With a long history, the Settlement Guard House is today the visitor information centre for Kingston, part of the UNESCO World Heritage-listed Australian Convict Sites. Here you can find maps and information about Norfolk Island’s most incredible historic site.

The Settlement Guard House is one of only a handful of structures dating back to the first British settlement on Norfolk Island. When this colony was abandoned in 1814, most of the buildings were dismantled or deliberately set alight to discourage new occupants.

In the case of this building, remains of the original structure survived and were incorporated into the Settlement Guard House when it was constructed in 1826.
As you walk around the cottage, ponder how its use has changed over the course of Norfolk’s history: originally a guard house, it was later converted to a boatshed and was also used to store the island’s liquor supplies.