Hardwicke, New Zealand

Hardwicke was the name of an agricultural and whaling community set up at Port Ross, a natural harbour on Auckland Island in the Auckland Islands Group in the Southern Ocean south of New Zealand. Although a short-lived settlement was established, it was abandoned within three years.

This colonial settlement was first proposed in 1846. The Southern Whale Fishery Company was formed in Britain and granted a Royal Charter with its founder, Charles Enderby, as the resident Chief Commissioner and Lieutenant Governor of the new colony. Charles Enderby was the son of Samuel Enderby, founder of the London whaling company Samuel Enderby & Sons.

The Enderby Settlement was the start of the establishment of Hardwicke, the intended ship provisioning and whaling station in Erebus Cove, Port Ross, at the north-eastern end of Auckland Island, close to Enderby Island.

Settlement began in December 1849. Three ships, the Samuel Enderby, Fancy and Brisk from Britain arrived at Port Ross with the intending colonists, prefabricated houses and bricks with which to build chimneys. The settlers were carefully chosen to establish the new colony. They included women and children as well as farm workers, shipwrights, a surgeon, a civil engineer and other people with appropriate skills.

When the colonists arrived at Port Ross they found a group of Ngāti Mutunga Māori settlers, with their Moriori slaves from the Chatham Islands, already there, having arrived in 1841-42. The new colonists employed the Māori to help clear the forest, build roads and crew the ships, with their leaders appointed as constables to maintain law and order.

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