Joe’s Milk Bar was nothing to look at. Badly in need of a paint job and covered in old advertising signs, it was nevertheless THE place to meet in Cronulla for generations of kids.
When they were young they purchased their toffee apples and ice blocks there and as they got older they just hung around on the grass outside or played the pinballs.
There is no grass there anymore and the site now occupied by SeaLevel restaurant was almost close enough to the water to require it’s own mooring. Built in 1924 by John Dodson, it was named the Whitby Cliffs Tea Rooms after the town where Captain James Cook spent his boyhood.
When Joe & Norma Santamaria acquired it can’t be confirmed. A couple of possible stories are:
- In 1945 Joe operated a fruit barrow at Central Railway. It is sayid that he backed the daily double of Blue Legend and Cordale and purchased the business with the winnings.
- Norma acquired it in the early 1950 form the receipts of a family estate.
They did however rename it the Bluedale Cafe and continued to operate it as a tea room with sit-down service.
With the arrival of the 60’s surfing craze, Joe’s which was located on the Alley became a major hangout for surfers. Some of the older locals talk about fights between Rocker and Sharpies and one in particular which took place in the Milk Bar and remember Joe must have been reasonably tough to have handled the situation. They also remember that he was not very warm towards kids, although he seemed to like them better as they got older. In his later years, he was made a patron of the Cronulla Boardriders Club.
In the early 1990’s Joe had a stroke and went into assisted care. Norma continued to live in the flat above the milk bar till her death in 1994 and Joe died after an operation in 1995. The negotiations to purchase the property by the person who built SeaLevel was said to have taken 12 years and it is understood from reports in local papers that once he got to know him, he found Joe to be a funny guy with a quirky sense of humour while still being a lovely and enduring person.
It is believed that Joe spent his leisure time in the Workers Club which was next door and that he was a hoarder and never threw anything out. Everything was said to be there when the property was sold and included ancient pinball machines, advertising signs and even a soda fountain. In June 1994 a fire destroyed most of the interior and this in turn started the gradual disappearance of the “old” Cronulla.
The use of spoilers:
The introduction of Social media to showcase caching activities is now starting to expand and I can see that over a period of time, more people will get involved and showcase their activities through this medium.
I believe that it takes away the experience that Geocaching offers. Tat for every person undertaking a cache hunt, it should be like they are the first to discover it. It is as much about the journey of finding the cache (working out the puzzle, thinking about where a cache might be hidden etc) as it is about finding the cache and racking up the numbers. Geocaching can take you to some beautiful and completely unexpected places. If someone has seen it on a Social media site, then the experience will no longer be a new experience.
It has been the reason why many people who have hidden caches check their logs regularly and remove spoiler images or logs. Geocaching is a controlled environment where the ownership and presentation is in the hands of the cache owner. The use of social media takes the ownership away from the cache owner and places it in the control of those working to discover the cache and present a story on an external medium. Once it has been presented on Social media, there is nothing a cache owner can do to remove it.
Geocaching is a game that everyone plays in their own way. The way Geocaching is set up means that every time a person finds a cache it is a new experience for them because they find it themselves and comment on their experience as a new finder, hopefully without a spoiler. After viewing a few spoiler reports on Social media and having to take action to remove spoiler activity presented in logs through Geocaching lately, I am requesting that this cache is not used for a Social media presentation. Please respect my request.