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28/12/2013

BBC Radio 4 - The Island at the End of the World

A rare visit to Palmerston, the south Pacific island, where all are descended from one man

Thomas Martienssen becomes one of the few outsiders to travel to Palmerston, the isolated south Pacific island, where all the native inhabitants are descended from one man.

It may be the most isolated inhabited place on earth. Palmerston Island in the South Pacific is visited by a few yachts each year and the occasional container ship. Otherwise, the 62 inhabitants are untroubled by the outside world.
Thomas Martienssen makes the 8-day yacht journey to meet the native Palmerstonians, who are all descendants of an Englishman, William Marsters, who settled on the island in the 19th century with his three Polynesian "wives". He hears about the strong Christian faith of the islanders, listens to the ballad recounting the story of the community's founder and learns how they regularly salvage the wreckage of boats which have come to grief on the coral reefs. And he hears how fishing, the island's only source of commercial income, may now be threatened by over-exploitation of fish stocks. How long can the Palmerstonians continue to survive on their island at the end of the world?
Producer: Julie Ball.

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