The links on the page below take you to pictures of the place or the grave of the person involved.
Pushthrough is a resettled fishing community. It is located on the south coast, about 20 km northwest of Hermitage. It was resettled in 1968, by the summer and spring all the families were gone. The name Pushthrough comes from the Gut, along the shores of Dawson’s Point and at Western Habour, which people called, "The Bottom". Local legend says the community got its name when a whale got stuck in this gut and had to be pushed through and hence the name Pushthrough.
Pushthrough was probably one of the first settled sites in Hermitage Bay. The Newman Company had a seasonal fishing station there in 1672, but later established their major Newfoundland station at Gaultois and Hermitage. Then all the people of Pushthrough became seasonal fishing servants.
Permanent settlement at Pushthrough happened in 1814, about the time when George Chambers moved there from Gaultois to establish a fishing room and later a store.
By 1845 the community had a population of about 92 and a school, where the teacher Mr. Lilly taught 26 students. Then in the late 1850's Henry Camp arrived to take the position as a teacher. The Camp family then later sat up a trading firm.
By 1884 there was a population of 209 and a Church of England school and church. Pushthrough Gut was bridged by a 86-foot span in 1872, and in 1888 they received their first Post Office, as well as a new church and school. In the 1880's four traders sat up a lobster factory at Pushthrough.
By 1901 the population of Pushthrough reached 235 based on the success of the local coasting trade and the Bank and lobster fishing. In 1906 the Garland firm, the largest single business in the community, left Pushthrough and went to Gaultois. The Rowsell and Camp business were scaled down and eventually closed down, as well.
Later, Pushthrough became an inshore fishing community, but a number of people continued to find work as seamen in the coasting trade or at the Bank fishery out of other ports. Although some of the old banking vessels took local crews to the Labrador fishery in the 1920's. When these boats went out of service they weren’t replaced.
In 1945 Pushthrough’s population dropped to 175 and the population loss would have been greater but five families from Saddle Island moved there and in the 1950's a lot of people moved there from small fishing communities of western Bay d’Espoir. Such as Bay de North, Goblin, Raymond’s Island, and Quiller. But the movement of young families away from the community into Gaultois in the 1950's and 1960's to Head of Bay d’Espoir and area, led to the decision in 1967 to close a section of the school and it was a rumor that the next year it was reduced to a single room. Then, changes in the resettlement program made relocation a more attractive option financially and meant that resettlement no longer needed unanimous consent from the community. In the spring and summer of 1968 virtually all the families with children that went to school moved. The largest number of people (58) went to Milltown-Head of Bay d’Espoir and other to Hermitage, Fortune, Burgeo, and Gaultois.
In 1972 Michael French, an artist from Ontario, and his family moved into the abandoned community and stayed there for a few years, and the lighthouse at Dawson’s Point is still serviced today although it is to be automated in the near future.
The main last names in Pushthrough were Camp, King, Sutton, Chambers, Moore, Roswell, Vivian, Roberts, Dearland, Abbott, Garland, Honeycote, Lee, Cooper, Priddle, Lilly, McDonald, Kendell, Dewland, Wells, Rose, and Ingram.
Pictures of Pushthrough of the Past
Interview with a Former Resident
