Hi, well what an odd question?
I learnt to swim a Cook Park and it is not at Brighton Le Sands, but between Ramsgate and Dolls Point. I wasn't around in the Great Depression but my parents sure were. They married in 1932 and went to stay with friends at Ramsgate the weekend of their wedding, such was their Honeymoon.
My father told me of the camp set up there, mostly single blokes with no job and too much time on their hands, sly grog, fights and all night sessions by what he termed "no hopers" There were some families really down on their luck and no prospect of a job.
A soup kitchen was run by the combined churches and gave some sustenance, but remember most of those there had been chucked out by their familes, The women; they went back to mum & dads so the kids could be fed and the husband was left at a loose end.
Using the dole for grog and gambling became the pastime as well as organised bare knuckle fights for a purse. The Police mainly stayed away, I have somewhere, photo's from the 50's of our family at Dolls Point and Cook Park, but not the depression years.
Either Kogarah Council or Rockdale Council may have some that area, it has changed several council boundaries over the years since Joseph Banks waded along its shoreline. There are active family history groups in both area's.
Neil
