Easts Beach & Holiday Park history
Easts Beach is a Kiama icon and the scene of many fond holiday memories from people and families everywhere.
The Easts Beach Holiday Park started out as a dairy farm owned by Thomas and Elizabeth East. Thomas and Elizabeth arrived in Australia in 1841 and purchased their property, 'Prospect', in 1852. They had 12 children (6 boys and 6 girls), who all worked hard on the farm milking cows and selling butter. Multiple generations of the East family followed and continued to work the farm.
From as early as the 1890s, Kiama started to become a popular choice for holiday-makers attracted to the natural beauty of the area. By the late 1930s, tourists were starting to take an interest in the beautiful Easts Beach area, and had begun to ask Bruce East if they could set up camp on his property. Bruce was happy for the campers to stay on his farm, provided they were willing to share the space with the dairy cows. As the campers brought more and more friends and relatives each year, Bruce saw the opportunity available to his family and started to charge the campers to stay, and this is how the Easts Beach Caravan / Holiday Park started its life.
Bruce provided pit toilets and cold showers for the park in the early years and a field boiler for washing clothes, and the East family provided the campers with complimentary milk and butter from their farm.
Bruce married Bessie Fuller in 1940 and they had three sons. The Holiday Park continued to grow and it developed a great reputation for the natural beauty of Easts Beach, the facilities and the cleanliness of the park, and the hospitality of the East family towards their visitors.
The holiday park continues to be run by the East family today, and you can still spot the original family homestead on the hill to the south of the beach and dairy cows on the headland.
Photo from a Murray Views postcard c.1930s
Easts Beach camping grounds while it was still a working dairy farm c.1950s.
Easts Beach Holiday Park c.1963
Easts Beach & Holiday Park c.1982
