The essence of an event that began more than 50 years ago in the surf culture of Blacksmiths lives on in memory and annual reunions.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Photographs of the event - originally known as Dozen Day - featured last week as part of Lake Macquarie's History Illuminated Festival.
Suggestions that the event was "banned due to complaints about drunkenness, vulgarity and nudity" annoyed the original organisers, who said there was a lot more to the story.
Kenny Hicks, of Blacksmiths, said the idea for the event started in 1969.
"We were sitting around at the old Mawson Hotel at Caves Beach having a counter lunch one day," Mr Hicks said.
Someone noticed it was 12pm on the 12th day of the 12th month. And there were 12 people in the group.
The group, which was linked to Nine Mile Boardriders Club, vowed to meet in the same place at the same time the following year.
The group called themselves "The Dozen", which was also a nod to The Dirty Dozen, a war movie released in 1967.
Each member of the group was given a number from one to 12, based on the length of their hair.
"Whoever had the longest hair was number one in the dozen," Mr Hicks said.
Mr Hicks, now 70, said members of the group were aged around 18 to 19 at the time. True to their word, the group held a party on December 12, 1970, at Mawson Hotel.
In subsequent years, the event became too big for the Mawson Hotel, so it was moved to Crabbs Creek at Swansea Heads.
A small entry fee was charged to drink beer from kegs. Power cords were run from a nearby house, so music could be played.
In 1980, John Lennon was assassinated four days before Dozen Day. The music paid tribute to the Beatles legend, along with the likes of Jimi Hendrix, Jim Morrison and Duane Allman.
Mr Hicks said the event became too big.
"We decided to pull the pin in 1980. They were great times. Generally everybody got on well," he said.
Gregory Lunn, who has documented the history of Dozen Day, said the events were among "the best times of my life".
"We were conscious of what we did, we looked after each other and didn't cause harm to anybody," Mr Lunn said.
Others later held "unofficial commercial events" on December 12 that the original organisers didn't condone.
"You can never take the true essence and tradition away from Dozen Day and its community," Mr Lunn said.
Members of the original crew still meet on Dozen Day each year to catch up.