NEW ISLAND 51°43'S, 61°18'W
New Island is 13km long (8.1 miles) and averages 750m wide (820yd), covering an area of 22.7sq km (8.8 sq. miles). It is in the extreme west of West Falkland and is rugged and beautiful. The highest point is of 226m (741ft). The northern and western coasts have dramatic high rocky cliffs but the eastern coasts lie lower with sandy bays and rocky shores. New Island settlement is roughly in the middle of the east coast. The island, a Nature Reserve, is owned and run by the New Island Conservation Trust which relies entirely on donations to fund conservation and research. There is a well-equipped Field Centre for teams of wildlife researchers from different countries. New Island has a great variety of wildlife, and Birdlife International has identified it as an Important Bird Area. Wildlife includes fur seals, elephant seals and sea lions and also introduced cottontail rabbits. Birds in abundance include rockhopper, Magellanic and gentoo penguins, prions and petrels, Cobb's wrens, long-tailed meadowlarks, striated caracaras, black-browed albatross, imperial shags, dolphin gulls and skuas.
In 1949 John James ‘Cracker Jack’ Davis bought New Island from a George Scott. Cracker Jack and his wife Agnes farmed the island until eventually in 1972, Ian Strange and Roddy Napier of West Point bought it from the Davis family as a reserve and wildlife research centre.
Today it is a Nature Reserve, and is owned and run by the New Island Conservation Trust which relies entirely on donations to fund conservation and research. There is a well-equipped Field Centre for teams of wildlife researchers from different countries.
Ian Strange, naturalist, conservationist, accomplished wildlife artist, photographer and author of several important wildlife books, who at one time owned half of New Island, died in 2018 and is buried on New Island. He made an enormous contribution to the knowledge of Falkland Island wildlife through his field studies, scientific papers and books.
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History
Sealers and whalers, particularly American and British, frequented the Falkands from around 1774 on. They favoured the Weddell, Beaver, and New Island area where there were sheltered harbours and fresh water and where they were distanced from the Spanish then at Puerto Soledad (Port Louis) who were hostile to sealers. New Island along with other islands around the Falklands, suffered a heavy toll from sealers and whalers and their depredations on the wildlife. Large numbers of eggs and wildfowl were taken. Pigs and American Cotton-tail rabbits were introduced, seals including the island’s fur-seals were exploited and the tussac was burned to make their shore operations easier. Captain William Horton Smyley reported leaving pigs and rabbits on New Island circa 1820.
After visiting New Island in 1842 Governor Moody reported that great numbers of black whales were being killed in the harbours. He recommended controlled killing of fur seals and whales. Between 1851 and 1860 New Island was used for ‘penguining’ when Rockhopper penguins were rounded up and rendered down for oil.
In the 1850/ 1860's, the Smith Brothers from Montevideo bought a lease to try mining the islands guano deposits but the enterprise proved too expensive, they were unable to compete with suppliers on mainland South America. They in turn sublet the island to three young men Holmested, Bertrand and Switzer who took it on as a sheep farm. At the time the island carried 4000 sheep. Jacob Lee was employed to look after the partners’ interests. In September 1868 Bertrand & Switzer were granted a licence to kill penguins on New Island for a year. (E3;306). Switzer had a dubious past and returned to New Zealand to face a charge of arson.
By 1869 their main farm was set up at Shallow Bay and Lee too moved there. In 1872 New Island became the property of Ernest Holmested and his partner Rees, when the partnership of Bertrand and Holmested dissolved.
Once again New Island was left to the whalers and sealers. A Norwegian whaling company Ornen tried to set up a modern floating whaling factory at New Island in 1905 but so they departed for the Antarctic instead. In 1908 a Scottish company, Salvesen of Leith under the name New Whaling Company attempted to set up business in a whaling station 3 miles south of New Island settlement but again results were unsatisfactory, with only 3 whale catching ships the operation was too small and the station closed in 1915.
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Can you add/ correct any information or supply photographs or information , past or present/ life/ people/ buildings? Contact: falklands.southatlantic@gmail.com
Sources include: Falkland Rural Heritage- Joan Spruce with Natalie Smith, nationalarchives.gov.fk/Jane Cameron National Archives/ Land/ buildings,
Photographs -artincamera/Shutterstock.com, evenfh/Shutterstock.com, |
    
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