Pittwater Life March 2017 Issue

Times Past
Dance hall
days of early
Palladium
Over its 85 years the
‘Palladium’ at 16
Ocean Road, Palm
Beach has been many things
to many people – locals and
visitors alike.
It appears to have been
built as a dance hall and
especially used by (and for
the benefit of) the early
years of the Palm Beach Surf
Life Saving Club. This is
confirmed by a ‘jotting’ in
the social pages of The Sun
in December 1932:
“The Palm Beach Surf
Life Saving Club will hold
their usual bright dance on
Boxing Night and New Year’s
Eve at the ‘Palladium’, the
fine new dance hall on the
beach front, instead of the
little store, as in previous
years…”
(The ‘little store’ referred
to was ‘The Rendezvous’
which featured in our
February issue.)
The Boxing Night dance
attracted 300 people, some
of whom had travelled from
the city for the occasion.
Apparently numbers were
boosted by many guests
attending from the large
number of ‘house parties’
held locally.
When local, Mavis Crowley
(nee Hillier) and a sister
(there were 10 siblings)
arrived at Palm Beach from
Cootamundra in 1926
she recalled there was no
electricity. In 1933 the whole
family made the trek over
the saddle (from their house
next to Barrenjoey House)
via Palm Beach Road to take
part in the celebration of the
connection of electricity to
Palm Beach by Councillor
Hitchcock in the ‘Palladium’.
Apparently Councillor
Hitchcock stood up and
began his address with “In
this ‘ere ‘all” when a cheeky
local retaliated with “all
what?”. Mavis noted that
Hitchcock was “a real old
country fellow from up the
Hawkesbury”.
She also recalled: “The
Palladium was the local dance
hall right up to when the war
got going… we used to go
around there and dance to a
3-piece orchestra with people
who came from Narrabeen.”
Although Anglican Church
services at Palm Beach were
first held in 1933 at the home
of Mr Goddard, they were
later moved to the Palladium
where still later, Sunday
School was conducted by
Mrs Barr, with four to five
children attending initially.
By the 1950s the left-hand
side of the building had
become the Dining Room and
the right-hand side the Milk
Bar, selling take-away food.
In later years the large
awning with the word
‘restaurant’ on it had been
removed, the centre door
replaced with glass and the
narrow ‘window box’ planter
had been extended from the
dining room entrance to the
northern end of the building.
Two windows were installed
above the old awning to
provide light for an upper loft.
In more recent years it
has served as a film studio
and still more recently as a
private residence.
TIMES PAST is supplied by local
historian and President of the Avalon Beach
Historical Society GEOFF SEARL. Visit the Society’s
showroom in Bowling Green Lane, Avalon Beach.
MARCH 2017 53
Times Past