It's not quite clear, but it seems there was a... rather horrid war of sorts among the original inhabitants. [Rosemary missed a lot of the exposition plots but she gathered that impression easily enough.] Hardly any of them survive nearby. As far as I know a bunch of "scientists", as everyone calls them, brought us here in order to repopulate it.

As you can see we're doing a bang up job of it and the place should be as pleasant as Brighton by the end of the week. [Enough sarcasm for you yet, England?]