Around 50 Avalon Beach Historical Society members and guests 'braved' a chilly 12 degree night out on Tuesday 10 June 2025. But they were well rewarded for their efforts.
Held in the usual venue, the ANNEXE in the north-west corner of Dunbar Park, attendees found it was in fact comfortably warm inside.
In his pre meeting circular, ABHS President Geoff Searl OAM had promised a "series of surprises to keep you well and truly entertained and more importantly, historically satisfied".
And plenty of surprises there were.
The first surprise was the boxes of popcorn prepared by Collette Searl and handed out to the audience by her and other friendly 'Usherettes'.
The next surprise was the variety and content of a series of short movie and video clips compiled by John Stone and Geoff, selected on the basis of local Avalon Beach content.
First we went down the cliff to watch a folk song concert performed inside St. Michael’s Cave in 1964.
Then we were treated to fascinating scenes of town, the natural rockpool and the beach from a 1932 home film by the founder of Avalon Beach AJ Small, showing his son Geoff, as he set out the flags to begin patrolling on Avalon Beach after successfully obtaining his Bronze Medallion in the first squad in January 1926.
In 2015 Geoff and John shared some of the classic Avalon photos from ABHS archives which were transformed into a unique video/film presentation called ‘Creative Creatures’ as part of the local Film Festival.
We also watched the demise of the classic art-deco Beacon Store at Palm Beach when the ‘rights’ to burn it to the ground were ‘sold’ by the Council to Home and Away.
The cornier the lines were, the better was the audience appreciation!
And who couldn't enjoy the local excerpt from a 1967 ? or 68 ? episode of the popular TV series ‘Skippy’, with starring scenes from Avalon Beach and the surf club. The episode was labelled 1968 at the start, while at the end it was recorded as 1967.
These were followed by a rerun of the highly creative ‘Elephants on Avalon Beach’ by talented local resident Jae Morrison.
A great night overall, with the audience revelling in forgotten or previously unknown aspects and features of Avalon Beach township, the beach and surrounding area.
Don't miss the next meeting. Always something of interest to local residents.. and there's supper afterwards.