This year we are celebrating AIDA’s fiftieth birthday, which marks half a century of commitment and hard work by many people. To honour and record these endeavours, we have consolidated and catalogued our archives.
The precise date of the foundation is unclear, which is not unusual in organisation like ours. We know that the Aireys Inlet Progress Association became the Aireys Inlet Community Association in 1967 and finally the Aireys Inlet and District Association in 1972. The original prompt to form an association was most likely a proposal to establish a camping ground along the lower reaches of the Painkalac Creek estuary, downstream(!) from the bridge. Thanks to Brian Williams, we have a copy of the flyer calling a meeting about the proposed development. That was in August 1966, but there is also a suggestion that the association under Ian Noble’s leadership began in May 1965 and, unless we have members with clearer records or memories than ours, we will celebrate the jubilee in May 2015. Please let us know if you have further information! As a lead up to this date, attendees at our 2015 AGM on April 11th had the opportunity to preview a marvellous collection of “then and now” photographs of our district and viewed a time line of AIDA’s activities and achievements over the past 50 years. This display will be exhibited again at a 50th Anniversary event at the Aireys Pub on Sunday 1st November 2015.
This is also an invitation to all members of AIDA and the wider community to submit any photos, articles or information you may have for a jubilee edition of the newsletter to celebrate AIDA’s fiftieth anniversary. Please let us know whether we may use the photos for display and in our newsletter, and whether we may scan them for our archives. We will protect them and return them in original condition.
Peter McPhee