Memories of Peggy Edwards, nee Latham, resident of Swansea Heads from 1931

as relayed to her son Barry Latham in 2023

The first pilot master to live on Flagstaff Hill in the original pilot master's house was Mr Boyd and family then came Mr Wilson and family.

At the centre of the picture is Sidney and Ada Edwards home, the first to arrive at the heads to claim land by possessive occupancy.

The first building top right of the picture on the water is the pilot master's boat shed; the boats would be winched up out of the water on high tide on railway tracks and a trolley for repairs.

The little cottage.near the boat shed was the home of the next person to arrive at the heads Mr Gerry Blacklock. Both Sid (Edwards) and Gerry traveled from Wallsend on horse and cart. They were both retired men and on arriving both homes became holiday homes for family. On his passing in 1960, Gerrys house became the home of Lucy and Tony Kealy for whom Lucy's Wall is named.

Most of the homes at Swansea Heads were holiday homes, just a few permanents starting with the cottages facing the breackwater at top right of picture.

• First house was owned by the Pond family, subsequently owned by Mr & Mrs Bird
• Second house owned by Fenwick family
• Third house owned by Ray family
• Fourth house belonged to Cullip family
• Fifth house was owned by Lewis family
• A dividing road and vacant block is next
• Sixth house owned by Jack and Gwen Edwards
• Seventh house also owned by the Lewis family

Homes facing the hill starting at the right of the picture are as follows

• First house belonged to Nesbit family
• Second house belonged to Corrigan family
• Third house belonged to Harvey family
• Fourth house belonged to Vi and Oscar Edwards (shown as vacant block in picture)
• Fifth house belonged to Jim and Ethel May (Peg) Edwards
• A dividing road is next
• Sixth house belonged toTom and Ruby Taft
• Seventh house belonged to Muffey and Ellen Bell
• Eighth house belonged to Mr and Mrs Fitz
• Ninth House belonged to the McDonald family

The little house nestled near the hill Harry Mitchell and his partner Dorothy (Dot)

The island in the picture my mother only remembers is called Green island because of a green growth that covered it. She has no idea why people started to call it moon island.

This work by Lake Macquarie City Library is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License