Our Islands, Our Home Grand Steeple Jason Jason Pebble Is. Cape Bouganville Cape Dolphin Carcass Is. Keppel Is. Saunders Is. West Point Is. Salvador Dunbar Douglas Port Station Johnson’s Volunteer Shallow San Carlos Harbour Point Hill Cove Bay Port Louis Roy Cove Port Teal Inlet BERKELEY SOUND West Falkland Howard San Carlos Long Island KING Murrell Passage Is. GEORGE Cape BAY D Pembroke N U Saladero Stanley Blu Dunnose Head O New Haven Mount Pleasant Cove Chartres S New Is. Shallow Little Airport Fitzroy Harbour Chartres Darwin Spring Point D Goose QUEEN Green CHARLOTTE N Bertha’s Beaver Is. BAY A Beach LAFONIA CHOISEUL SOUND Weddell Is. L Fox Bay (E) K Fox Bay (W) Walker East Falkland South L Great Creek Harbour Is. A Lively Is. Port Edgar F North Arm Port Stephens Speedwell Is. Bleaker Is. Albermale Cape Meredith George Is. Bull Point Barren Is. Sea Lion Is. This publication, revealing the lives of Islanders a generation after the war, is dedicated to the men and women of Her Majesty’s Armed Forces and support personnel who liberated the Falkland Islands from Argentine occupation in 1982. The success of today’s Falkland Islands is the legacy of your sacrifice. It is your legacy and we remain eternally grateful. From the people of the Falklands A heritage to be proud of Lee Molkenbuhr Shearing contractor and farmer Lee Molkenbuhr The people of the Falkland Islands trace their ancestory in the Islands manages Johnson’s Harbour farm with his wife, Martha. over 170 years, some with family ties going as far back as nine generations. The Islands are our country, our home. end for the top two trainees, of which I was one, Throughout our long history we have welcomed from around the who got to go to Australia to gain experience working on farms. world others who share our way of life. I started shearing here in the Islands for Neil The late Claude Molkenbuhr was farming McKay in November 1995, before heading off at the Murrell in 1982. When it became too We choose to retain our links to the United Kingdom and we are to the UK and New Zealand the following year. dangerous to stay on the farm, he moved his proud of our identity and heritage; we also celebrate our diversity. I also shore in America for a season in Wyoming family to Johnson’s Harbour farm. He was and I worked for many seasons in Australia one of a team of Islanders who assisted the and Italy. British forces in moving troops and ammunition I have taken on the organisation of shearing to the front line in the final stages of the war. in the Falklands and in the last three summers we have worked with a few young lads who My faMily links with the Islands on my were keen to learn to shear and are now doing father’s side go back to Jacob Lee, one of the well. There is a good career available for young first settlers to come down from the UK in the shearers and also a great opportunity for them 1850s; my great-grandfather on my mother’s to travel the world to gain more experience and side was an Irishman who was shipwrecked see lots of things as I have done. I have just taken on a farming lease at here and then chose to settle. I have been involved in competition Johnsons Harbour farm with my wife Martha My father bought a piece of Green Patch shearing and have been lucky enough to (who is from Cumbria in England) so my days of farm when it was subdivided in the late 70s and shear for the Falklands at three world events (in travelling around the world have ended. I have we all moved to the Murrell when I was six years Scotland, Norway and Wales). In Wales in 2010 chosen to come home as I feel it has a safe and old. I had a travelling teacher and was among our team made it into the final to secure us free environment in which to bring up a family the first kids to start up radio lessons using two sixth place overall. We really got to promote the and also the future seems to look good for metre sets. I moved into Stanley to the hostel Islands and it was one of my proudest moments, the islands. for the last few years of secondary school then being on the stage in front of thousands of We both look forward to greeting the headed straight back to the Murrell before people representing my country; I have been veterans when they return to the Falklands. starting an agriculture training year at Blue lucky enough to be selected to attend the 2012 I am so proud of what they did for us back in ‘82 , Beach farm; this training carried a prize at the world championships in New Zealand. when they restored peace in the Islands. “ it was one of my proudest moments, being on the stage in front of thousands of people representing my country” Dr Rebecca Edwards Georgina Strange Part time GP Dr Rebecca Edwards lives at Port Howard with her Photographer Georgina Strange is the manager of the New Island nature husband, Christopher Lee, and three children, Jessica, Daniel & Oliver. reserve, owned by the New Island Conservation Trust – a non-profit charity. for around seven Months of the year, and its incredible wildness and isolation are challenging. We are not only the GP but the I pray that Argentina will wake up and I live and work on one of the most remote what I really love about it; not to mention the A&E doctor, the obstetrician, paediatrician, realise that we aren’t going to vanish or give in outlying islands of the Falklands, New Island, on people that you meet and the opportunities hospital doctor, flying doctor, etc. It is a to their bullying, and that they accept us as a the extreme western edge of the archipelago. that come your way. The island has only four Photographer and naturalist Ian Strange fantastic job, but not without the difficulties nation of people in our own right, choosing to My work on this tiny island wildlife sanctuary houses and at most might be home to ten MBE in the field in 1982. The New Island that come with working in an isolated place far live the life we want to, quietly, in our home, the is centred on environmental research and individuals at any one time, but bizarrely you reserve was established in 1972. In 1995 Ian from the nearest specialist advice. Falkland Islands. I hope that soon we will see eco-tourism – New Island is a nature reserve, often meet more people here than you would My hoMe, the falklands, is an extremely and his family founded the New Island The last 30 years have flown by. The the Falklands and Argentina living peacefully, and my main job is management of the island living in the main town. special place to me. Growing up here as a child Falklands have changed beyond all and respectfully, side by side. In my spare time I indulge in my Conservation Trust. was a wonderful experience, and I am very photography and design and for the rest of lucky to be able to bring my own children up the year, I divide my time between Stanley and experience for me – a totally different life to in the wide open, clean, healthy environment travelling to new destinations – for me, taking my home in the Islands, but another world of of Camp. a nation of people in our time away to explore other parts of the world big skies and open coastlines which I became I live at Port Howard on West Falkland, “ only reminds me how special the Falklands really connected to. I spent four years there, where my husband and his brother run Port own right, choosing to live are, and being away from them reinforces my but always knew I’d return home. Howard Farm, a sheep station of 39,000 sheep the life we want to desire to return. Travel and experience living Often the question is asked, “What do you and 270 cattle. My children have an idyllic time ” abroad is important in my mind; it’s easy to love about the Falklands?” and “what would on the farm with a menagerie of pets, a big become ignorant and forget about the rest you change about the Islands?” Quite simply: garden and lots of fishing and messing about recognition¸ but still retain their charm and of the world when you live in such an isolated “everything”, and “nothing”. For all its scars and on the beach to keep them happy. I look at beauty. We have a democratic government corner of it. flaws, and for all the things we complain about, them and hope and pray that their future here who have maintained excellent finances in the I was born in Argentina in 1981 to an there’s still simply no place like it. will be secure. current world recession. We have excellent English father and an Argentine mother, both When I think of the Falkland Islands, I work as a part-time GP in the King health and educational facilities. I am proud to of whom proudly call the Falklands home. I think of a wild and free place where the Edward VII Memorial Hospital in Stanley. I call myself a Falkland Islander.