Local History: Hiding In Plain Sight

Savouring little bites of the history around you can be rewarding

Friends, last year my new hobby began to get expensive.

I joined my local history society. That didn’t break the bank, but around the same time I signed up to three other historical and genealogical societies and subscribed to a family history magazine. This year I bought some genealogy software and of course I had to get Ancestry after that. Luckily the major library memberships are free and offer fantastic databases, but I usually become a ‘friend’ of these organisations to show support. You may know the story of my obsession with auction websites and CDV photos. And now, well, my expenses are out of control.

I joined all these groups to learn and gain access to wonderful resources, but I quickly realised it wasn’t enough just to gain digital access. We do some much remotely. So then I started signing up for in-person events. After a recent talk at my local history society, located within the public library, we all decamped for tea and cake in the society’s quarters. I took in my new surroundings. It was a miniature museum of our locality, crammed with books, magazines and files but also donations of paintings, costumes, photographs, ephemera (and much more) all beautifully preserved and professionally catalogued.

In the mid 1800s a leisure-based culture took hold as entrepreneurs tried to mimic British seaside traditions and sought to build amusement facilities for working people. The Coogee Palace Aquarium in Sydney, Australia opened in December 1887 where it remained a major oceanside attraction for a quarter of a century.

The Coogee Palace Aquarium from the Australian Town and Country Journal, 21 January 1888 ©State Library of NSW

Coogee Aquarium late 1800’s ©State Library of NSW

The aquarium had a fabulous history most infamously for an enduring modern mystery, the Shark Arm murder of 1935.

Here’s the interior of the swimming baths located in the aquarium complex when it was used for humans.

After the aquarium’s heyday, the building was renovated and rebuilt over the decades. It has an iconic dome which collapsed in the 1980s after a storm. Here’s the aquarium now. It’s owned by a major restaurant group and known as the Coogee Pavilion.

©Dominic Kurniawan Suryaputra, Unsplash

In the home of the Randwick & District Historical Society I was shown two stained glass panels which once graced the original aquarium building right beneath the dome. I love the angry expressions of the fish. They are supposed to be dolphins. Am I reading too much into their expression?

Stained Glass windows ©Ashley Kingston

The society had another gem of the hundreds on display. A cast iron dolphin lamp base from the late 19th/early 20th Century. In its time, the lamps lit up the beach and promenade at night, not far from the aquarium. The dolphin lamps were positioned at intervals along the stone wall of Coogee Beach, Sydney.

The society was gifted one of the dolphin lamp bases which was discovered in a junk yard.

Dolphin lamp base (left) ©John Langford, Rescued lamp base (right) ©Jane Hutcheon

Wherever you are, happy treasure-seeking. And thanks to Hazel Brombey, Geoff Martin and Ashley Kingston for helping me during my afternoon visit to the Randwick District & Historical Society.