The Southern Whale Fishery Company was established by the granting of a royal charter in 1846 to Charles Enderby, for the purpose of operating a permanent whaling station on the Auckland Islands.
The Enderby family business had been in decline following losses made by several ambitious expeditions to the Southern Ocean, and especially since 1845, when Enderby's Hemp Rope Works, its rope-making factory on the Greenwich Peninsula in the London Borough of Greenwich was destroyed by fire.
Looking for a way to save the family business, Charles Enderby successfully petitioned for government backing to establish a settlement on the Auckland Islands 'for the purpose of the whale fishery, as a station at which to discharge the cargoes and refit vessels'.
[2][3] Land was cleared for the colony and whaling station and the community of Hardwicke established.
The settlement was based on agriculture, resupply and minor repair of ships, and whaling.