![The old Timber Truss Bridge across the Bega River in late 1975, supplied by a local resident after the release of Carp Street, Bega. Picture supplied. The old Timber Truss Bridge across the Bega River in late 1975, supplied by a local resident after the release of Carp Street, Bega. Picture supplied.](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/156570134/5ca7a071-817e-4299-adc1-67cbe570b3e1.jpg/r0_90_1612_996_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
Two historical societies have come together to publish an up-to-date history of Bega.
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The Bega Valley Historical Society and the South Coast History Society have produced two books tracing the history of the town as far back as 1851.
South Coast History Society's President Peter Lacey said the last detailed history of Bega had been published 80 years ago, and it was time for a more recent record of everything that had happened.
"Locals and visitors have always been - and still are - extremely interested in the town's history, so it's a real tragedy for Bega that a comprehensive history of the town has not been available for such a long time," Mr Lacey said.
He said the writing of a comprehensive history had been tricky because of the "80-year blackhole in Bega's history".
"[It] meant we've had no existing foundation upon which an updated history could be built, and essentially we've also had to go back and research and then document what has happened in the town over the past 100 years or so," he said.
The first history the Societies produced was an 86-page book, Fascinating Bega: the Anatomy of a Town, 1851 - 2023, which outlines how the town has developed into what it is today.
The second history - Carp Street, Bega - has now been released.
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"This is the story of the 'heart' of Bega, one that has changed enormously over the years, and is still constantly changing, and is the story of that part of town that everybody is most familiar with," Mr Lacey said.
Carp Street is 140 pages and includes 200 photographs of the town throughout the years.
Mr Lacey said Carp Street was only possible because of residents sharing their memories of the town throughout time, and the businesses and homeowners who were once there, but have since moved on.
He said the community support continued to grow. Since Carp Street, Bega has been available, more and more residents have been reaching out with anecdotes, information and photographs.
"For example, an engineer who worked on the construction of the current bridge across the Bega River (which, as the book reveals, is actually the third bridge to span the river) has sent us new photographs of the building of that bridge and the demolition of the bridge that it replaced, which has been absolutely fabulous," Mr Lacey said.
He is hoping more locals will continue to provide information and photographs to build upon the history.
Currently Carp Street, Bega is only available as a PDF file. It's free.
Copies are available on request by simply emailing 'Send Carp Street book' to southcoasthistory@yahoo.com
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