Greetings, I am icybeetas (aka The Cold Bee) from Launceston Tasmania and visiting Norfolk Island with a group from Victoria would like to meet any local or other visiting geocachers who would care to meet me at the Lime Kiln near Emily Bay.
I have chosen this venue because my ancestor Nathaniel Lucas, during the first settlement of Norfolk Island, erected a windmill which would have been visible from this location.
You may choose to stay for the duration or just say hi for a few minutes.
My ancestors, Nathaniel Lucas and Olivia Gascoigne were granted a British Government paid holiday when they were invited to accompany Governor Arthur Phillip on a cruise to Botany Bay in 1787. Nathaniel, a carpenter by trade, became eligible by allegedly stealing one cotton apron, one towel, six muslin aprons, and nine muslin handkerchiefs valued at twenty one shillings and two pence. Olivia, a house maid, became eligible by allegedly committing robbery under arms amounting to thirteen pounds, seventeen shillings and four pence.
On arrival in Botany Bay on 26th January 1788, Nathaniel disembarked from his cruise ship, Scarborough and Olivia from her cruise ship the Lady Penhryn. Both were selected along with thirteen other tourists to participate in an extra-curricular offshore excursion and to accompany the assistant tour leader, Philip Gidley King, and six other staff members to form a settlement on Norfolk Island. Accordingly on 14th February of that year they all set sail on the cruise ship Sirius arriving at Norfolk Island on 6th March 1788. Nathaniel and Olivia were married in a civil ceremony in 1788 and the marriage was solemnized on 5th November 1791. In July 1791 the British Government withdrew their sponsorship of Nathaniel and Olivia’s holiday (that is they were pardoned) when Nathaniel was granted land on Norfolk Island. On 31st December 1792 he was appointed Superintendent of Convicts on Norfolk Island and on 11th November 1795 he was appointed Master Carpenter for Norfolk Island.
In March 1805 Nathaniel resigned from his government appointments for Norfolk Island and moved his family back to Sydney where over the next thirteen years he undertook numerous building contracts in Sydney. He drowned in the Georges River on 28th April 1818. The cemetery in Liverpool where he was buried has now been demolished to make way for a highway but his headstone can be found leaning against the wall of St Lukes Church of England in Liverpool.
Olivia with some of the children moved to Launceston, Van Dieman’s Land (Tasmania) where she owned a block of land which is now occupied by the Riverside High School. After her death on 10th June 1830 Olivia was buried in St Johns Church of England Cemetery which is now the sports ground of a Launceston Private School. A small plaque on a gate post acknowledges that a First Fleet tourist was buried here.