The Watsons Bay & Vaucluse Social History Group launches website

The Watsons Bay & Vaucluse Social History Group is very pleased to announce the launch of their website www.wbvshg.org

The need for this site became a necessity after all 250 printed copies of the book THE WAY WE WERE: Stories of Watsons Bay & Vaucluse had been distributed and there was considerable ongoing interest in people wanting additional copies.

Fortunately, last year the Group was able to secure additional funding from the Australian Government, Community Grants Hub to develop a standalone website. This Site freely allows anyone to download the entire book THE WAY WE WERE or just individual chapters, as well as being able to read the book on-line. Furthermore, anyone can also upload their own local stories and pictures to the Group for consideration and afterwards this material will appear on the Site to be viewed and shared by all. Although the Site is not linked to any social media, it does have links to a number of other websites with similar content and interest.

The Watsons Bay & Vaucluse Social History Group was formed about ten years ago with the objective to produce a book, from oral history interviews, recording the fascinating past of the Watsons Bay and Vaucluse area.

THE WAY WE WERE tells the stor ies of m ultiple generations of families who have lived in and loved the area. Families remembered when Watsons Bay was a sleepy little fishing village and the suburb of Vaucluse was being developed for housing, through two world wars and up to the present time.

There are glimpses of historical events such as the Greycliffe Ferry Disaster in 1927 and the effects of WWII on the local community.

The book also covers interg ene rational recollections of neighborhood activities, architecture and real estate, local identities and childhood adventures.

The Committee members took seven years to progressively record 40 individual oral histories which were at the time put on CDs then transcribed and collated. Additional verbal and written contributions are also included from a number of other people.

Multiple funding s to publish THE WAY WE WERE, were gratefully received from Woollahra Municipal Council and The Royal Australian Historical Society.

The book was finally launched i n 2020 by Councillor Susan Wynne, the Mayor of Woollahra. This was in the middle of Covid but the launch still managed to have a good attendance at this presentation which was held at St Peters Anglican Church Hall in Watsons Bay.

The cu rrent active Com mittee is small and they would like to invite others with a similar interest in social history to join the Group with fresh new ideas. If anyone is interested in joining the Watsons Bay & Vaucluse Social History Group, please check out the site and send an email expressing interest to info@wbvshg.org

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