put under grass or crops. At the peak of the activity when some 3000 
officers, men and convicts were on the Island, approximately 500 ha were 
under cultivation. 
By 1855 the convicts had been removed because of difficulties of 
communication and severe abuses of authority by the penal administrators. 
Meanwhile Norfolk Island had been suggested as a suitable home for the 
inhabitants of the overcrowded Pitcairn Island and in 1856 194 Pitcairners 
landed on Norfolk. Their offspring have continued to occupy the island 
since that date. 
In the early years the community was largely self-supporting following 
an agricultural life-style. To support the much smaller population only 
100 ha were being cultivated in the mid 1920s. Much of the cleared land 
again supported pine trees but these were typically open grown with heavy 
branches. It was only where the ground was too steep for grazing that 
pines had grown up in dense stands. The remnant rainforest had been 
altered significantly by the invasion of introduced weeds leaving very 
little of the original vegetation in virgin state. 
The building of an airstrip during the Second World War and the 
installation of modern communications equipment significantly changed the 
Islanders' way of life and exposed them to the developments of the 20th 
Century. In recent years there has been an influx of settlers from 
mainland Australia and New Zealand and a rapidly growing number of 
tourists. 
Tourist numbers have risen to about 20 000 annually and the stage has 
been reached where the majority of the resident population of 2000 is 
involved in some way with the tourist industry. The Island relies very 
heavily on imports of building materials and food as the resources and 
produce of the island cannot hope to meet the demand. Because it is more 
attractive financially for the residents to service the tourist industry, 
few depend on farming or fishing for their income and less and less land 
is actually devoted to production. 
The lack of productivity in itself is not so disturbing since imports 
of necessary commodities are readily available, however, much of the 
previously productive land is being invaded by weed species and fencing is 
deteriorating. Stock numbers are not reducing and as they can now wander 
more freely they are an increasing threat to the pine seedlings that do 
manage to become established. 
Concern was expressed in the mid 1960s over the pattern of develop- 
ment and the problems of conserving the Island's fauna, flora, historic 
relics and attractive character. The Australian Conservation Foundation 
sponsored a visit by a team of biologists which resulted in the report by 
Turner, Smithers and Hoogland (1968). 
One of the main actions to emanate from this activity was the dedi- 
cation of a 150 ha national park incorporating the two high points and the 
area north to the coast. This area contains the best examples of the 
vegetation types considered worthy of preservation and many of the 
specialised habitats of the Island's fauna.