Club History

History

Since our founding on 23 April 1956, by Gary Lewis, age 19, we, have always been located in the Essendon/Moonee Ponds area. The first meeting of the club was in Gary’s parent’s home in Buckley St, Essendon – opposite the technical school with only four people in attendance. These four being, John Ackers, Gordon Adams, Frank and Marion Hayson. Following the meeting Gary wrote to the “Essendon Gazette” stating the evening had been a great success with approximately 50 people in attendance! The stuff dreams are made of!

Over the years we have been acknowledged as one of Melbourne’s foremost photographic clubs. Our members have also presented in competitions at state, through VAPS, national and international level, for more information on competitions see ‘Competitions and Exhibitions’. Since our inception, we have fared quite well, having around 50 members for many years. In 2016 we reached a peak membership of 162 members, making us the largest club affiliated with VAPS.

During the 1990’s, ECC has benefitted by the transfer of members following the closure of the TAA and Broadmeadows Camera Clubs.

Changes of Venue

It is not known how many meetings were held at any of the early venues for reasons which will become obvious further in this section, but meetings have been held at the following locations with dates provided where known.

Above a chemist shop, Puckle St., Moonee Ponds,

A Photography studio, Puckle St., Moonee Ponds,

Doutta Gala Hall in Royal Ave, Essendon North,

St Thomas’ Memorial Hall, Mt Alexander Rd, Moonee Ponds,

Essendon Community Centre, next door to the hall. Unfortunately, on 16 January 1978 this venue was gutted by fire, resulting in the loss of club records for the earlier years. Alex Murray, Ian Cust and Paul Robinson sifted through charred remains attempting to find club material, but to no avail.

St Thomas’ Memorial Hall, Mt Alexander Rd, Moonee Ponds, with the last meeting there on 23 January 2006,

Essendon Baptist Hall, 134 Buckley St Essendon, 13 February 2006 – 10 March 2008

Aberfeldie Baptist Church, 5 Price St, Essendon, 24 March 2008 – present day.

Meetings

In the early years of the club, competition nights were held on the 2nd Monday of the month, and comprised of ‘A’ and ‘B’ grade slides in ‘Open’ and ‘Set Subject’ categories. Slides were projected one at a time using a Waterworth manually operated projector onto a portable screen: there were no automatic projectors with magazines. At the time prints in black and white or colour were not a regular feature of the competition.

In addition to the monthly competition night, ‘Model Nights were held at the home of Alex Murray. On these nights members carried out black and with processing and printing as required between the monthly meetings. When the group grew too large for Alex’s home, the venue was changed to a church hall in Buckley St, Essendon, and members were charged an addition amount to cover the cost of the hall. It was some years before we established the 4th Monday of the month as an ‘Activity Night’ and commenced a regular print competition as part of the slide meeting on the 2nd Monday.

Our ECC meetings are held on the 4th Monday of January, then the 2nd and 4th Mondays of February to November, with the last meeting of the year held on the 2nd Monday of December. The meeting on the 2nd Monday is a ‘Competition’ night and the 4th Monday is a ‘Activity Night’. The December meeting is ECC’s end of year celebration and awards night.

Exhibitions and Competitions

Exhibitions

In 1973 ECC held its first and only ‘National Photographic Exhibition. The event was held in April at the Broadmeadows Town Hall, and was run in conjunction with the ‘Youth Exposition’. The exhibition was supported by ‘The City of Broadmeadows’, and the ‘Broadmeadows Jaycees’. Alex Murray was the exhibition chairman, and the judging panel consisted of J. Bilney, M. Carr, H. Cleveland, A. Hartup, F. Jarman, G. Lewis and L. Wilson. Statistics of the exhibition were: –

Black & White prints (3 sections) with a total of 457 entries and 169 acceptances.

Colour slides (4 sections) with a total of 1050 entries and 249 acceptances.

There was a total of 189 entrants, and

Principal awards went to Alex Murray, R.G. Bishop, M .Fitzhenry, Alan Hill and Ian Cust.

In October 2015, Carmen Caruana and Steve Sheddick had their estimable photographic exhibition, ‘Alchemy’, at the Gallery Voltaire in North Melbourne. There was also a major display of members’ works at The Incinerator Gallery in Holmes Road, Moonee Ponds.

“Interdia Exhibition” Hungary – In 1979 ECC entered the and was successful in having our entry selected in the top 10, each member who participated received a certificate of acceptance. Entries were also submitted in this exhibition in 1981 and 1983, but without success.

Competitions

VAPS – ECC has been very successful in this annual inter-club competition over many years, having collected trophies and awards – a great ride. When a separate ‘colour print’ competition was introduced, ECC was the top club for each of the three years it was running – we bstill hold the trophy as that specific competition has been discontinued.

In addition to entering the statewide competition organised by ASPS each year, ECC also competes in friendly competition with the following clubs.

Interclub

Rosanna

This competition was proposed in March 2003 by Rosanna Camera Club as an annual competition between the two clubs. The inaugural competition was held 23 June 2003, and the trophy awarded for the club with the winning image is The Gary Lewis Trophy in honour of ECC’s founder and long-term member of Rosanna Camera Club. It continues in 2024.

Geelong

This competition started in 1983, and in 1997 it was a draw. It continues in 2024.

Southern Suburbs Photographic Society

This competition began in 1973, and continues in 2024.

Other interclub competitions have been held between us and the following clubs.

Nambour Camera Club (Queensland 1985 -1997)

Cheltenham Camera Club 1987-1991 for the Reg Cortrill Trophy, at this time Cheltenham Camera Club closed down.

Ivanhoe Photographic Society began in 1983 and later combined with Rosanna Camera Club in a 3-way competition. After the 2024 competition, Ivanhoe withdrew from our 3-way interclub competition.

Awards

Each year ECC presents a number of awards to members to celebrate their achievements throughout the year in both print and DPI categories. The awards include Club Awards, and Sponsored Awards, the details of these are set out in the document titled ‘End-of-Year-Competition-Summary-2023’.

VAPS long-service medals were achieved by Jean Hoffricther, Leo McGuire, Allen Hilton, lan Cust, Clem DeSilva, and so on.

Other Activities

In addition to the two monthly meetings, ECC has organised many activities during its lifetime. These have included a car-rally, won by Kate Fletcher, a visit to Werribee Mansion, and many trips to scenic and historic places1. These events are designed to allow members to try out new techniques and learn from each other. They also provide the opportunity for building friendships and companionship based around the common interest of photography.

In the early 1990’s ECC was invited by the Essendon Council to participate in the annual Essendon Festival (now called the Moonee Valley Festival), which is held in Queens Park. We have continued to participate and use this as an opportunity to exhibit our members’ prints, thus advertising our club. At this event we take the opportunity to advertise the annual photography course by handing out leaflets, or more recently presenting a QR code for people to scan for more information. This is a great public relations exercise for our club.

Introduction to Photography Course

ECC club members have provided a very valuable service to the community since 1974 when some members volunteered to run an “Introduction to Photography” course. This has been run each year (except 2023), with up to 40 budding photographers at each course. Until around 2008, the 10-week course dealt with film and slide photography. The first students in the course were charged $10.00 for the 10-week duration. For many years, the course was run by long-standing club members Alex Murray, Ian Cust, Neil Ross and Mick Spillane (till 1998). With the advent of digital photography, Brian Basham reformulated the course to incorporate digital photography.

In 2022-23 the course was again re-written to incorporate digital images, with film and slide deleted from the syllabus. Due to this re-write, the course was not run in 2023 and has been reduced in duration to 6-weeks. Now, in 2024, Matthew Wings is course co-ordinator, and is ably supported by other club members. During the running of the course, members who have assisted in its running have found they also broadened their knowledge of photography.

This has been and continues to be, an important part of our club history, and it has benefitted the club with participants joining the club on the completion of the course.

Executive Committee

In our formative years Gary worked in the dual role of President and Secretary. The first elected President was the late Gordon Adams, and the first elected Secretary was Gary Lewis. Over the years, ECC has been faithfully served by a number of members who have been enthusiastic and generous enough to offer their service for the benefit of the club.

Alex Murray, who joined ECC in 1957, has the record of being the longest serving President, holding the office for 21 years until his death. The second Secretary, Ian Cust, is the longest serving executive with 36 years of service. The first club Newsletter was published in 1966 and edited by Mick Spillane. It was and printed on using a ‘split duplicator’, printing of subsequent editions was on an ink duplicator. Production involved volunteer typists cutting wax stencils from the editors’ copy, duplication was then carried out on a hand-operated duplicator – this was very messy compared with later methods. The projector at the time was also a manual single feed Waterworth.

The table below contains only those who have served in the positions given since 2013-14. A complete list office of bearers in ECC is also available for the positions shown in the table.

Year	President	Secretary	Treasurer
2013-14	Alex van Harmelen	Brian Basham	Allan Hines
2014-15	Alex van Harmelen	Alan Wilson	Kate Fletcher
2015-16	Alex van Harmelen	Alan Wilson	Kate Fletcher
2016-17	Carmen Caruana	Alan Wilson	Kate Fletcher
2017-18	Robyn Wannan	Alan Wilson	lneke Struk
2018-19	Robyn Wannan	Alan Wilson	Ineke Struk
2019-20	Boris Struk	Alan Wilson	Ineke Struk
2020-21	Boris Struk	Alan Wilson	Sue Newton
2021-22	Boris Struk	Alan Wilson	Sue Newton
2022-23	Boris Struk	Alan Wilson	Sue Newton
2023-24	Carmen Caruana	Alan Wilson	Sue Newton
2024-25	Carmen Caruana	Alan Wilson	Sue Newton

In addition to those mentioned above there have been many others who have freely given their time and abilities to ensure the success of the club. They have made a valuable contribution to fostering photography within the club, as well as the wider photographic movement. They have also served as Webmaster, Vice President, Course Coordinator, Competition Secretary for intraclub and interclub competitions, Catering and Stores, and other positions.

Life Members

In recognition for their service to ECC, many long-time members have been granted ‘life membership of our club. Theses life members of ECC are our founder, Gary Lewis, Alex F.S. Murray, Gordon Adams, Ray Mansfield, Ian Cust (1973), Neil Ross (1983), Mick Spillane (1983), Ian Forrest (1991), Loris Peggie (1994), Kevin Phelan (1994), David Oldfield (1995), Martin Greenwood (2005), Margaret Greenwood (1995), Jenny Colson (2005), Les Synott (2011), Alan Wilson (2016), Tom Kress (2019), Douglas Golob (2023), Neil Anderton (2024).

Information on these, and other faithful members of our club can be found in the document titled ‘Prominent Members’.

In Memoriam

Over the years, some of our club stalwarts have inevitably died. Gary Lewis, was taken from us in 2002; in ECC 2017, ECC lost Ian Cust, who was club secretary for 36 years and a wonderful photographer. Neil Ross, a man of many talents, and club trophy-maker passed away in December 2017. Lorna Pearce, Barbara Dunton and Victor da Costa have also passed on.

Overall, we have had an interesting history, and with the support and assistance from our members we will continue to prosper.