THE Coomba Park Progress Association celebrates 40 years of achievement and service this year.
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To mark the occasion a two-day exhibition was held last week.
This association is the longest running progress association in the Great Lakes Shire, having formed with only six people back in 1974.
The ‘we built a village’ pictorial exhibition was held at the Coomba Park community hall on Moorooba Road, Coomba Park on Thursday, April 17 and Friday, April 18 from 11am to 5pm, both days.
MANY HANDS MAKING LIGHT WORK: Locals clear the foreshore with the Coomba tractor.
ELECTRICITY SHOCK: The community of Coomba Park lobbies Shortland County Council successfully for electricity in 1975.
WHAT A SPOT: An aerial photo of the village of Coomba Park captured in 1992.
ROUNDING UP STUDENTS: The first school bus makes its rounds of Coomba Park in 1981.
IT’S ALL ABOUT THE KIDS: The original children’s play area on the Lakeside Reserve adjacent to the pool as it was in 2002.
WHERE THE WILDLIFE PLAYS: Coomba Park residents are happy to share their backyards with a host of native wildlife.
COMMUNITY HEART: The Coomba District Community Centre Hall is completed in 1987. In recent years it has been extended.
ELECTRICITY SHOCK: The community of Coomba Park lobbies Shortland County Council successfully for electricity in 1975.
THE WAY THINGS WERE: In 1972 communications were established with a ‘single-line’ telephone exchange at ‘Ellerslie’, supervised by Elsie Gogerley at Gogerley Hill. The ‘Gogerley Hill’ sign marks the site of the old exchange.
IDYLLIC: Residents at Coomba Park get up close and personal with the visiting wildlife.
SWIMMING SPOT: Dredging for the lake swimming pool is underway in 1985.
THE WHOLE MOB: In 1974, this photograph captured the entire population of Coomba Park, six of whom established the progress association, which is the longest serving progress association in the Great Lakes Shire. New members were lured in with a frozen chook and a book of raffle tickets
EARLY SETTLERS: Captured in 1972, this photograph of Dot and Steve Dorington in the garden of their home ‘Coomba Cottage’ opposite the lake was one of five homes existing in that year. Their daughter Vickii Simpson continues to work for the Progress Association, which is celebrating 40 years this weekend.