Abstract

The contributors to this zine highlight the many ways in which the Paradise Hotel and its precursors had local, cultural, social and historical significance to the Norfolk Island community. Their stories point to the value of the Paradise as a twentieth-century heritage place in the Pitcairn Settlement which, if it were still standing, may today have been afforded the kinds of protections and respect that were bestowed on the penal settlement buildings of Quality Row. The zine makes clear that the Paradise site held a dynamic, vital place in the heart of the Norfolk Island community. It was a home for its managers’ children and numerous employees, as well as a home away from home for tourists. It was a venue to dance and listen to live music. It was a place to work, to meet up with friends and family, to find love, but also for mischief and fights. Even in being dismantled, its material remnants became repurposed in homes across Norfolk Island. In both material and symbolic ways, the Paradise lives on.