Pittwater Life May 2024 Issue

Times Past
Snapshot of Pittwater Camera Club
Way back in 1966, the
Pittwater Camera
Club (PCC) was born
in the loungeroom of camera
enthusiasts Did and Charles
Usher at Mona Vale.
The Usher’s son Bruce and
I began our secondary school
education at Narrabeen Boys
High School in 1959. Before
the PCC had begun, I remember
entrepreneurial Bruce
spending most weekends on
the end of a camera shooting
mates and surfers in action;
he had prints for sale the next
week at school.
The PCC soon began to
flourish and by 1975 was
becoming well-established,
moving to St Pauls Presbyterian
Church Hall previously
located at 22 Barrenjoey
Road, Mona Vale.
It wasn’t long before the
PCC was considered the premier
camera club on Sydney’s
Northern Beaches. Visiting
photographers and professionals
in the industry gave
lectures, helping to improve
the photographic skills of its
members, which reached 50.
Regular competitions were
held, along with tutorials, to
encourage an appreciation in
the art of photography for budding
amateurs and to stretch
members’ creative skills.
Some were recipients of
both national and international
awards.
My dad Ron began his
Vice Presidency of the PCC
in the 1970s and was also
granted Life Membership on
1 December 1986. He won an
international photographic
competition with a photo he
took of the Warriewood Surf
Life Saving Club surfboat at a
carnival at Bilgola. The prize
was an all-expenses-paid trip
for him and mum to the Munich
Olympic Games in 1972.
Marie Windred’s commitment
to the PCC as President
was outstanding; by 2006 she
had held the position for 25
years. She was active as head of
the PCC as they helped guide
members from capturing
images on film and processing
them in a darkroom to the new
digital age where the computer
carried out all the darkroom
jobs without the messy chemicals
that went with them.
I am assured that she is
still taking photographs, but
mostly of her grand and great
grandchildren and these days
with her phone rather than
a large lump of 35mm SLR
camera body and lens.
Sadly from 31 December 2023
the PCC ceased operations.
Several reasons are attrib-
SPECIAL: The photo that won
Ron and Gwen Searl an allexpenses
paid trip to the 1972
Munich Olympic Games.
uted, including dwindling
membership numbers especially
brought on by COVID,
plus natural attrition and a
lack of funding. They had
been conducting their last
meetings at Pittwater RSL.
TIMES PAST is supplied by
local historian and President
of the Avalon Beach
Historical Society GEOFF
SEARL. Visit the Society’s
showroom in Bowling Green
Lane, Avalon Beach.
Times Past
The Local Voice Since 1991
MAY 2024 49