A Brief History of Pinetrees

Lord Howe Island and the families of Pinetrees.

Lord Howe Island and Balls Pyramid were sighted by Lieut. Henry Lidgbird Ball in charge of HMS Supply on 17 February 1788,as he made his way from the recently established settlement at Sydney Cove to Norfolk Island.He was to make a landing one month later on his return voyage.

Late in the eighteenth century whalers and traders visited for water and to hunt turtles and birds for food.

The first settlers were from New Zealand and arrived about 1833-34 and survived by provisioning ships and exporting muttonbird feathers.

They sold this business to Captain Poole and Richard Dawson of Sydney in 1841 and it is here the Pinetrees story begins.

In 1842 Thomas and Margaret Andrews of Sydney signed on with Captain Poole as general servants for 12 months to work at Lord Howe Island.

They worked for nine months and returned to Sydney briefly then went back to settle permanently on Lord Howe and worked for Poole's new partner Dr Foulis.

Their only daughter Mary was born in 1846.

In 1848 Dr Foulis exchanged all his land with an American whaling captain who later that year transferred his holdings to Thomas Andrews.

As Kerry McFadyen, a direct descendant of Thomas and Margaret describes in her book "Pinetrees Lord Howe Island 1842-1992 ","ownership of the buildings and land holdings around Pinetrees,plus the lands for a considerable distance to the north and south ,were transferred to Thomas Andrews for the payment of two tons of potatoes!"

Mary Andrews was to marry Thomas Nichols, master of the whaling barque "Aladdin".

Thomas arrived in July 1862 and they married in August that year.

It is Mary Nichols who at the end of the century built accommodation at the family home,then called 'The Pines" and began taking in guests.

Mary had inherited in a Deed of Gift all the lands when her mother Margaret had died in 1878

Mary and Thomas had 11 children of whom 9 survived. Many of them had fascinating lives.

Albert, the eldest, left home and became the Bosun of the "Titanic" and drowned in 1912.

George became Island Director in the Kentia Palm Seed and Plant Co-op formed in 1906.Grace believed she was a clairvoyant and Martha was a reputed beauty,apparently driving a Frenchman to suicide because of unrequited love!

She married three times and as reported by Kerry McFadyen ,"there were rumours of several affairs and it was said she used to fly the national flag of the current incumbent from the flagpole at home."

Susan also had an exotic life and lived and married in China.

Her home called Palmhaven was the name of our self catering flats from 1997 - 2001 and Susan was celebrated by the former Aunty Sue's Restaurant at the Palm Haven site.

On her 80th birthday Susan was pleased to receive cigarettes and whiskey only!

Edith was her mothers favourite and married George Kirby,a schoolteacher, in 1902.With the death of Mary Nichols in 1923 , Edith was now the proprietor of "The Pines".

She was to pass on the tradition to her son Gerald Kirby and his wife Beth who ran Pinetrees from the 1930's to 1975.

Gerald and Beth's youngest daughters Kerry McFadyen and Pixie Rourke together with their husbands Bruce and Ed maintain that tradition today.

As Kerry and Pixie say,"we have tried to run Pinetrees in the time-honoured manner;to know the guests and personally make them feel welcome and continually to make improvements in the accommodation,amenities,food and service whilst keeping the atmosphere of an earlier,less complicated time."