There are concerns on Norfolk Island that property taxes are to be charged for the first time from next year.
Photo: Norfolk Government
Norfolk Island lost its autonomy last year and is now run under New South Wales law which requires that many local services be paid for by tax on land holdings.
But the mayor Robin Adams said when the original Pitcairn Islanders were moved to Norfolk in 1856 they were given 50 acre lots, and she says this land continues to be regarded as heritage land.
"Like throughout the Pacific there is perhaps a bigger attachment to land than what there might be in Australia as a whole. And to find that now we have to pay land rates and have our land valued for the purposes of rating, is causing a lot of uncertainty in the communities."
She said up until autonomy was withdrawn Norfolk had managed to do without any sort of property tax.
