Ed Vormister was 101 when he gave this interview. He came to Wollongong as a boy in the 1920s and has early memories of the town. Ed has an extensive knowledge of the electrification of Wollongong and the work of his father, Charles Vormister, the first electrical engineer at Wollongong Council. Ed was involved in setting up substations around the city which are still used today. He sees his greatest achievement as the complex replacement of a transformer in Swan Street which prevented a major blackout. In the 1940s, Ed built a film projector at home and showed films in the garage to family and friends.
His projector is now at the National Film and Sound Archive. You can view a short video here:
https://www.nfsa.gov.au/collection/curated/eddie-vormisters-homemade-film-projector-2017
Listen to Ed’s Interview
[Part 1 – Ed and his father’s work with electricity]:
[Part 2 – Films and Wiseman Park]:
[Part 3 – Early memories, fundraising, and replacing the transformer]:
Ed’s Photo Album
P23361 – Installation of Linear Accelerator at Wollongong Hospital installation – 1990 
P23718 – Linear Accelerator, Wollongong Hospital Cancer Care – 1990 
P10738 – Ed’s father, Charles Vormister 
P01885 – Fairy Creek 
P05213 – Savoy Theatre 
P06448 – Central Substation 
P22216 – Church Street entrance to former Illawarra Electricity / Integral Energy Building 
P12137 – Wiseman Park, Gwynneville 
P13827 – Stewart Park 
P21538 – Illawarra County Council Depot, Coniston 
Ed Vormister outside his garage
Keywords
Fairy Creek – Stewart Park – Wiseman Park – Cancer Appeal – Savoy Theatre – Morris Jones – Charles Vormister – Swimming Pool – Transformer – Substation – Electrification – Linear Accelerator – Wollongong Hospital – Film Projector
Ed’s interview can be downloaded here: Part One, Part Two, and Part Three.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
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