Nathaniel Lucas & Olivia Gascoigne

First Fleet · Norfolk Island · 1788

Nathaniel Lucas and Olivia Gascoigne arrived in Australia on different ships of the First Fleet. Within weeks, both were sent to the tiny new settlement on Norfolk Island. There they formed a family and began a line that, generations later, would become part of my Tasmanian family.

More than two centuries later, I travelled to Norfolk Island myself. Among the places I photographed were the remains associated with the milling works of Nathaniel Lucas—a physical connection between his journey and mine.

Two First Fleeters

Nathaniel Lucas and Olivia Gascoigne did not know one another when they left England. Both had been convicted of theft and sentenced to transportation, but they travelled to Australia aboard different ships of the First Fleet.

Nathaniel sailed aboard Scarborough, while Olivia travelled aboard Lady Penrhyn. They arrived at Sydney Cove in January 1788.

Their time in Sydney was remarkably short. Governor Arthur Phillip had instructed Lieutenant Philip Gidley King to establish a settlement on Norfolk Island, and Nathaniel and Olivia were among the small group chosen to go. They sailed aboard Supply in February and landed on Norfolk Island on 6 March 1788.

It was here, far from England and only weeks after arriving on the other side of the world, that their lives became intertwined.

Nathaniel Lucas — Carpenter and Builder

Nathaniel’s skills as a carpenter and joiner made him particularly valuable to the tiny Norfolk Island settlement. Buildings, tools and machinery all had to be created with limited resources, and skilled tradesmen were essential to the colony’s survival.

Nathaniel became one of the settlement’s important craftsmen. His work included buildings and milling equipment, and he was eventually appointed master carpenter. Among the projects associated with him was the construction of an early watermill—an attempt to harness the island’s streams to grind grain for the growing settlement.

The original mill has long disappeared, but the site remained important. A second watermill was later constructed there, and remnants of that later structure can still be seen today.

When I visited Norfolk Island more than two centuries later, I was able to photograph both the site of Nathaniel’s original watermill and the dam he constructed to supply it with water. Standing beside something Nathaniel himself had helped create made this more than a piece of family-history research—it became a physical connection between his life on Norfolk Island and my own visit generations later.

Nathaniel and Olivia — A Family on Norfolk Island

Norfolk Island was where Nathaniel Lucas and Olivia Gascoigne’s separate journeys became a shared one. Both had arrived in Australia with the First Fleet in January 1788, and within weeks both were among the small group sent to establish the new settlement on Norfolk Island.

Their relationship began there, and they were formally married in November 1791. Over the following years they built a large family while Nathaniel established himself as one of the settlement’s most useful craftsmen.

For my family story, Norfolk Island is much more than a place where two First Fleet ancestors happened to live. It was here that a new Australian-born generation of the family began.

Olivia Lucas — Born on Norfolk Island

Their daughter Olivia Lucas was born on Norfolk Island on 18 April 1795. She would eventually marry John Hodgetts, and their descendants would become part of the family that settled in northern Tasmania.

That makes Norfolk Island one of the great starting points of my Tasmanian story: Nathaniel Lucas and Olivia Gascoigne arrived there as transported convicts from England; their daughter was born there; and later generations carried their family line to Van Diemen’s Land.