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In 1929, nine-year-old Jo Dellamore and her family went to Great Mercury Island [Ahuahu] the Coromandel Peninsula. Jo Dellamore describes a unique way of life to Jack Perkins.
When she, her family and two helpers arrived in a 36-foot launch called the ‘Mercury Belle’, they found only a run down, dilapidated farm house and facilities on the otherwise uninhabited island. Jo was to stay for 36 years.
Looking back, she is astonished at how their two helpers Matty and Binky worked, with so few resources yet managed to source and serve multiple daily meals to the masses. The helpers grew vegetables, raised and slaughtered animals, fished and picked oysters, preserved lamb, eggs and vegetables, made butter, baked bread, cooked meals and looked after the children.
Jo describes the complex process of getting firewood, the excitement of going to the post office shop, bringing stock onto the island and talks about the wild cattle and bulls of the back country.Only her mother, father, little sister, herself, Binky and Matt, and the maid Harriet lived on the island in the beginning. Once a month her father would take Matt and Harriet to the Roman Catholic church on the mainland.
Many years later Jo lived on the island with her husband, Adrian. They were visited by the famous aviator, Captain Fred Ladd who became part of the family, couriering their boys to boarding school. Prior to 1930 the family had no way of emergency communication with the mainland though they had a radio which received urgent messages via 1YA during ‘Children’s Hour’. Jo explains that if emergency assistance had been required they were to light a bonfire, alerting a neighbouring family at Kennedy Bay.
Jo describes the harrowing journey to Whitianga hospital with her husband whilst being in labour with their son, Nick. From 1936 they had a transmitter and telegram office and used Morse code which she had learned at school. Jo recounts the arrival of a handful of hungry strangers at the house after being shipwrecked and of bringing a boat full of sheep back to the island in the middle of the night.
In 1966 they had to leave the island because of financial difficulties and moved to Waiheke - they have never looked back. Jo explains that when her family heard the ‘Mercury Belle’ had sunk (after having been sold on as a fishing trawler by her father) it felt as though there’d been a death in the family.