Pittwater Life June 2022 Issue

100 YEARS IN FOCUS: Locals pose
with a 15-foot shark hauled up next
to the Customs Station wharf at
Barrenjoey in 1923; La Corniche,
Mona Vale; an early residence from
the 1930s; and a painting of North
Avalon Headland dated 1909.
News
Picture perfect
Avalon Beach focus
It’s finally here – after the disappointment
of a COVID postponement last October, the
Avalon Beach Historical Society is staging
its 10th Great Historic Photographic Exhibition
at the Avalon Recreation Centre over the June
long weekend.
On show will be more than 1000 reproduced
and original archive photos to help celebrate
100 years of Avalon Beach.
Society Presidents Geoff Searl says more
than 60 different topics, areas and eras of
local history represented.
“It will be a historical feast for all who
attend, from first-time visitors to locals
familiar with our exhibition – you certainly
won’t be disappointed,” Geoff said.
One of the new display panels will be ‘Art
and Artists of Avalon Beach’; it will feature 18
A4 reproductions of paintings of North Avalon
headland from 1862 to 2018. Included is one
by Pro Hart of a series painted in the early
1980s.
“Also represented will be the early history
of the Whale Beach Surf Life Saving Club
along with St Marks Anglican Church and
an intriguing pictorial history of the Bilgola
Bends,” Geoff said.
“Also, photographs of 18 residences from
many eras will illustrate the varieties of
shelters in which we have chosen to live in this
amazing area.”
Geoff said these great new subjects would
complement some of the all-time favourites
such as ‘Koalas’; ‘The Hole in the Wall’;
‘St Michael’s Cave and the Ovens’; ‘Avalon
Public School’; ‘Sharks’; the ‘Golf Links’; and
‘Clareville Wharf’.
The exhibition will be held in the main
hall of the Avalon Recreation Centre in Old
Barrenjoey Road, next to Dunbar Park and will
be open on Saturday 11th, Sunday 12th and
Monday 13th from 9am-5pm.
“Admission charges are the same as they
were 12 years ago – $5 per adult and children
free,” Geoff said.
Besides some publications for sale the Society
will also have reproduced high resolution
photos ready for framing, mugs with local
photos printed on them and printed tea towels.
Geoff said the exhibition would be the
Society’s biggest in its 39 years of operations
– collecting, correlating, categorising
and disseminating the information and
photographs to its members, the local schools,
tertiary students and interested groups and
individuals.
– Nigel Wall
* More info abhs.org.au
14 JUNE 2022
The Local Voice Since 1991