The first settlement in Pender Harbour, at the mouth of the harbour in Joe Bay, reached by a hill that has stopped a plow, an ambulance and a tow truck.
Where Irvines Landing sits, and the other places we attend
around Pender Harbour. Every name on the map is a link.
The oldest European settlement in the harbour
Irvines Landing sits at the mouth of Pender Harbour, in Joe Bay, on the north side of the entrance. The provincial gazetteer spells the name without an apostrophe. Lee Bay, the water immediately at the landing, was adopted as an official name on 2 January 1973, on map sheet 92F/9, at 49 degrees 38 minutes 15 seconds north and 124 degrees 03 minutes 54 seconds west.
Charles Irvine, an English immigrant, established a small trading post here in 1865, the first settler in Pender Harbour. The property was purchased in 1898 by Steve Dames and Joe Perry. Joseph Gonsalves joined them, and under the name Gonsalves and Dames General Traders they built the Irvines Landing Hotel and Store. Joe Bay carries Gonsalves' first name and Dames Road the other partner's surname. Lee is a family name too, from Ole and Frida Lee, who arrived from Whonnock in 1917 and campaigned for a school.
Until the 1930s this was the harbour's front door
The community was established in 1880 and was the main port on Pender Harbour for the steamships. In 1929, Union Steamship vessels were making a run of five to ten hours from Vancouver three times a week. The landing was a steamer stop for settlers and loggers, then a fish-processing centre, then a yacht anchorage.
The school followed the same arc. Classes were held in a converted bunkhouse from 1920 to 1930. A new school on land donated by Matilda Dames opened in 1931. It closed in June 1960 and the students were ferried to Madeira Park School. Before the roads, there were no roads at all: boats and trails connected Irvines Landing, Kleindale, Madeira Park and Garden Bay.
The road arrived and the direction of travel reversed. A magazine account of the coast's waterside pubs records a change of ownership at the landing and development plans that never materialised. The settlement is now centred on the water and the boat launch ramp, with a campsite, and the nearest general store is John Henry's at Hospital Bay. Sechelt is about 37 kilometres south.
The hill that has stopped a plow, an ambulance and a tow truck
Access is Highway 101, Garden Bay Road, then Irvines Landing Road, with Lee Road at the end. Routing on 12 September 2026 from the Lee Bay position gave about 15.6 kilometres and 23 minutes to the Madeira Park centre and about 47.6 kilometres and 56 minutes to Sechelt Hospital.
Two points on that road have failed repeatedly. The curve above Mixal Lake dates from 1936, carries no barrier and drops to roughly 25 feet of water. The Irvines Landing hill is the second. During the snow of 3 and 4 February 2025 a snowplow went into the ditch on it. An ambulance answering a Garden Bay call was stopped at the bottom with chains fitted, turned around on Lee Road and stopped again. The heavy tow truck sent for the ambulance went into the ditch itself, and the ambulance was eventually towed up to the hall. A resident recalled a Hydro truck stuck at the bottom of the same road during a three-day outage two years earlier.
The driveways off it are steep enough to be a hazard on their own. On 7 May 2026 a delivery driver at Irvines Landing was run over by his own vehicle and was found on a steep driveway, partly over a cliff above a rocky shoreline.
Three calls for service in a whole quarter
Policing figures for the rural Sunshine Coast in the fourth quarter of 2023 record three calls for service at Irvines Landing, one of the lowest counts among the sixteen rural communities listed. Madeira Park had 85 and Garden Bay 61 in the same period.
A low count measures what somebody reported. In a settlement where a high proportion of houses are empty for months, the person who would have noticed an open gate or a broken window is often not there to make the call.
Water comes from the North Pender Harbour system, sourced at Garden Bay Lake with Hotel Lake held in reserve. Fire cover is Hall 2 at 13303 Deller Road in Garden Bay, with two engines, 1,600 US gallons between them and no tender.
What a check at Irvines Landing covers
The hill and the last stretch of road in, reported as passable or not on the day
The driveway grade, the parking area and anything parked on it above a drop
Doors, windows, sheds and the boathouse, with locks turned and the crawlspace opened
Heat on and holding, or the plumbing drained and the shut-off valve confirmed closed
Dock, ramp, float, lines and any vessel left at the landing or on a private float
Salt spray damage to windows, flashing, rails and fasteners on the exposed side
Roof, gutters and any tree leaning toward the house or the overhead service line
Mail and deliveries left at the door, and any sign of a forced entry point
Photographs of each item with the date, sent to you the same day
Most policies require someone competent to look over an unoccupied house at fixed intervals during the heating season, four consecutive days being a frequent limit, unless the water is turned off and the system drained. The interval and the exact wording vary by insurer, so confirm what yours asks of you before agreeing a routine.
What it costs
A scheduled check at Irvines Landing is
$55 a visit, plus
$10 travel. The travel charge is the same
everywhere between Gibsons and Egmont. There is no minimum term and no joining fee.
See the full price list.
Where these facts come from
Every figure, date and quotation on this page was taken from one of these. They are
listed so you can read them yourself.
