Sodom Island: Pandæmonium and the Botany Bay of Botany Bay

Abstract

D u r i n g i t s s e c o n D B r i t i s h s e t t l e m e n t between 1825 and 1855, Norfolk Island operated as an ultrapenal prison complex that was variously known as “Hell upon Earth,” one of the “five criminal cities” of the plain, and “Gomorrah Island” or “Sodom Island.” The isolated penal settlement was designed for recidivists and incorrigibles from the convict colonies of New South Wales and Van Diemen’s Land (the original name of Tasmania, changed in 1855) and the worst offenders from the British metropole. Lying roughly between New Zealand and New Caledonia, the small volcanic outcrop is some eight hundred kilometers (five hundred miles) from the nearest landmass, making for an ideal prison. Modern penal reformers campaigning for the end to the transportation system took