"Bondi Beach is an urban beach cultural landscape of waters and sands, where the natural features have been altered by development associated with beach use and consisting of promenades, parks, sea baths, the surf pavilion and pedestrian bridges. The predominant feature of the beach is the vastness of the open space within an urban setting.
Bondi Beach is significant in the course of Australia’s cultural history as the site of the foundation of Australia’s first recognised surf lifesaving club in 1907. From Bondi the surf lifesaving movement spread initially to NSW, then to the rest of Australia and to the world. Along with the ‘digger’ and the ‘bushman’, the lifesaver has achieved an iconic place in Australia’s cultural imagery. The lifesaver grew to become an accepted feature of the beach and, as beach guardian and symbol of what was seen to be good about being Australian, became woven into Australia's popular culture. As it was at the beginning, the SLSA has remained a voluntary organisation and a significant contributor to a well-established tradition of volunteering in Australia. SLSA is now Australia's largest volunteer water safety organisation, with a national membership in 2006 of 120,000 members representing 305 clubs. Surf lifesavers have rescued more than 520,000 people in the 80 years since records have been kept, with the number of rescues each season fluctuating between 8,000 and 12,000.
Bondi Beach is one of the world's most famous beaches and is of important social value to both the Australian community and to visitors. Bondi Beach is significant because of its special associations for Australians as a central place in the development of beach culture in Australia. It embodies a powerful sense of place and way of life. It is where Australians meet nature's challenge in the surf and is strongly associated with the Bronzed Aussie myth of easygoing hedonism and endeavour balanced with relaxation. A place full of Australian spirit, synonymous with Australian beach culture, it is recognised internationally.
At the end of the 19th century, the beach emerged as an alternative cultural landscape to the mythology of the interior. The interior represented notions of toil and hardship against an often unforgiving landscape, while the coast evoked images of health and leisure in the equally unforgiving environment of the sea. During the Depression the Australian notion of beaches as egalitarian playgrounds took root and Bondi, with its strongly working-class constituency, became the epitome of that idea. The developing beach culture reinforced an already strong myth of Australian egalitarianism, of a nation where ‘a fair go’ was available to all. The constructed features, such as the sea baths and the surf pavilion demonstrate the development of the natural features of the beach to accord with daylight swimming, recreational beach culture, surf life saving, and associated beach sports. The Bondi Surf Pavilion building within its developed parkland setting is an important element of the site. Built in 'Inter War Mediterranean style', the Pavilion is outstanding for its place in the development of beach and leisure culture and is a famous landmark at Bondi Beach. The pool complex is significant for its strong associations with the famous ‘Bondi Icebergs’ winter swimming club as well as other swimming groups. The pool and clubhouse enjoy a strong nexus not usually enjoyed by other seaside pools. The site has been used continuously for organized swimming since before 1900 and has a strong social importance as a meeting place as well as a sporting and recreational facility. The Bondi Icebergs contributed strongly to this development. To many in Sydney they were seen as inheritors of the Anzac spirit – fun-loving larrikins not taking themselves too seriously, while still displaying the essential ‘Aussie’ characteristics of a fair-go, generosity, and mateship.
Egalitarian in nature, the beach and surfing had a profound effect in changing our way of life, and developing our sense of national identity. The central role of beaches, and Bondi Beach in particular, in Australia’s self image is reflected in the use of the beach by painters, filmmakers, poets and writers in exploring this new self image and reflecting it back to Australian society. Bondi has played a central role in this process, and has come to be viewed both within Australia and internationally as the quintessential Australian beach."
Source: (
visit link)