histories. In so doing it will propose a model for Norfolk Island’s administrative structure, adapted from that posited by Bill Thorpe and Raymond Evans in their study of the ruling order at the Moreton Bay penal settlement. In particular the article will examine the working lives and place in the administrative structure of: i) Norfolk Island’s official class, at the apex of which was the commandant, where interactions were characterised by heightened considerations of class and status; ii) Norfolk Island’s military officers and the soldiers stationed there; and iii) prisoners employed as petty officials, with a special focus upon a few individuals who were able to transcend the boundaries of the administrative structure and rise through its ranks to positions of considerable, if relative, power.