Pittwater's Beaches in January 1956: old slides
From old slides, found while doing research for upcoming history pages. Images are from and courtesy Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales, and NSW Digitisation Program for same.
These slides, some of which date later than this and include Narrabeen, have been recently digitised. They were part of then then 'Walkabout' magazine created to promote NSW as a tourist destination by the state government and a precursor of today's 'Destination NSW' .
From 70 years ago this coming January, some of these are clearly from private family collections. They show us what was in the landscape then, the summer lifestyle for those who lived here or those who visited for the season, and you can spot structures or elements of then now gone, especially if you look at the background.
Many of these feature views and infrastructure the news service has already run a few insights on in past Issues, so they have been linked to for those interested in exploring more. You can also use the 'search' function in the Contents page to bring up more than those pages linked to here.
PITTWATER
When the morning- sun is dancing;
On the sleepy, white capped waves,
And a long deep shaft of sunlight
A golden roadway paves ...
Then's the time to look around you,
To see the wooded hills,
Sloping gently to the water.
By countless silver rills ...
To look at white-winged schooners,
And the launch's churning wake,
When the sun rests on the water,
Its night-long-thirst to slake.
Mona Vale, July 1956:
Newport, January 1956:
Paradise Beach, January 1956 (you can see the
old torpedo wharf in the background in some of these, then next to the Taylor's Point wharf - note the amount of moorings is a lot less than today).
Avalon Beach, January 1956:
Whale Beach, January 1956:
Whale Beach in April 1956:
On December 20th 1953, the two level Whale Beach SLSC clubhouse was officially opened. The Club members were faced with paying back a mortgage of over £5,000. There were yet more fundraising events, the bane of surf clubs, and a number of sizeable donations that quickly reduced that mortgage. New funding and an extended mortgage enabled the building of the third story of the clubhouse, which opened in 1958.
Whale Beach SLSC clubhouse Opening Day 1953. Courtesy Whale Beach SLSC.
Later on WWII Army veteran George McRobert, Whale Beach SLSC stalwart and Club Captain for seven years, then President for 16 consecutive years, established the Moby Dick Surfers Club. This was in the third or top floor of the clubhouse, officially opened in 1958, and was one of the places to see great live music until this became a restaurant around a decade ago.
Palm Beach, January 1956 - note the structure next to the pavilion, this is a remnant of the Palm Beach SLSC clubhouse, finished in 1929, which was later used as a place to store surfboats and hired from the then Warringah Shire Council by
Johnny Hawkes initially, and had a cafe, a hire for boogie boards (then called surfoplanes) and occasionally ran an art show exhibition by
artists who were living in Barrenjoey Lighthouse customs cottages.
Palm Beach SLSC’s clubhouse home has changed a lot since 1921 when a shed was placed, courtesy of the Barrenjoey Land Company, in the land beside the to come Peters residence - current Members clubhouse - and before the 1936 purchase of William Choley’s ‘The Rest’ as their first clubhouse.
The second ‘shed’ was placed in then ‘Palm Gully Park', later 'Glenburnie Park' and current Hordern Park. The third clubhouse was on the beachfront beside the then dressing rooms, built in 1924. At a Meeting held on August 7th 1929 the Council voted to remove the clubhouse from the reserve and for the construction of another further along the beach. By December 1929 this building opened, south of the council dressing sheds. This structure comprised a club room, shower room, casualty room, lavatory, verandah and boatshed. Water came via a well and windmill, with any additions funded by members.
The WSC Minutes of the Meeting held 16th December 1929 record:
Palm Beach Clubhouse - Resolved (Crs. Austin, Robertson) -. That final payment of £107 be made to Contractor Wilson in regard to the construction of the new Clubhouse at Palm Beach, Resolved (Crs. Corkery, Robertson) - That the Palm Beach Club’s proposal to provide an outside locker on the southern side of the Clubhouse for the housing of surfboards be not approved, but that the proposal to install lockers for gear, etc. inside the Clubhouse be approved. 4 Resolved (Crs. Hitchcock, Robertson) -. That an additional box and line be supplied to the professional life saver at Palm Beach as recommended. Bilgola surf-bathing: Resolved (Crs. Austin, Parr) - That the Inspector ascertain whether Mr. S. Baldwin of Mona Vale will take the position of temporary life saver at Bilgola Beach, and if not, Mr. Lister of Howard Avenue, be interviewed.
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The above shows this is also before the Pavilion was built and opened in December 1936.
Johnny Hawkes surfers bazaar, circa 1951
In 1956:
Johnny was also associated with the Beach Combers Surf Board Club, one of the first board riders club in Australia, based at Palm Beach under Johnny Hawkes Beach Café located next door to the Palm Beach Pavillion (Dressing Sheds).
Standing: John ‘Pine’ Prosser waxing board, Rodney ‘Rouge’ Harris.
Sitting – Steve Campbell (blond child) Leigh Campbell (with hand on head) Lee ‘Bombie’ Beacham (white jacket), Alan Ward (guy talking to), Rodney Campbell (white jumper) and Laci ‘Hompus Stompus’ Berczelly (smoking). The gentleman in background looking like he’s doing The Stomp is Tony Bradley. Check out Col Brown’s famous Ford Twin Single Spinner it went on many a surfing safari. Picture taken at Palm Beach dressing sheds. South Palm Beach in the background the washed away Beach Buffet and Beachcomber’s club. Photo - Ron Turton.
Ron says of Johnny:
''This (Beachcomber Boardriders) began when Johnny Hawke’s Beach Buffet was on the southern part of the dressing sheds. Upstairs was where the food was sold; pies and hot dogs, that sort of stuff. What he sold the most of was that Golden Circle Pineapple juice. He was onto a great thing there; people used to visit Palm Beach in the thousands on the weekends.
There was Howlett’s store where the bus terminates and then John Dunne’s, who had the Cock and Bull, came along later. That was next to Howlett’s.
Johnny Hawke used to sell a pie for 1 and sixpence; the profit he must have made would have been enormous. The juice sold like hotcakes.
Downstairs they’d originally tried to sell souvenirs but it just didn’t work. He said to us one day, ‘look, we’ve got this spot downstairs, you guys can have it.’ – to use to put our boards in. I used to carry mine back to the Golf Club and they were bloody heavy then.''
Some original Beachcombers Surfboard Riders Club Palm Beach NSW 1961 near the present day dressing sheds. Note Johnny Hawkes Beach Buffet in the background washed away in king tides. The Beachcomber’s Club was underneath the Beach Buffet. Back row – Ken ‘The Blue Streak’ Mackey, John ‘Pine’ Prosser, Richard Parkinson. Front – John ‘Olly’ Oliver, Ron Turton, Johnny McIlroy (with hat on)Pearl Turton, Glenys Pearson, John ‘Beaver’ Gonsalves, Ronnie Berczelley (smoking!)and Laci ‘Hompus Stompus’ Berczelley. Note the jackets with the initials on them. ‘Cooky’ Burnes style from 77 Sunset Strip! photo- Ron Turton.
The first Australian surf board riding club – the ‘Beachcombers Surfboard Riding Club’ of Palm Beach NSW and their boards 1959.
Seated (left to right) – John ‘Olly’ Oliver, John ‘Johnny Mac’ McIlroy(drinking soup), Ron Turton, Neridah Wright, Joy Gassman, Billy McTaggart, John ‘Pine Apple’ Prosser. Back (left to right) unknown, John Pullenger, John Dunn, Peter Dever, Frank ‘Speedy’ Gonsalves.
Johnny held the rights to hire gear as well as sell food into the 1960's. Warringah Shire Council Records show at the Meeting held on August 8th, 1961: J. Hawkes, 25/7/61 - re Beach Kiosk, Palm Beach - asking Council to transfer his Lease of this Kiosk to Mr. J. Cummings of Palm Beach whom he has known for a number of years and is capable of running the Kiosk efficiently and would be a good tenant in all respects, and, should Council agree, Mr. Cummings will then purchase his fixtures and fittings in the said kiosk. Adding the reason he is asking the Council to transfer the lease is that he had a very serious operation 2 years ago and since then he has not been a fit man. The Council agreed to the transfer of the Lease to Cummings under the same Conditions.
The café and building were destroyed by huge seas in the late 1960s and was never rebuilt.
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