Australian souvenirs

[+Big Dad 57]

I've just been to Norfolk Island and noticed there is no souvenir for this part of Australia. I understood that souvenirs were based on the number of caches in a country, and Norfolk Island is an external territory of Australia (i.e. uses Australian currency, has Australian government departments and services, taxes are paid it the Australian tax system) , not a sovereign country of its own. Or is the allocation of souvenirs determined by the number of caches in a particular state/territory of that country, not the country itself? 

I'm sure I and local cachers can design a souvenir if whoever decides on these souvenirs thinks that every territory of a country which has caches within that territory deserves a souvenir.

[+Mausebiber]

list of souvenirs

Australia souvenirs

Australian Capital Territory
New South Wales
Northern Territory
Queensland
South Australia
Tasmania
Victoria
Western Australia

Does Norfolk Island belong to any of those territories?

If "yes", maybe it just takes some time to receive the souvenir.

[+NYPaddleCacher]

1 hour ago, Mausebiber said:

list of souvenirs

Australia souvenirs

Australian Capital Territory
New South Wales
Northern Territory
Queensland
South Australia
Tasmania
Victoria
Western Australia

Does Norfolk Island belong to any of those territories?

If "yes", maybe it just takes some time to receive the souvenir.

It appears that Norfolk Island is considered an "external territory" of Australia (much like Guam and Puerto Rico for the U.S).  Although part of Australia, it is not part of one of the Australian "states".   Over the past year or so the "Where in the world is Signal" promotion focused on Germany and Canada and a "country" based souvenir was available for anyone that had retroactively found a cache in each of those countries.  The next focus country is Australia, but according to the announcement earlier this month: "You can take part in the celebration by hosting or attending an event on Friday, January 26 through Sunday, January 28, 2018 and earn the Australia Day 2018 souvenir."   That indicates that an "Australia day" souvenir will be available for attending an even that weekend but doesn't mention anything about a Australia "country" souvenir.

[+Big Dad 57]

Norfolk Island has a NSW postcode (2899) which is listed on the Australia Post website as Norfolk Island, NSW. It has always been an external territory of Australia but a very different history to American administered territories. Perhaps it is considered as being part of NSW for geocache souvenirs then? I doubt many people will find a cache on NI before finding one in NSW, so the point is probably moot. I guess there isn't a separate cache for English counties or Spanish regions for example, so at least recognising the mainland states and territories and Tasmania have individual souvenirs is a positive for Australian geocaching.

[+barefootjeff]

Checking a few of the cache pages, the Norfolk Island ones show the location as "in Norfolk Island", whereas on Lord Howe Island (which has always been a part of New South Wales) they show as "in New South Wales, Australia". So at least as far as the cache pages go, GC treats Norfolk differently.

[+NYPaddleCacher]

On 1/3/2018 at 2:15 AM, Big Dad 57 said:

Norfolk Island has a NSW postcode (2899) which is listed on the Australia Post website as Norfolk Island, NSW. It has always been an external territory of Australia but a very different history to American administered territories. Perhaps it is considered as being part of NSW for geocache souvenirs then? I doubt many people will find a cache on NI before finding one in NSW, so the point is probably moot. I guess there isn't a separate cache for English counties or Spanish regions for example, so at least recognising the mainland states and territories and Tasmania have individual souvenirs is a positive for Australian geocaching.

Counties in England are a third level administrative region.  Spain regions would be a second level administration, essentially like Australian territories, US States, or Canadian provinces.  GS has unique identifiers for all first level regions (i.e. countries) and second level administration regions for many countries but not for 3rd level administration regions. 

[+The A-Team]

On Geocaching.com, Norfolk Island is treated as a separate entity and not as a sub-entity of Australia. In effect, it's a different country. A souvenir would need to be made and applied specifically for the site's Norfolk Island "country". Considering how few caches are hidden there, I would expect it will be a long time until a souvenir is created for Norfolk Island.