Residents filled the room and spilled out into the adjacent foyer for the Yanchep Two Rocks Recreation Association’s Yaps and Yarns Night beside the large fireplace.
President Pamela Williamson initiated the event to record stories about the early settlement and development of the area.
Long-time Yanchep resident Ray Krakouer said he would share stories from last century about seamen, crayfishing, farming and interesting personalities.
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READ NOW‘There’s a lot of personalities,’ Mr Krakouer said.
‘There are tremendous stories here that have never been told.
‘(For example) when they discovered the Gilt Dragon (wreck) at Ledge Point, this room on an evening was full of blokes with pockets full of silver.’
Stan Daley, who inspired the event with his stories at a volunteer breakfast, said he would talk about Yanchep’s early days and the opening of Yanchep National Park.
‘I was about a week old when I came out here,’ Mr Daley said.
‘We had our house down at the end of the lake. The airforce took all this over in about ’43 or ’44 so we had to move out.’
Mr Daley said his family moved to Fremantle but he and his wife Ruby returned to Yanchep in the late 1980s and he retired soon after.
Ted Dowling also prepared to speak at the event, with stories about the blessing of the fleet, developing a maritime museum in Two Rocks and developing a performing arts program for children through Atlantis Productions and the Little Mermaid Theatre.
Gina Gwilliam said her father was one of the first cray fishers in the area ‘before there were any houses’.
‘In the 1950s they lived at Fisherman’s Hollow in a tin hut and used to cray fish out of Yanchep,’ she said.