NAKED CITY: BEAUTIFYING BONDI

Some years ago the Naked City crew were involved in a test broadcast for FBi radio, live from an old bus positioned directly in front of the Bondi Pavilion. It was a cold, wet and totally uninviting mid winter’s day with hardly a soul in sight, except for the occasional out of season Asian tourist.

Needless to say Bondi Beach, with its wide expanses of grey cracking concrete and bleak treeless landscape did not look at its best on this mid-July day. That’s not to say the actual broadcast was not without its surprises, the highlight coming when a very wet young lady emerged from the freezing surf and crashed the broadcast, creating thirty seconds of on-air havoc in the buses’ tiny cockpit studio.

After our unexpected mermaid we then decided to interview any passersby from the window of the bus and despite an almost deserted beach we did manage to snare a couple of Japanese tourists. “How are you enjoying Bondi?” we asked them hoping that they at least spoke some English. “We are looking for Bondi,” they replied, appearing slightly confused.

At first we thought they were saying, “we are looking at Bondi” but soon realised they were looking for Bondi and could not believe that they were actually at Australia’s world famous beach. These days many people are looking for Bondi, at least a Bondi that resembles the halcyon days of the 50s and 60s and not the crumbling glory of 2012.

The latest grand plan has just been announced for the beach front and the promenade, one that will see a rejuvenation of the surrounding parklands and the removal of tonnes and tonnes of graffiti daubed concrete along with the road which now cuts right through the pedestrian traffic. The idea is to provide a car free, punter friendly landscape, peppered with palm trees and cafes, providing a gently sloping conduit to the beach.

It’s an admirable concept and one which many people will say is long overdue given the iconic status that we attach to good old Bondi. But grand and even grandiose plans have been mooted before, along with short term cosmetic makeovers. The Beach still has that rundown, neglected, ugly, parking lot vibe that must be a disappointment to those overseas tourists who see it for the very first time, particularly on a wet and miserable, grey winter’s day.

Go there however in the peak of summer, when the sky is a cloudless blue and the beach is packed with people from all over Sydney, indeed all over the world and it’s a different kettle of Bondi trout. The place has a unique vitality that quickly overshadows its shabby surrounds and focuses entirely on the hedonism of cooking yourself on your own two x three square metres of pale yellow sand. 

Makeovers aside it’s the beachgoers that make Bondi Beach and perhaps we should not worry too much if its beauty does not match that of Waikiki or the French Riviera. As for a possible makeover that might compromise millions of dollars in council parking revenue we await that with the same anticipation as with the second coming of Christ!