Sir John Call, MP for Callington in 1784 and a partner in the Pybus and Son banking house, had argued the advantages of Norfolk Island in that it is uninhabited and that flax grows there.

The British government includes Norfolk Island as an auxiliary settlement, as proposed by Call, in its plan for colonization of New South Wales in 1786.

The decision to settle Norfolk Island is taken due to the decision by Empress Catherine of Russia to restrict sales of hemp.

Practically all the hemp and flax required by the Royal Navy for cordage and sailcloth is imported from Russia.

Philip Gidley King was born at Launceston, Cornwall, England on April 23, 1758.

Joining the Royal Navy at the age of twelve as captain's servant, he had been commissioned as a lieutenant in 1778.

King had served under Arthur Phillip, who had chose him as second lieutenant on HMS Sirius for the expedition to establish a convict settlement in New South Wales.

On arrival, in January 1788, King had been selected to lead a small party of fifteen convicts and seven free men to set up a settlement at Norfolk Island, nearly a thousand miles (sixteen hundred kilometers) distant, and prepare for its commercial development as a second station for transported convicts.

King and his party land on March 6, 1788, with difficulty, owing to the lack of a suitable harbor, and set about building huts, clearing the land, planting crops, and resisting the ravages of grubs, salt air and hurricanes.

More convicts and soldiers are sent to the island from New South Wales during the first year of the settlement, which is also called "Sydney" like its parent.