[ISL] "Why will nobody move to Pitcairn, the Pacific island with free land?"

[rfmcdonald]

Tom Rowley's article in The Telegraph outlines an unsurprising situation on Pitcairn Island. I'd suggest that, in addition to extreme isolation and poverty, the way in which the rape of young women and girls was apparently accepted as normal up to a decade ago would be offputting.

The population on Britain’s smallest colony has been dwindling for years, and there are now fewer than 50 islanders left. But locals are struggling to find new settlers to follow in the footsteps of Fletcher Christian, who led the mutiny.

Only one application has been received to move to the island, even though the government provides all immigrants with a plot to build their own house and temperatures stay above 62F (17C) all year round.

The island, one of 14 remaining British overseas territories, was tarnished by a child abuse scandal in 2004, when six men were imprisoned for sexual offences, including Steve Christian, the mayor and a descendant of Fletcher.

Since then, the Pitkerners have been sustained by government aid as their population has shrunk. At its height, just before the Second World War, 200 residents lived on the sub-tropical island, which measures two square miles.

[. . .]

There is only one general store on the island, which opens three times a week. Orders for food from New Zealand must be placed every three months.