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Change Islands is an artist's,
tourists', and photographer's paradise, rich in geologic features and historical
architecture, with salt box houses, tidy gardens and red ochre fishing stages
and stores that hug its charming coves. Home of the Squid Jiggin' Ground, the
Newfoundland Cod Trap, and a historic fishing heritage, the community of Change
Islands is steeped in time-honoured traditions.
The incorporated community of Change Islands, is built along the
shores of a long and narrow tickle that separates the two largest islands. There
have been fishermen here since the latter half of the eighteenth century when
the Labrador fishery rose to prominence. By the beginning of the twentieth
century, this was a prosperous settlement with a population of over 1,000 people
who fished the adjacent North Atlantic waters or worked in the many large
merchant premises that were established in the coves and on the rugged shores
and the many adjacent smaller islands.
Despite the
introduction of modern conveniences, Change Islands still retains the "look and
feel" of the last century and still maintains a fishing tradition. The house
styles and the lifestyles here are from another time. White painted, narrow
clapboarded homes sit in well-kept green gardens facing the main tickle or the
open sea. Fishing stages and stores, painted in the traditional red ochre colour
line the shore. Small boats traverse the many harbours, tickles and coves.
There's even a general store where you can buy the makings for a picnic that can
be enjoyed at an abandoned fishing hamlet at nearby Puncheon Cove.