Aussiemaid Cafe at 33 West Coast Drive

The below story was entered with this photograph into the 2018 History and Heritage Awards.

15th July 1984, 9pm at Bosun's Locker/Aussie Maid Cafe, Watermans Bay. It was a rainy winter's night and Brian McMahon and I were doing the yearly stock-take. The shop door flew open and a figure, with black balaclava covering his face and holding a loaded spear gun, rushed in. He thought Brian was on his own and pointing the gun at him shouted 'give me the money'. I screamed, and Brian began throwing biscuits while shouting to me hit the deck. The gunman, startled, swung round to me. Mesmerized at the gun aimed one metre from my stomach I made what I thought was a painfully slow descent. Later I was told I dropped to the ground in the blink of an eye. Startled, the would-be robber turned and disappeared into the night. Brian leapt over the counter and began in pursuit shouting 'call the police'; he then also disappeared into the night. Stunned, I picked up the phone and dialled 999 (English childhood). I realised what I had done and dialled 000. When the operator answered, my tongue and lips wouldn't work but she got the gist, and the police were on their way. My legs began to wobble, and Brian staggered back puffing at his sudden exercise. Within minutes the police arrived to take our statements. They relayed our information to headquarters and received a call saying the bandit had been caught. A plain clothed policeman had been waiting for the patrons of The Castle Hotel (Flora Terrace) to stagger out at 10 pm, closing time. He received a radio message about the robbery and when he saw a young man running to his car, he became interested. He asked to look in the car boot and found more spear-guns. Caught!  Meanwhile, Brian and I locked the shop, stopped at the White Sands Hotel on the way home and downed 3-4 scotches each. The young man was offered free counsel and legal advice; no counselling offered to me I just had to soldier on. Please note: I was the proprietor of Aussie Maid but authorities would only address the main man working in the shop. I was there and almost shot on the night of the attempted robbery, but the apology was sent to Mr Brian McMahon.