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The three founders of Hill Cove
were; William Wickham Bertrand, Ernest Holmested and John Switzer who met
as young men in New Zealand and South America.
Ernest Holmested and Wickham Bertrand met in New Zealand, though
they had gone there independently to learn sheep farming.
Holmested’s family were doctors and surgeons in Essex, England,
and Bertrand’s family owned sugar estates in Dominica. By 1867 they were
working on Matson Station, and decided to go together to South America, in
the hope of finding somewhere they could buy land cheaply.
They sailed for Valparaiso on July 6th, and arrived
there on August 12th. The two men decided to head for
Argentina, and crossed the Andes by mule and on foot, crossing the
Cordillera at a place called Portillo Pass and arriving in Mendoza on
September 17th. Here
they met John Switzer, a German, who had also spent time in New Zealand.
They survived a series of hair-raising adventures – Argentina was
in the throes of a revolution at this time, with an outbreak of cholera to
complicate matters. Hearing of land for sale in the
Falklands Bertrand and Switzer went to Uruguay where an agent for Smith
Bros. was prepared to sell their Crown lease on New Island which still had
twelve years to run. There
were about four thousand sheep on the island at this time and later these
would be used to stock Adelaide Station.
Bertrand and Switzer went to the Falklands before committing
themselves to anything, and then Bertrand returned to Buenos Aires to
collect Holmested, he and Switzer having already acquired from the
Colonial Government a license to occupy Shallow Bay Estate.
This was to be called Adelaide Station and included what was later
known as Hill Cove and Roy Cove. They
had also taken over the lease of New Island. Bertrand and Holmested landed
in Stanley in July 1868, the latter going to Shallow Bay to join Switzer
who had already erected buildings (as was required of new settlers) there
and had visited New Island. Bertrand,
to help with funds, had taken a job with the Falkland Islands Company at
Darwin, where he would introduce tobacco dip and construct a 30ft. plunge
dip such as those he had used in New Zealand.
He also introduced the slatted rolling table that is used to this
day. He married Catherine Felton in September 1868, and their
first child, a daughter, was born at Darwin. The Fairy had been
bought with the purpose of moving sheep and horses from New Island to
Shallow Bay. She was a
104-ton Baltimore schooner with conveniently shallow draught, and proved
to be of great use. The first stock to sail in her were four unbroken and
two broken-in horses, and next to go was a load of 372 unshorn rams.
After this it was decided to shear the rest of the sheep before
shipment, as they would take up less space. At this time they had three men
working at Shallow Bay. Hunziger
and Ryan had been sent out by
Bertrand to help with the summer’s work, but Davy Stewart had arrived
with the first hundred sheep which with the dwelling house established
their rights of settlement. Mr. and Mrs. Jacob Lee were living on New
Island. Jacob Lee was a very
experienced man and the drafting, shearing and loading proceeded smoothly
under his control, with successive consignments of sheep making the
voyage. This continued until
4th January 1869 when the last load of clippies were shipped to
Shallow Bay, where Switzer and Holmested were now to make their
headquarters. Living conditions were very
tough, and the “house” – a two-roomed wooden erection of one storey,
about 30ft. by 10ft. seemed crowded with the two spare hands living there
as well as Holmested and Switzer. Davy
Stewart was living alone at the shanty recently erected by Switzer,
overlooking Main Point. From this vantage point he could watch over the sheep, and
keep them herded together on the north coast with it’s good feed and
shelter. There was no time to think about living conditions however; as
they had to find and shear the rams they had shipped from New Island and
the original small flock on Main Point.
They also had to dig the long trough needed to dip a total of 2,000
sheep in Bertrand’s new tobacco and sulphur concoction.
They had sold 200 ewes to Stanley and 1,000 to Port Stephens.
The work was finished in April, and Switzer, Hunziger and Ryan
sailed in the Fairy with the wool clip to Stanley. At this time they were very
short of money and Holmested and Bertrand had to get extended credit from
the Falkland Islands Company. A
summons had arrived from New Zealand requiring Switzer to return to that
country with to face a charge of arson.
Switzer was heard of years later in California, so it seems that he
may never have gone back to New Zealand, though he left the Falklands.
At this stage Holmested joined Bertrand in the partnership.
The winter of 1869 saw
Holmested alone at Shallow Bay until Davy Stewart moved back.
They made a storehouse to protect their piles of stores that were
lying out in the open and constructed a lean–to extension to the house.
The wool shed was enlarged and sheep pens made around it, and a
calf shed and carpenter’s shed were erected using large stones from the
beach. With so much work to
be done the Lee family moved to Shallow Bay from New Island to help at
lambing time and the island was abandoned for the time being. Inevitably
it was stripped of anything worth having by the visiting whalers and
sealers. Bertrand arrived at Shallow Bay
in November 1870, his contract with the Falkland Islands Company at an
end, and his wife and daughter followed him.
By this time the Lees were working at Port Howard, though Mrs. Lee
returned to help when the second Bertrand daughter was born at Shallow Bay
in June 1871. Holmested went
home on holiday shortly after this, and while away decided that he and
Bertrand should go their separate ways.
He returned in January 1872 with a young man named Rees, Bertrand
meeting him in Stanley. After
agreeing to the division of stock, land and debts, Holmested and Rees took
the Shallow Bay area and New Island, and Bertrand the westerly section
that would become known as Roy Cove.
They worked together for a further year while Bertrand built his
settlement at Roy Cove, and then in March 1873 they set out to drive the
sheep to Roy Cove, camping on the way by a stream in a pleasant little
valley at Hill Cove. By this time a site for a new
house and dip in a near by cove at Shallow Bay had been chosen, because
Adelaide Station had been short of water for dipping.
This site at New House Cove had a bigger stream and commanded a
sheltered hollow which would make a good garden.
The building started in February 1873, with stone being quarried
from a nearby bluff. Meanwhile
Rees had gone to England and returned with a wife in October of that year.
They lived in a small wooden house that had been built for them,
but Mrs. Rees could not settle, and when Robert Blake appeared on the
scene Rees was only too glad to sell his share of the farm to him, and the
deal was completed in January 1874. The stone house at New House
Cove, today known simply as Shallow Bay, was completed in November, and
they continued moving the buildings from the original settlement, and
bought more sheep from Keppel Island and Port Howard in an effort to
improve the flocks. The sheep
had to be herded continuously in these early days before the huge areas
were fenced, usually by men living in tents for days at a time, but by
1887 houses were being built, one at Teal River on the boundary with
Chartres and the other at Hill Cove on the boundary with Roy Cove. Fencing
in the Rapid Point area began in that year also. Robert Blake went to England in
1878, the first time he had been home for five years, and here he became
engaged to Dora who was to wait for him for three years, for after
Robert’s return to the Falklands Ernest Holmested had returned to
England in 1879 and was married in 1880.
On his return the two men decided that they would remain partners
but run the station from two different settlements, with Robert Blake
going to Hill Cove which would be the main centre. Blake returned to England early
in 1881, married Dora, and they set sail for the Falklands, arriving in
November, and going on to Shallow Bay.
Blake rode straight on to Hill Cove, to meet the schooner which had
on board the materials for a small wooden house which was to be built
there once shearing was over. They
lived with the Holmesteds until February when they moved to Hill Cove and
the work of making a new settlement was begun.
First came the necessary farm buildings, such as the shearing shed
down at The Point, and a trough for the dip was dug on the site it was to
occupy until the present day. Work on the new larger house was begun, but
inevitably had to give way to more urgent things such as the completion of
the wool shed, and was not finished until early June 1883. In 1883 shearing At
Shallow Bay in the early days they were dipping the sheep as soon as they
were shorn but by the time Hill Cove settlement was built this practice
had been discontinued as being too hard on the animals, and instead they
were dipped in Hill Cove in March, with further dipping in June and
September if there was any sign of scab. Scab was the scourge of the
Falklands until Wickham Bertrand introduced regular dipping with a strong
mixture of tobacco and sulphur. Even
so it was 1895 before Inspectors were appointed to enforce the dipping
rules, fine those who disobeyed, and thus eradicate the pest. By August 1890 a farm map was
able to be produced which showed how ‘the run’ was divided up by 75
miles of fencing, more than anyone else on West Falkland.
Good boundary fences were a priority, in case of scab in
neighbouring flocks, and the boundary fence with Chartres Station was
erected in 1883. In 1889 Sydney Miller joined
the farm, first as assistant manager, then later on as manager.
The Holmesteds returned to England at this time, though retaining
their interest in the farm. Great
efforts were being made to improve the land, by attempting to keep down
the vast flocks of upland geese that would compete with the sheep for
food, and the wild cattle were eradicated.
Miles of ditching was done, and in the settlement, paddocks were
sown with better grass by the simple method of driving sheep round and
round over the area first to prepare the ground and then to tramp the new
seed in. Also some hawthorn
trees survived the long journey from England and these were planted in the
valley below the Blake’s house. They
also had time for play, with the first Horse racing beginning in
Hill
Cove, and by April 1891 the Easter Saturday Races had grown in to a
meeting with some events open to all comers. In 1898 the Blake family left
Hill Cove, and though they made prolonged return visits the farm was under
the management of Sydney Miller Snr. until 1929, then his son took over
for three years. It was
during this time in 1925 that the existing forest of trees was planted at
Hill Cove. Sydney Miller Jnr. was followed in 1932 by Hugh Harding who was
manager until 1953 when William (Bill) Blake took over until 1965.
He was responsible for a large amount of land improvement, and for
the first time for many years the farm bred enough replacement sheep and
did not have to buy in stock. Also
money was more plentiful at this time and new houses were built in the
settlement and outside. He
was followed by his cousin Tim who was in charge until 1987 when Hill Cove
was sold for subdivision into eight sections. Thanks to Mrs. Sally Blake
for the above information. Tim Blake purchased one
of the sections and continued to live and work at Hill Cove until 1999
when he sold his section of Hill Cove thus ending an era of over 100 years
of the Blake family owning Hill Cove.
Index | Cartmel Cottage | Beaches | Hill Cove | Creeks | Views | Sports | Stanley | Islands | Islander | Wild Life | Ship | Stoneruns
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