British penal settlement on remote Norfolk Island, founded 6 March 1788 by Lieutenant Philip Gidley King and a party from the First Fleet barely six weeks after Sydney Cove, to exploit the island's flax and pine and deny it to French rivals. The first settlement was wound down and its buildings burned between 1814 and 1825; a second, notoriously harsh penal settlement operated from 1825 until transportation ended in 1855.
The last convicts were removed to Van Diemen's Land (Tasmania) in May 1855, closing the penal settlement. On 8 June 1856 the island was resettled by 194 Pitcairn Islanders (descendants of the Bounty mutineers and their Tahitian companions), beginning its continuous modern civilian history — see the existing canonical 'pitcairn-islands' record for that community's broader story.
Focused study of the first penal settlement period specifically.
Standard general history of the island across both convict settlement phases.