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2002 (c) Peninsula Community Access Newspaper Inc
The Fifties in Woy Woy
Woy Woy Rotary Club's charter night was held on July 29, 1950. Here we reproduce extracts from "We've Done Some Silly Things ... A History of Fifty Years of the Woy Woy Rotary Club" written by Annona Pearse and Walter Pearson, which describe Peninsula life in the 1950s.
After the Second World War, Woy Woy comprised three small communities.
The retail area of Booker Bay had been moving slowly further east into the village of Ettalong Beach.
Radford's Drug Store was already open on the corner of Wharf St.
Rod Radford had established the habit of rowing across from Wagstaff every morning to open the shop where he dispensed prescriptions and sold milk shakes.
Rod would later move the business to Umina and pass it on to his son.
Rod was invited into the Woy Woy club during its founding year.
His classification was Patent and Ethical Medicines. He would be a member of the club until the formation of the Umina Rotary Club in 1975-76.
At the time the Woy Woy Club was being formed, Ces Paul had already opened his first menswear retailing effort in front of the barber's shop in Ettalong.
Later he would play a role in Apex and be awarded a Paul Harris Fellowship in the Woy Woy Rotary Club.
He is most remembered for his contribution to the club's Fine Sessions which invariably began: "My good friend Bruce Judd ..." followed by a well-worn joke for which poor Bruce would be compelled to pay.
Bruce was a local pharmacist.
No doubt Ces believed he could afford the ribbing.
Sand dunes separated Ettalong from Umina then known as Ettalong Ocean Beach or Ocean Beach.
Gravel roads and sand tracks connected Umina and Ettalong to Woy Woy.
Woy Woy was a drop off point for people to catch the ferries to Saratoga and Davistown.
The local bus to Umina and Ettalong, it's said, would take a detour to pick up passengers.
The route was flexible.
It would be some time before local government identity and Woy Woy Rotary president Don Leggett would dub the place "The Peninsula".
Even though the area is not a peninsula, Don thought it seemed like a good way to link three different communities.
Despite early rejection in some quarters, the name stuck.
One lone road connected the Woy Woy area to the outside world.
Bulls Hill Rd wound up on to the escarpment to join the Pacific Highway above Gosford.
In 1923, Erina Shire President Cr CJ Staples, the Shire Engineer C J Fenton and Gosford resident VJ McKenzie had followed a rough track through the heavy timber and loose stones to bring the first car into Woy Woy, a Buick.
The issue of transport and access would dominate the community for the next 50 years.
In the late 40s and early 50s, housing material and houses were in short supply.
Timber frame, fibro asbestos houses with tiled roofs became standard new homes.
In Woy Woy, building supplies came into the area by rail and then trucked to building sites around the three villages.
Local builders framed houses. laid plumbing, hand-crafted windows, built kitchens and laid electricity in new homes going up among the older week-enders and retirees' homes.
Television had not yet arrived and the family wireless only received the ABC and a couple of Sydney commercial radio stations poorly.
Some people had no phone.
Those that did had to make operator-assisted calls to Sydney and Newcastle. There were no faxes.
The area had its own cordial and soft drink manufacturer, its own boot factory and ice manufacturer.
The classifications of the founding members of the Woy Woy Rotary Club say what sort of community it was:
Small Goods (Retail), Pharmacist, General Store, Hardware, Radio and Electrical Retail, Building Materials Retail, Plumber, Cordial Manufacturer, Men's Clothing, Grocery Retail, Sash and Joinery Manufacturer, Electrical Installation, Minister of Religion (C of E), Engineering, Wood and Coal Merchant, Automobile Retailing, Service Station, Garage Proprietor, Fish Retailing, Medical Practioner, Banking Private, Haberdashery, Real Estate Agent, Meat Distributing, Radio Technician
Bill gave you your loan for your house.
Bruce sold you the land.
George supplied the materials.
Charles built it.
Bill did the windows.
David put the plumbing in.
Phil did the electricity.
Alf sold you your car and Bruce serviced it.
You bought your clothes from Wallace and sheets from Bill.
Marc sold you the console radio in your lounge.
When you got sick you went to see Ben who gave you a script for Ron.
If that failed the Reverend Ros would bury you.
You had to live and work in the area.
The train to Sydney took more than two hours and it was always having trouble getting up the Cowan Hill.
The train was smelly, dirty, boiling and freezing depending on the weather and the wind.
***
Since 1924, there had been a Rotary Club at Gosford.
All the big businesses were in Gosford and the big businessmen dominated the club.
Rotary was all men in those days.
You had to be 40 years of age or older to be invited.
In some ways this made sense.
Forty year old men are probably better off and more able to devote time to Rotary while a younger man might be still trying to secure his future and his fortune and not be able to contribute as much.
They were ordinary suburban dads, usually successful local businessmen, trying to put something back into the community that had created their wealth - Learning about themselves and others, growing and changing with their community.
The bread-winner dad and home-maker mum were the people of Woy Woy 1950.
They served each other's needs to build their homes and community.
There had always been some dichotomy or even dispute between Gosford and Woy Woy, a feeling that somehow they were different communities with different aspirations.
People thought that in business, once you had outgrown Woy Woy, you had to go to Gosford.
This happened.
Some Woy Woy based members of the Gosford rotary Club wanted a club in Woy Woy.
Some thought Gosford Club a bit stuffy.
Anyway, it was a long way to go every week.
Few people had cars.
The one with the car picked up the others.
The trip meant a drag up to Kariong and then down to Gosford by a winding two-lane road in the dark and then home again afterwards.
You could either make sure you caught the train that left approximately every hour.
From Woy Woy Station, hoping you did not have to wait more than an hour and a half for a train back before walking or bicycling from the station to Orange Grove.
However, distance and transport problems notwithstanding, the people of Woy Woy got about.
Rod Radford would walk and cycle his way to Gosford for singing lessons.
He played a big role in "The Joymakers" a local theatrical and singing group.
To get to lessons, Rod would follow the railway line out of Woy Woy.
The Brisbane Water Drive had not yet been built.
He would follow roads through Tascot and Pt Claire until he went back to the railway line across the causeway into Gosford.
If he missed the train home, he took a reverse course.
***
In the 1950s no Rotary Club meeting or "Ladies' Night" would be complete without a sing-song.
Suitable recorded music and amplifiers were not available.
The music had to be live.
Sometimes it was just a single piano.
Sometimes it was a three-piece band of piano violin and drums.
Sometimes it was just ukulele.
Club president and local timber supplier Dick Campbell became the ukulele king of Woy Woy Club.
Whenever there was an outing or a get together, Dick and his ukulele were there along with the top tunes of the 1920s, 30s and 40s.
At the Rotary meetings of the 50s, there was always a sing-a-long.
The club had a number of pianists - Ron Coleman, Newman Silverstone and Dick Tressider.
Everybody would sing from the song sheet.
There were over 100 songs in the selection.
For ladies' nights there would be a musical artist, who was paid sometimes, or the members would provide the entertainment themselves.
Often local people would come into sing.
This stopped when the licensed clubs, who hired professional entertainers, frowned on amateur artists within the club.
Concerts were organised to raise funds.
The "Joy Makers", a local revue group of young people including Rotary's Rod Radford's Joy Makers, joined with Rotary to present shows.
They were held in different halls on the Peninsula and the halls were nearly always full.
Annona Pearse and Walter Pearson