PEG’s story began in 1988 when a Bicentennial project restored the old St Luke’s church, the oldest building on the Peninsula, as the Woy Woy Environment Centre (WWEC). The work was partly funded by Spike Milligan. The building was moved from its original location in Orange Grove to its current location on Blackwall Rd and Billabong St.
A volunteer group, the Friends of Woy Woy Environment Centre, was set up to manage the centre, which was owned by Council. The key figures were Allen and Beryl Strom (pictured below).
The hall was an active information centre, open most days. In pre-internet days, volunteers provided local environmental information and kept press cuttings on environmental issues, as well as holding meetings and talks. A Gosford Council environmental officer was based at the centre two days a week, providing planning information.
After the deaths of Allen Strom in 1997 and Beryl Strom in 2003, and with the internet making information easier to find, the centre became less active.
Around 2006-07 a new “generation” (including Mark Mann, Zainem Ibrahim, Mark Snell, Grant Focas, Gemma Garner, Cheryl Walker, Joachim Muller, Ian Garradd and others) revived the group, in 2008 setting up the Peninsula Environment Group (PEG) as an incorporated non-profit association. With a Gosford Council grant, PEG refurbished the hall and landscaped the grounds with local plants. In 2018, Gosford (now Central Coast) Council took over managing the hall.
PEG began by holding meetings and talks but has gradually shifted to running “projects” to facilitate sustainable living, starting with the PEG Food Network, a member-run cooperative ordering organic/chemical-free food.
In 2008 and 2009, PEG held annual Sustainable Living Days at the centre. This led to the larger Woytopia sustainable living festival, now held every second year.
In 2011 PEG established the Woy Woy Peninsula Community Garden in Moana Street, a project initiated by Jill Meredith then driven by Tania Haydn and Julie Gilbody. In 2024, the Garden left PEG to become a separate organisation.
In 2016, PEG set up the PEG Nature Play Group, a Facebook group for parents/carers with pre-school children to arrange nature-based get-togethers.
In 2021, GUST (Grow Urban Shade Trees), a local group focused on tree planting on the Peninsula, joined PEG. In 2024, the Everglades Lagoon Wetlands bushcare group joined PEG.
Each of these projects runs separately, while PEG provides oversight, advice and a legal entity for banking, insurance, accounts, grant applications, etc.
We are always looking for new projects, and new members.
PEG has also run one-off projects including a bulk purchase of solar panels for 60 households in 2011, and Rolling, a project to encourage cycling, in 2014-15.