You can’t keep Jake Warga down on the farm, which happens to be his home base, Seattle. The last time I caught him he was in Guatemala. Now he’s packed up his camera as well as his mic and has lit out to Norfolk Island. I couldn’t find this island on Google Maps, but it’s supposedly 900 miles off the coast of Australia, a three-by-five-mile rocky outcrop with a good share of evergreens and a local culture you may be glad to hear about.

It’s sad to hear that the local tourist industry, which accounts for most of Norfolk Island’s prosperity, is suffering because of the global economic meltdown. In 2007 40,000 visitors, mostly Aussies, flew to the island to bike, snorkel, and indulge in what must be delectable fish frys. Last year a little more than half as many tourists lived it up at such quaint local hostelries as the Fantasy Island Resort.

What’s grimmer still, the local language is dying out. Warga gives us islander Rhonda Griffith’s rendition of a bit of Norfolk’s endangered lingo, a melodic combo of Tahitian and “very old English” that derives from the original mutineers of the Bounty. “Watawieh yorli?” or “What way are you?” is Norfolkese for “Hello” or “How are you?” Nowadays classes in the island’s indigenous language are required in local schools.

Warga, who’s had good luck licensing his work, is doing Norfolk Island a great service with his four-minute piece. As one of his interviewees says with a thick Down Under accent, Norfolk Island is “a place you shouldn’t miss. It’s one of the places you must go to before you die.”

Warga’s “Economic Storm” is one of the pieces you must treat yourself to before you give up on wanderlust.