Index  March 2024                              The Newstart OnLine Journal                           Pages 2      Item 07 



Natalie O'Brie    
Descendants of the infamous MS Bounty mutineers are staging a modern-day rebellion that is threatening to spiral into an all-out war with the federal government: over its "land grab" for their island. 
The indigenous Norfolk Islanders say they have had enough of the "tyranny, lies and wrongdoing" and they are taking back their island  The islanders say the government has no lawful or legal jurisdiction on the South Pacific outpost, and that they have their own government and courts under their own Constitution.

And they claim a little-known royal warrant signed in December1856 by Queen Victoria gives them the proof they are an independent sovereign nation.  Trouble has been brewing since the Government’s takeover in 2016 after the island requested a top-up of funds after the global financial crisis hit their tourism industry.

Odoo - Sample 3 for three columns

Queen Victoria

Odoo - Sample 1 for three columns

Norfork Island

A financial bailout came with strings attached, including being brought into the Australian tax and welfare system -but many of the islanders say they never agreed or signed off on the changes.

Newly elected magistrate and governor, Leah Honeywood, a seventh-generation descendant from two Bounty families, warned the Australia law courts needed to ease and desist and stop harassing islanders or face prosecution under laws of what they call in their local language – Norf’k Ailen.

“We will not allow any foreign country or government to preside over Norf’k’ Ailen,” Ms Honeywood said.

Islanders claim they’ve been hit with taxes that never previously existed on the island, including exorbitant land taxes which some cannot and will not pay, waste removal fees for properties – that don’t need it or from which islanders already do their own removal – and sky high energy bills.

“The Australian Government was shown that the local GST that we had here was not only a fairer system … it raised over $6 million a year, far more than the rates ever could. But they have chosen to ignore that option,” Ms Honeywood said.

They also claim they are being subjected to heavy handed policing and intimidation with surges of Australian Federal Police officers being sent to the island. In September the AFP sent seven officers to control peaceful protests led by Ms Honeywood and others.

In another case, Boxing Day revellers were pepper-sprayed in the face by a senior AFP officer. An internal police investigation found an officer had acted without justification. No penalty was ever revealed but the officer left the island.

Ms Honeywood says she had no choice but to step in to protect the Island residents from the usurping of the laws of the Pitcairn descendants.

In a series of blistering letters to judicial figures, Ms Honeywood revealed she had received a string of complaints about the courts acting in a “racist, condescending” way.

Ms Honeywood has already overturned decisions by an Australian court she dubbed a “star chamber”.

“They are breaching our constitution and usurping our laws and government,” Ms Honeywood said. 

  Return to Top of Page