This trophy was awarded to Swansea-Caves Beach Surf Life Saving Club members who won marathon boat races between 1966 and 1968. The club, now known as Caves Beach Surf Life Saving Club, has a proud history in this gruelling and demanding surf sport category. In the mid-1900s, marathon surfboat races were considered an ultimate test […]
Posing for this photograph one day in the 1970s, the senior surf boat crew of the Caves Beach Surf Lifesaving Club were wearing their Speedo swimming briefs – a far cry from the heavy woollen bathers worn in earlier decades. Still, the club’s signature colours of maroon and white remained. They had much to celebrate […]
In late March 1947, a young Ken Ross (at the far left of this photograph) stood proud with his lifesaver mates in front of their winning surf boat. These were the Caves Beach boys who had taken out the Junior Surf Boat Championship at the recent Surf Lifesaving Australia Carnival at Bondi Beach. It was […]
As these men posed on Caves Beach, on the peninsula between Lake Macquarie and the Pacific Ocean, it’s tempting to imagine that the photographer might have yelled out a request such as, ‘C’mon boys, smile for the camera!’. The two jovial lifesavers at the left responded, but the three men on the right just squinted […]
The changing face of surf life saving is, in no small part, due to the ever-evolving inclusion of juniors. This pennant was won by the junior boat crew of Caves Beach Surf Life Saving Club (SLSC) at a 1961 surf life saving carnival. This competition was held by their ‘sister club,’ Swansea-Belmont SLSC, with both […]
Ken Murray, the Sweep, stood well balanced at the stern, steering the boat, while his crewmates braced themselves as they battled the breakers, amid foaming surf and salty spray. The senior boat crew from Caves Beach Lifesaving Club were all smiles that day in 1961 when a photographer perched at the surf boat’s bow to […]
It was a windy day in mid-March 1960 and an enormous crowd of nearly 20,000 people lined the sand dunes at Merewether Beach to witness the Australian Surf Lifesaving Championships. The Caves Beach junior surf boat crew had a strong reputation to uphold, since juniors from their club had taken out the championship several times […]
Much can be learned about the 1863 ‘Geelong and Western Districts Hunt Club Cup’ through the punters alone: ‘The gentleman about the Bay View Hotel had either no opinions to back, no money to back them with, or no pluck to invest in it.’ Made by William Edwards, this silver claret jug would be the […]
The proverb ‘necessity is the mother of invention’ is possibly never more apt than when applied to the portable mine gas detector. Throughout mining history, countless miners have lost their lives in explosions caused by the inflammable methane gas that accumulates underground through the transformation of ancient plant material into coal. But from the 1950s, […]
At this point, the history of Newcastle, located on Awabakal and Worimi country, is enmeshed with coal mining – but this was not always the case. Though these twentieth-century drills bits may have seen use in one of the many coal mines in the region, they are actually typical of those used for woodworking or […]