Terry Forrest

Interviewed by Zoe Dobson on 16 October 2003
Subject: Second World War, Beauty Point

Zoe Dobson. A strong sense of community.

Terry Forrest. I think that has always existed in Mosman because of its boundaries are almost all water and I think that exists wherever there’s an enclave, but certainly Beauty Point had a wonderful spirit. That was brought about by the war bringing people close together, by the fact most people used public transport. During the war of course they all went up to the Stokes’ place on Beauty Point Road. All the women went up there to make nets and sew socks and balaclavas and so on, so the women were a good team of people.

The other thing about Beauty Point was having that baths, which was the so called Progress Association arrangement. That brought everybody together because at the beginning of summer they had a working bee. All the people turned up. Everybody turned up for the meeting and they all sat on the rocks and all the kids played and sand, and everybody got stuck into it with buckets, brooms, hammers etc, to fix up the path and we all swam down there. So I think that is probably the pity of destroying those sort of amenities. But you see it again. I went down to Balmoral Beach this morning and ran into three or four people whom I knew, who go for walks or whatever.