The Shoalhaven Branch of the FAW has been in existence since September 1979.  Its first President was Joy Maclean, seen here in 1984 presenting a certificate to a young writer at the City Library.  The Secretary was Don Bostock and with a few dedicated members things began.  Meetings were held once a month at the Nowra Technical College.




As the club moved into the eighties numbers increased and a book was produced with stories from members of the group.  The meetings consisted of guest writers and set assignments.  There was an annual short story competition with a prize donated by Angus and Robertson in Nowra.  Other competitions were entered into such as the Senior Citizens Committee.  New members continued to come along and meetings were now held in the evenings at the Nowra Primary School.  Articles appeared in the local press about the club and the successes of its members this was no doubt helped along by the excellent, fun efforts of the Publicity Officer, Bill McKinnon.


As the nineties began the Short Story Competition continued now with the assistance of Dymocks - Nowra.  The picture here shows the winners from 1992.  Meetings shifted to the North Nowra Tavern and were held during the day on Fridays and another anthology was published called "Telling Tales".  Get togethers were also arranged between different writing groups in the region including Eurobodalla.  As the years continued the meetings were increased from once a month to twice to include more features for the members.  As before there was plenty of publicity in the local papers thanks to the new Publicity Officer, Irene WIlkie.  Another book was published called "Wild Birds Rising".


The new millennium saw the 21st birthday for the FAW Shoalhaven with meetings continuing on a Friday but now located at the library meeting room.  The President at that time was Norma Dawson and is seen here cutting the cake.  Competitions were still organised with the inauguration of the Lyrebird Short Story Competition.  A new book was published by the group members called "Midday the River" and in 2004 another entitled "Does a Lyrebird Fly".  The group also became involved with publishing books written by local young people.  The first one was called "Streets Echo" followed by "Freaky Fantasies and Fun" in 2003. 


In 2005 the annual short story competition became a major award with a money prize and a residency at Bundanon for the winner.  It was renamed the Shoalhaven Literary Award presented in conjunction with the Shoalhaven Arts Board.  The inaugural prize was won by Kathryn Lomer of Tasmania for her work "Kafka's House".  With the expansion of the club the venue was moved to the Arts Centre to accommodate the new members.  The club continues to progress with lively members who enjoy indulging in their mutual passion for writing.

2007 sees the publication of our latest collection of poetry, short stories and photographs entitled all this All this Life.  We also launched a new literary competition for a one act play.

In 2008 we had another exciting year of writing and growing our Regional.  In these days of difficulty for all community groups to find volunteers to run them we managed to remain viable.  Even the State FAW had its traumatic moments, but again were able to continue because people really believe in the principles of the organisation.  Now we look forward to celebrating our 30th Anniversary in 2009.

We learn from history that we learn nothing from history. George Bernard Shaw.