Patrick White wrote about it, Brett Whiteley painted it, Midnight Oil sang about it, Heath Ledger acted on it. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you ..
. Bondi Beach. Bondi is an unruly coastal circus and that’s why I love it.
If I wasn’t from Sydney and had ties to other parts of the city, I would, as many new arrivals and backpackers have done, adopt Bondi as “my Sydney”. I guess I can with some legitimacy claim Bondi as part of who I am. My parents grew up not far from each other and both were walking distance from Bondi’s golden crescent of beach.
Like many postwar Australians, they later moved from Art Deco flats in the eastern suburbs into larger, freestanding homes in new outer suburbs, but Mum and Dad continued to talk fondly about growing up in Bondi and about the “Bondi Broad” – a much-loved cousin who steadfastly refused to budge. The word “Bondi” is derived from a Dharawal word meaning “loud thud”, and it refers to water breaking over rocks. Credit: Dom Stuart / Stocksy United Undoubtedly Sydney’s most famous beach, Bondi is a coastal superstar.
The history of Bondi largely mirrors the history of Sydney and much of its story feeds our national narratives. For thousands of years the Bidjigal, Birrabirragal and Gadigal peoples have lived on and around the beach, and their rock engravings are still very visible in the area. In the early days of colonisation, Bondi was largely covered in dunes.
Pastoralists who had purchased land in the Bondi area .
