In the early 1950’s, a number of Albury Camera Club members resided in Wodonga, some four miles away (Post Office to Post Office) from Albury. The tale is told that only one of the Wodonga members at that time owned a car. As all of the Wodonga members of the Albury CC could not fit into one car, all could not attend meetings.
In early 1953, after some thought, Tom Willoughby, Ron Smallpage and others thought that a Wodonga based camera club might be a solution to the problem of not always being able to attend meetings in Albury. Messrs Willoughby and Smallpage called for a public meeting to gauge interest in the formation of a camera club in Wodonga.
The meeting was well attended and interest was sufficient that plans were made to continue with the formation of a club.
Tom Willoughby was nominated and elected as President, Ron Smallpage as Vice President and A.W. ‘Dick’ Smith as Secretary.
The constitution of the Wodonga Camera Club was written and adopted on 5th February 1953.
In June 1953, a parade was held to celebrate the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II. Only a couple of months after forming, the Wodonga CC decided to enter a float in the Coronation Parade and duly won the Most Humorous Float Award, for its depiction of a huge folding camera on wheels
Several significant events accompanied the clubs 50th birthday:
1. An exhibition of current and former members photographs at the Albury Regional Art Gallery. This was entitled ‘Here and Now’ ran from the 17th January – 16th February 2003. Twenty-nine photographers took part in this exhibition of recent photography.
2. An exhibition of historical club items and photographs as well as a collection of photographic equipment used throughout the period 1953 – 2003 was held at the Albury Regional Museum in February/March 2003. This exhibition of equipment was extremely relevant at a time when digital photography was starting to overtake film photography as the medium of choice for photographers.
The exhibition was entitled ‘Time Exposure: Fifty years of the Wodonga Albury Camera Club and was largely curated by club member Paul Temple with the assistance of museum personnel.
3. An Anniversary Dinner was held on the 5th February 2003 (the actual anniversary of the first meeting) at Elgin’s Hotel in Wodonga. This dinner was attended by current members as well as several founding members of the club.
In association with the Albury Show Society, the club ran a national photographic competition between the years of 1964 and 1974 inclusive. The dedication of the competition committee is to be admired. Eventually helpers were too few to cope with the rigors of running a national competition and1976 saw the end of this event. There was also an Albury National in 1947, but this was run by the Albury Camera Club of NSW.
Conventions
1. The Wodonga Albury CC has hosted the annual VAPS convention on several occasions – 1964,
1973 and 2006.
2. The WACC has hosted The Australian Photographic Society APSCON Convention on two occasions – 1974 (Wodonga) and 2007 (Albury).
The 1973 APSCON was of particular note as it was the first to be held outside a capital city and was a large gamble on behalf of the APS committee at the time. The convention proved to be very successful and is now often held in rural areas.