Delmago Island

Delmago Island
Delmago Island}}} [[Image:]] Flag Coat of Arms
Motto: "The First State"
Location of Delmago Island
Capital .	Georgetown
Government  - Minister for Territories  - Chief Minister	Yasmin Foley Maryanne Hislop
Federal Representation  -House seats  -Senators	1 6
Admitted as State	July 1, 1958
Reverted to territory	March 1, 2022
Area	219 km²(7th)
Population  - 2007 estimate  - 2002 census  - Density .	35,047 (7th) 34,395 157/km² (1st) ??/sq mi
GDP  - Total  - Per capita	2007 estimate GDP AMOUNT (Xth) PC AMOUNT (Xth)
Time Zone  - Summer (DST)	GEST (UTC+6)

Delmago Island is a federal territory of Georgeland and a small island of 219 square kilometers. The island is approximately the size of the Isle of Man. The island has approximately 34,000 residents. From 1958 to 2022, the island was a state of Georgeland, but its status reverted to territory in 2022 following a referendum.

Geography

Delmago Island is small, and mostly covered in grassland. The land is arable, and agriculture is a major industry on the island (see Economy below). The island is mostly flat, and on average is approximately 21m above sea level. The northern tip of the island is the site of the first landing by Juan Delmago in August 1767, which is now commemorated with a monument. The point where the landing took place is now called Landing Point.

File:Northern delmago.jpg

View from near Landing Point on Delmago Island, looking westwards over the northern part of the island.

The western and north-western sides of the island are dominated by cliffs and rocky outcroppings. There are no mountains on the island - its highest point, Northward Hill, is 178m high. The city of Georgetown, the island's only major settlement, takes up the southern parts of the island. The island's north is much less densely-populated, and contains a number of smaller villages and settlements. Delmago Island is located approximately 69 km off the coast of Mainland, in the Bay of Lyle. It is often thought of as remote, though it is closer to Mainland than any of the four other islands in the archipelago.
Outside of the island, the closest city to Delmago Island is Lylecity, East Mainland, which is almost directly south of the island, some 70km distant.

History

Delmago Island was, despite its size, the first landing site of Juan Delmago in 1767. It was from Delmago Island that the exploration and settlement of the rest of Georgeland began. Originally called St. Andrew's Island, the island was renamed in honour of Juan Delmago in 1831. The first settlement in Georgeland was Georgetown, established in 1773 as a British colony.

File:Landing Point Monument.jpg

The Landing Point monument, built in 1867, to mark the spot where Juan Delmago's first landing on Delmago Island took place.

The island maintained a tiny population over the years. In 1891, when Georgeland became a self-governing British dominion, Delmago Island was treated as part of the state of Mainland and was granted a limited form of self-government in 1922. In 1958, the territory was granted statehood as part of a ploy by then-Prime Minister Nathan Keegan to increase the size of, and his control over, the Senate.

Delmago Island remains a popular destination for tourists, though it is viewed somewhat 'backwards' by many Georgelanders. Delmago Island has a deeply conservative culture and outlook, and has strongly resisted many social and economic reforms of the past five decades. The exception to this was the 1986 election of a Labour state government led by Maryanne Hislop, which in many ways brought Delmago Island, in Hislop's own words 'kicking and screaming' into the 20th and 21st centuries. Hislop became the state's longest-serving Chief Minister, and governed for eighteen years before the collapse of the Labour Party saw the downfall of her government. In 2004, Islanders elected a Conservative government, signalling a return to the state's more right-wing stance of the past.

Government

Delmago Island is a Georgeland federal territory with an autonomous government. Unlike a state, the local legislature can be overturned, and the island's government does not report to a Governor, but rather directly to the federal government via the Minister for Territories. Prior to 2022, the island was a state with its own appointed Governor and a self-governing legislature. The island's Chief Minister is the head of government; since 2019 this has been Maryanne Hislop, who also held the position from 1986 to 2004.

Delmago Island sends representatives to both the Georgeland House of Commons and the Georgeland Senate. It is represented in the Commons by a single Member of Parliament, currently Sunil Jahan, and by six Senators. As a territory, it is constitutionally entitled only to two senators; as a result of its reversion from statehood, four of its senators will not be replaced when their terms expire.

Demographics

According to the 2002 census, the largest ethnic group on Delmago Island is English (42.4%), followed by Irish (24.6%), French (11.5%), Scottish (10.6%), German (4.3%) and Dutch (2.2%). The state has the smallest Asian or African population in Georgeland both numerically and proportionally - only 1.6% of Delmago Islanders are of African descent, and just 1.2% are of Asian descent.
The island identifies strongly as a Christian community. 75% of the island's population describe themselves as "active churchgoers". Approximately 30% of the island's residents are Roman Catholic, with 36% identifying as Protestant - the largest single Protestant congregation is Anglican (21%).

Population of Delmago Island since 1897

Year	Population
1897	8,201
1907	9,044
1917	12,609
1927	15,217
1937	18,911
1947	20,458
1952	22,478
1957	25,874
1962	25,487
1967	27,847
1972	28,541
1977	29,101
1982	30,255
1987	31,452
1992	30,041
1997	32,475
2002	34,395

Economy

Delmago Island has an agrarian-based economy, with little heavy industry. The island has few natural resources. In the 1870s, a coal mine operated on the island, but a decline in demand and more easily-accessible coal deposits on other islands resulted in the mine's closure in 1895.
Agriculture is the island's primary industry, and provides for 67% of the state's gross domestic product. Crops produced on the island include wheat, barley, apples, cotton, and in recent years rice. Dairy farming is also a large industry, and the island manufactures a unique cheese and many different types of dairy products. Livestock farming is limited mostly to beef and poultry.
Tourism is increasingly becoming a more important part of the state's economy. In the past 25 years, numbers of tourists have increased. The island has continually marketed itself as an "old fashioned" place, and the island's status as the point of first landing in Georgeland and the site of the country's first settlement is of historical interest to many.

Delmago Island is heavily dependent on federal funding. In 2006, the island recieved approximately $4 billion in federal money - this is by far the greatest proportion of any state's budget derived from federal income; almost a third of the state's 2006 budget.

Education

Being little more than a single town, Delmago Island has a comparatively small education system. There is one university on the island, the University of Georgetown, which has 378 students and is the smallest in the country. The island contains three public high schools and seven public primary schools. There are two private schools, one Catholic and one Anglican.

File:Georgetown High School.jpg

Georgetown High School, the oldest school on the island, established in 1843.