Bondi Beach, 1900 - how's the huge sand dune. Pic from Powerhouse

B O N D I

Did you know “Bondi” is an Aboriginal word to describe ‘Water breaking over rocks’? Today there is plenty of water breaking over rocks, but with a heap of onshore wind chop. I’d say pass on the surf and crank the work out – she’s all blown out. Thankfully the suns out now.

Here are some other Bondi facts you might find interesting:

• 10,700 people live in the Bondi Valley (in Summer I reckon this doubles)
• The average age in Bondi is 30 (very young)
• Edward Smith Hall and Francis O’Brien purchased 200 acres of Bondi in 1851. Hence we have streets named after them. Imagine owning 200 acres in Bondi now – you’d be rich. Filthy.
• The salubrious Bondi Aquabumps Gallery is listed the 3rd best tourist attraction in Sydney from 223 on the Lonely Planet website.
• Brett Whiteley, the painter, once live in an apartment on Campbell Parade (Near Max’s Shoes). He painted Bondi a lot.
• Bondi Beach is also the name of a wave pool at Corowinds Theme Park, South Carolina, USA.
• Bondi can get 50,000 people on the beach in peak season…it’s been like this for nearly 100 years. There was 35,000 people on Bondi when Black Sunday went down in 1938 – 250 people were swept out to sea, the biggest mass rescue down here. (4 drowned)

I have 6 office desks that I am giving away for free (as in actual desks, not office space)! Yes, free. See pic. If you want them, bring the ute to AQUABUMPS GALLERY 151 Curlewis Street Bondi Beach, pull them apart (you do), and they’re all yours. Must be between 10am to 6pm today, tomorrow and Sunday. They must be gone by Sunday night.

I have had a few complaints that my daily email is crashing your email program, if this is happening to you, can you tell me when it started, Mac or Pc and what email program you use to read Aquabumps (e.g. Outlook)? Tell Us

:: uge

Stand up barrels at Bondi this morning

Onshore shorey

Vertical planking

Good day for kite surfing

Fellow Lens man, Israel Smith

Bondi 7am

Campbell Parade

16 thoughts on “B O N D I

    1. A little history 🙂 Robert Campbell (1769-1846), merchant, pastoralist, politician and philanthropist, was born on 28 April 1769 at Greenock, Scotland.

      In 1796 Campbell Clarke & Co. had sent their first cargo to New South Wales in the Sydney Cove, which had been wrecked off the Australian coast.

  1. My mother who is 91 now, was at Bondi on that Black Sunday in 1938, she tells me that her father helped with some rescues.

    1. Hey, Yuri here. I posted a comment the other day asking about where we could find more 1900 pictures.
      It seems my comment didn’t get published but instead there is a comment from another Yuri with a jewish joke..weird.

  2. Hi Uge,

    Always love you pics, I check the website everyday makes miss home just a little more(maybe not today). Anyway where in the hell did you find that pic of bondi from 1900, such a cool picture. Would love to add to my collection of old school sydney and beach shoots!

    Keep up the good work mateee

  3. A friend of mine publishes a Pictorial History of Eastern Suburbs :
    http://kingsclearbooks.com.au/esa.html
    that may be of interest. Looking at them, we wondered why so many people seemed to be just standing around in those days. Perhaps because being in a photo was a really big deal back then.

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