HISTORY of WESTERN COVE

Page 5 — HOUSES and PEOPLE (Continued)
Contents Page


EAST SIDE OF WESTERN COVE

We now proceed to the east side of Western Cove i.e. east of Western Cove Road:

Two sheds existed there by the early 1970s on:
(1) Halyard Road and
(2) Sea Vista Road near the junction with Keel Street.

I erected my shed in February 1977. During the erection of my shed a visitor stopped for a chat and said he was 75 years old and owned the shed/garage on Halyard Road.

The information from Peter Hawkins is that the first house on the east side was built in 1978 at 145 Marina Crescent and was owned by Betty Wright. This appears to be the same Betty Wright who lived 9/1921 to 4/1993 and is listed on the Kingscote Cemetery page of the Oz Burials website. My memory is that an elderly couple lived there until 1983 without electricity or running water. After that the house remained vacant for several years with the back door open and inhabited by a goat. Ownership has changed three times since then and the house is thoroughly renovated. The owners who stayed longest were Peter Kerr and wife from some time before 2005 until 2020. The following photo showing Betty Wright's house was taken from Sea Vista Road in December 1982:



The second house on the east side was probably Allotment 206 on Sea Vista Road built in 1987 by Peter and Betty Engelhardt — but further information is lacking.


House on Allotment 206. Photo 2006


I met Trevor Connell at Allotment 205, Sea Vista Road, in October 2017.

He said he is 74 years old and lived on KI until he was 51 and used to work on the Troubridge and the Island Seaway. The house, which is not much bigger than a caravan, was transported to KI from the mainland. Trevor now lives in Adelaide but returns every year to vacation in it. He could not recall in what year the house was set up. According to Peter Hawkins the previous owners of the property were Peter and Wendy Freckleton.


Trevor Connell


The following photo was taken in 1990 and looks westwards from near the junction of Sea Vista Road and Halyard Street. The house near the centre of the photo is at the junction of Marina Crescent and Capstan Street and was built in 1989. The house partly obscured by the caravan was built in 1990. The owners built it from stones gathered on the Island and materials collected at rubbish dumps and said that the total cost to build the house was only $3000.




The following house at the corner of Western Cove Road and Marina Crescent was built in 1993 by Warren and Janice Hack of Adelaide as their holiday house. They retained it for about a dozen years. On their daily walks Warren and Janice were conspicuous by their degree of protection against the Sun — wearing wide-brimmed hats and covered in clothing from head to foot except for their faces which were covered with sun-screen and sunglasses. A few times in the mid 1990s they took me with them to Western Cove in their car when my visits coincided with theirs.

(Photo 2006)


Most houses are built on-site but the following house, at 117 Western Cove Road, was transported there:


March 31, 2006. Possibly the 41st house at Western Cove


The number of houses at Western Cove to the west and east of Western Cove Road increased as follows:


 West
 East
West
 East
1969
 1
 0
 1995
 14
 8
1975
 2
 0
 2000
 18
 11
1980
 6
 1
 2005
 26
 14
1985
 10
 2
 2010
 31
 20
1990
 12
 5
 2012
 31
 21

KI Newsletter (Winter 2015) published by Cliff Hawkins says: "There are currently 53 residences at Nepean Bay [i.e. Western Cove], representing just 22% of allotments."  In 2019 residences numbered 58.

In 1971 prices of vacant allotments at Western Cove ranged from $750 on the Esplanade down to $300 on Sea Vista Road. From 2000 to 2005 Western Cove joined all of Australia in experiencing rapid increase in real-estate values, and in 2010 the respective values were about $80,000 and $30,000. The following table shows average prices of allotments sold at Western Cove by Cliff Hawkins real-estate agents:

1971
 $600
 2000 $4,750
1980
 $1,685
 2005 $56,000
1990
 $6,250
 2009-2010 $49,000
1991
 $6,037
 2011-2015 $32,000
1992
 $5,492
 2018 $48,000
1993
 $4,812
 2019
 $38,000
1994 $6,875
(Sources: 1971 Estimated.   1980-2000 KI Newsletter, Spring/Summer 1993;
Spring 1995; Spring 2001.   2005-2010 Inquiry at Cliff Hawkins office.   2011-2015 KI Newsletter Winter 2016)

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