Lost Manly personalised storytelling designs celebrate our local history, coastal culture, and the deep sense of belonging that makes the Northern Beaches home — Australia’s iconic seaside destination since 1855.

Lost Manly is a community-driven local history project dedicated to preserving the visual, social and cultural memory of Manly and the Northern Beaches.

Founded by Lisa Lipman in 2013, Lost Manly began as a personal archive and a place to gather old photographs, research family histories, and record the everyday details that give a place its character. Over time, it grew into a shared space where thousands now come together to remember, reflect, and reconnect with Manly as it once was — and as it still lives in memory. To read more about Lisa's fourth generation 'founding fathers' go to her Lost Manly Blogs here

At its heart, Lost Manly is about belonging. It recognises that places shape us, and that the stories of streets, beaches, ferries and neighbourhoods matter just as much as the big historical events. A ferry crossing, a summer spent by the sea, a familiar shopfront or headland — these moments form the texture of a community’s identity.

Much of the work behind Lost Manly happens quietly: researching records, restoring fragile photographs, scanning original materials, and documenting stories before they are lost. This archival work is guided by care, accuracy and respect for the people and places represented.

From time to time, a carefully curated selection of restored images is made available as prints, calendars or keepsakes. This is not the purpose of the project, but a way of supporting its continuation — allowing the research, restoration and sharing of Manly’s history to remain independent and sustainable.

Lost Manly exists to honour continuity — to hold space for memory in a place that continues to change — and to ensure that the stories, images and lived experiences of Manly and the Northern Beaches are preserved for future generations.

Thank you for being part of this shared archive and for helping keep Manly’s stories alive.

Meet the Maker

Lost Manly began as a deep dive into the past — not to live there, but to preserve it.

What started as hours spent researching Trove archives, restoring fragile newspaper clippings, and uncovering forgotten Northern Beaches stories slowly became something more. A community. A movement. A reminder that our coastal identity matters.

Every design you see here is rooted in place.

Manly. The Northern Beaches. The ferries. The surf. The BBQs. The long weekends. The barbed wire of wartime. The families who built this coastline and the generations who carry it forward.

These pieces aren’t mass-produced ideas. They are extensions of research, restoration, and storytelling — carefully reimagined into wearable, usable forms.

From time to time, a small selection of restored imagery becomes prints, calendars, or keepsakes — simply to support the ongoing archival work behind Lost Manly.

Because history doesn’t preserve itself.

It takes someone willing to look for it.

And someone willing to carry it forward.

Thank you for being part of that.

— Lisa
Founder, Lost Manly