Norfolk Islanders to Norfolk Island, arriving on 8 June 1856. These were the descendants of Tahitians and the HMS "Bounty" mutineers, resettled from the Pitcairn Islands, which had become too small for their growing population. The British government had permitted the transfer of the Pitcairners to Norfolk, which was thus established as a colony separate from New South Wales but under the administration of that colony's governor. The Pitcairners occupied many of the buildings remaining from the penal settlements, and gradually established their traditional farming and whaling industries on the island. Although some families decided to return, with 17 members of the
Hammond Island, Queensland Northern Peninsula Area of Cape York. These close ties continue to exist today. Captain Edwards of HMS "Pandora" named Hammond Island in August 1791, as he travelled through the Torres Strait with the captured Bounty mutineers. In 1802, the British navigator Matthew Flinders, in charge of HMS "Investigator", sailed past Hammond Island. He noticed camp fires burning on the island but did not make contact with the Kaurareg people. In August 1864, a government settlement was established at Somerset at the tip of Cape York. The police magistrates of Somerset were hostile in their dealings with the Aboriginal people of