This page presents you Pitcairn island : it's geography, it's history and it's links whit Norfolk island. Nowadays numerous Pitcairn inhabitants are direct descendants of the Bounty mutineers...

Geography Pitcairn is the principal island of a four volcanic islands group : Pitcairn 4.6 km2, Henderson 31.1 km2, Ducie 3.8 Km2 (with a lagoon of 4.4 km2) and Oeno 5.1 km2. The three last are inhabited. Pitcairn is 2200 km far from Tahiti, in South Pacific ocean, half distance beetwen South America and Australia. Pitcairn is surround of cliffs (200 or 300 meters high).

• History

???? = A long time ago (undetermined period) the island was populated by polynesian (art artefacts).
1767 = The island is discovered, desert, by the english sailor Carteret, the island was badly pointed on the charts.
1790 = (23 jan.) the bounty mutiners settled with tahitians.
1808 = The american ship Topaz discovered the community made by the descendants from the Bounty mutineers.
1829 = John Adams, last Bounty survival, is dead.
1831 = Because of overpopulation, one part of the inhabitants went to Tahiti.
1832 = Come back on Pitcairn of this people.
1838 = Pitcairn became a Britanny colony.
1839 = The island is officialy attached to the Britanny crown.
1856 = Again because of overpopulation, 194 inhabitants are transfered to Norfolk.
1858 = Come back of 16 emigrants.
1863 = Come back of 30 emigrants.
1897 = The island became Britanny settlement.
1902 = Annexation of Henderson, Ducie and Oeno islands.
1952 = The island goes to the Fidji government.
1970 = The island is managed by a governor designated by New-Zeland.

Today Pitcairn is a Britanny colony. A 10 members concil manage the island. Pitcairn preserved a part of the rules made by John Adams. The land distribution is the same that made C. Fletcher in 1790. The inhabitants don't pay incomes. The Pitcairn people (44 persons in 2002) is the most little  human group in the world having is own consitution.

• Economy is fish, stamps, fruits and vegetables, wood art. Pitcairn buy flour, sugar, food cans and textile. The main town is Adamstown, the tongue is made from anglish and tahitian.

• Here is a picture of the Pitcairn inhabitants (from the ELLE magazine in 2002) :

• Norfolk

Norfolk island where numerous Pitcairn people went in 1856 is 1 900 km nord-east from Sydney (Australia). It is 34 km2, with 2 000 inhabitants from wich a lot come from Pitcairn. Attached to Australia in 1914, it became partially autonomous in 1978.