Bondi Beach Sydney Australia

Bondi Beach Sydney Australia


Home to the one of the world’s oldest surf life saving clubs, if not the oldest, this beautiful beach is the closest to the Sydney city centre (8kms). With the bright sunny days we get in Sydney Australia, even winter days are enjoyable here.
1km long, this south facing beach can attract more than 40,000 visitors on a typical summer weekend.
Offering topless sunbaking, swimming and great surfing for boards and bodies, the beach is popular with Australians as well as international tourists.

http://www.bondivillage.com/thennow.htm#history

Bondi" or "Boondi" is an aboriginal word meaning "water breaking over rocks" or "noise of water breaking over rocks." The Australian Museum records that Bondi means "place where a flight of nullas took place."

Between 1855 and 1877 Francis O'Brien of the Bondi Estate made the beach and the surrounding land available to the public as a picnic ground and pleasure resort, but for many years threatened to stop public access to the beach. In 1859 the Municipal Council asked the Government to establish an area at the beach as a public reserve but without success. It was not until June 1882 that the Government acted and Bondi Beach opened to the public.
In the mid 1850s buses begun to run to the edges of the Eastern Suburbs of Sydney. Transport beyond there was either on foot, horse or cart. Within a few years a number of private bus operators such as Old Steve, Joe Smith and M. Macnamara provided transport up to Bondi Junction. Generally speaking the buses ran about every half hour.
In 1933 the State Government took over the running of bus services to Bondi Junction. A year later Bondi Beach had a regular bus service with the main stop at Lamrock Avenue.
In the early 1870s the New South Wales Parliament introduced the Tramway Bill and by 1902 there was a sub-station at Bondi Junction. The electric tram service between Bondi Junction and the city of Sydney was established in 1905.
The first tram service to Bondi Beach was completed in 1929, and only after locals strongly protested to the authorities about the delay in extending the line from Bondi Junction. The last Bondi tram ran in 1958, and the huge Sydney tram network finally closed in February 1961. Whilst the Sydney trams were mainly burned, Melbourne is still one of the great tram cities of the world, and they are even extending their network.

From Sydney Manly 2008