NORFOLK WHEY
When you live on a “little rock in the middle of the ocean” you learn to sidestep hurdles, according to Emily Ryves who has lived on Norfolk Island for most of her life. Self-sufficiency is the byword on the island, which is closer to Noumea (769km) and Auckland (1074km) than Sydney (1673km) or Brisbane (1471km). What you can’t grow or make for yourself comes on the supply ship from Australia, as the locals somewhat disconcertingly refer to the mainland. Technically Norfolk is an external territory of the Commonwealth of Australia but, as far as most of the 1400-odd residents and approximately 500 tourists who visit weekly are concerned, it might as well be a world away.
In many ways it is. While there is evidence of Polynesian settlement some 800 years ago, James Cook first mapped the island in 1774, and he noted its native flax and pines, handy for making sails and masts for ships. Shortly after the First Fleet arrived in Sydney, Philip Gidley
