Sydney Cove is a resettled community on Pork Island, one of the Fair Islands in Bonavista Bay.
Fair Islands was one of the earliest fishing stations and later fixed settlements of Bonavista Bay. Family names of early settlers, recorded on the islands between 1800 and 1840 were Rogers, Akerman (Ackerman), Gibbons, Pond, Way, and Wicks. Family names associated with somewhat later settlement included Harlock, Farmage, and Oakley (Seary).
The economy of Fair Islands was based on the Labrador fishery until its decline in the 1930s and 1940s. The decline of the Labrador fishery, coupled with the rise of cash-employment on the mainland, especially after 1940, led to the eventual resettlement of Fair Islands between 1955 and 1961. Lack of roads and services were also considerations in the move.
With the building of a school in 1960 the remaining 36 families on Fair Islands (particularly in Sydney Cove) moved to Centreville in the summer of 1961 under the Government centralization offer.
From the Encyclopedia of Newfoundland and Labrador
