Bondi’s secret surf club

Everyone knows of Bondi’s two “surf clubs” but there is a third.

Unlike Sydney’s two famed surf lifesaving clubs at Bondi, the third is neither a lifesaving club, nor does it carry the Bondi name.

It’s the Rose Bay Surf Club – a social club, little known around its location and one that boasts few locals in its membership.

Its name holds the clue – Rose Bay. Historically, one can say it is an offshoot of the Royal Sydney Golf Club but it’s an historic connection only; the surf club is an independent entity.

“In 1926, a group of progressive members of Royal Sydney Golf Club felt there was a great need for a surf club at Bondi Beach,” Helen Lorne-Smith wrote 60 years later in compiling its history. It could be a place, she recorded, “where members could change and shower and perhaps have light refreshments. With this in mind, a general meeting was held at RSGC on 9th November 1926. Some of those present formed themselves into a syndicate.”

Within a fortnight, a committee was formed and soon had pledges of £4,785, with a block of land selected for purchase for the clubhouse. The committee had chosen part of the Newstead Estate, a prized corner site on Campbell Parade. They wasted no time. They bought the selected land just four days after their meeting.

It’s no easy club to join. It remains a quiet peaceful refuge where one must be nominated by existing members and then be prepared to wait quite a while for a vacancy. The fees are considerable.

Its membership has included leading legal eagles, top surgeons, a world-class swimmer (in her youth), Margaret Whitlam and members of the Packer family.

However, we locals should take pride in the fact that so many illustrious citizens not fortunate enough to live around Bondi have gone to such great lengths to be able to disport themselves in our hallowed surf and to sunbake on our sands.

Assistance from Waverley Library’s Local Studies Section and material from Helen Lorne-Smith’s book on the club’s early years is acknowledged. “Macquarie, Builder and Reformer” will be the topic of Waverley Historical Society’s second evening lecture by John Aquilina, chairman, Macquarie Bicentennial Committee on Tuesday, July 27 at 6pm at Club Bondi Junction (1st floor). All welcome, light refreshment: donation gold coin.

– BY PETER McCALLUM