Well we had beach volleyball at the 2000 Olympic Games and the ice skating rink in winter for last few years. Now Waverley Council has said it will host the International Beach Polo Tournament at Bondi Beach on 9th May 2015. This one day event is expected to attract around 4000 people and will involve bringing in polo ponies to Bondi Beach and the building of infrastructure to support such an event.

The Council has approved the event “in principle” subject to a few conditions, including the satisfactory submission of a final Event Management Plan (which meets traffic, parking and complying regulatory requirements) at least 16 weeks prior to the event occupation period.

It’s worth noting that this event was not unanimously approved. Four councillors opposed the motion to approve this proposal at the Council’s Operations Committee Meeting held on 1 July 2014.

There has been little press about this proposal, but here is an article written by Emily Contador-Kelsall.

Of course such an idea is completely ludicrous to me – and I suspect to many other locals also. Aren’t there already healthy numbers of tourists in Bondi Beach? Aren’t people all around the world already aware of Brand Bondi?

Yet, for Waverley Council, having Bondi host the International Beach Polo Tournament, [such] a prestigious international sporting event, “will help promote and showcase Bondi Beach to the rest of the world and could bring social, physical and economic benefits to Bondi.”

Really?

I think Sally Betts might need to knock on a few residents’ doors and really gauge how many locals think that attracting another 4000 people to Bondi in one day (together with all the other repercussions that such an event would have on the area) is going to bring them social, physical and economic benefits!

So here we are, in Autumn, all of us wondering where on earth the last few months have gone! Life just seems to get faster and faster as you age.

As for Bondi, it is still as busy as ever, still impossible to find a parking spot on the weekends and still hosting many changes to its landscape.

There is now a proposal being highly publicised by Waverley Council, to significantly change the beachfront area of Bondi.

I won’t go into all these changes here since they are already well-documented online (and in the traditional media), but I just want to say that the proposal is not insignificant; clearly lots of money and energy have already gone into this research and development phase of the proposal.

Flyer from Have Your Say day, 5th May 2013

Apart from the North Bondi Surf Club clubhouse – which is still being built – if all the proposed changes to the Bondi Pavilion and Bondi Park are approved and green lit, they would probably represent the biggest visual changes made to the now famous beachfront area in many years.

Just the other day, Waverley Council held a Have Your Say day at the Pavilion. I went along to ask questions and learn a bit more about what exactly is being proposed. On the face of it, it all sounds OK. But I do think the Council are treading a bit conservatively putting an effort in to manage the spin. They’re being very careful in their choice of language, (and somewhat vague when it comes to logistics and details), regarding the proposed changes, and there are still a number of issues not really being considered. Like…What if you do remove the parking from the beachfront? then you have an underground car park with approximately the same no of spaces, BUT can you imagine the road rage when it would take you one hour to get out the car park on a busy hot summer’s day?? At least when you’re in a traffic jam on the beachfront on such days you get to look at the pretty sights that Bondi has to offer!

Goodbye Hakoah Club, The Boheme is movin' in 17/4/11

Many visible changes have been happening in Bondi of late, and this month sees the beginning of the end of the low-end village-like atmosphere of Hall Street and Gould Street. There’s the destruction of the Bondi Hotel bottlo and the erection of new shops and arcade in its place. And of course the rather huge development of the Hakoah Club site and its adjoining properties. These are clearly movements away from the once un-selfconscious character of old Bondi towards the now well and truly entrenched commercial, trendy, new Bondi. I wonder how many more Oportos or Nandos or McDonalds or Hungry Jacks will pop up in the months ahead? How many more parking meters and tourist dollars can we squeeze into Bondi until we can’t recognise it anymore?

Surf Sho, the world's biggest aerial surf event @ Bondi Beach 13/3/11

The water was superb, and I felt really blessed to live in such a lovely place, to have such freedoms and social tolerance in our community. Especially with all the tragedy and sadness around our world today.

However, there’s been a feeling of emotional intensity in the last couple of weeks. Emotions have been running high for me and many others I know. Don’t know if there’s some metaphysical reason for this but in any case, I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about Bondi…the endless development that I see everywhere in my suburb, the turning of this suburb into a big tourist destination, the incessant changes to the buildings and businesses and the spiralling high cost of living here. I understand that Bondi has always been a tourist destination but it just seems to me that Waverley Council is concentrating its focus on the tourist and development dollar rather than looking after its residents.

Last week there was a story in the Daily Telegraph about how Waverley’s mayor is asking taxpayers to help maintain Bondi Beach. The comments posted against this story are worth a read!

I know that some people will see this as whingeing about Bondi. After all, I choose to live here. But I choose to live here because it is my home. It is where I grew up and where I want to raise my child. But what happens when you get pushed out of your home city or suburb because it becomes so unaffordable, so crowded and overly concerned with urban development, wealth and superficiality? You either leave, as many have done, to settle in other smaller and more affordable communities or you choose to stay. Well I have chosen to stay but lately I’ve been questioning this decision. How do you weigh up your emotional ties to a place versus the practical realities of life and the inevitability of change?

Then comes the news of yet another devastating natural disaster to hit our planet causing more tragedy for so many people – the earthquake and tsunami in Japan. And it makes me realise that I really have very little to complain about…except, like many others, learning how to cope with potential forced displacement, in a world going insane!

I usually walk towards the promenade from the walk-bridge that is almost opposite where the Diggers once stood (now of course, apartments) – the bridge that leads to the side of the Bondi Surf Club. Now I’m pretty sure I’d walked there only a week ago or so ago, so sometime in the last week or so an incredibly ugly symbol of tourist cow-towing looks like it has sprouted from the pavement beside the bridge. I’m sure Waverley Council must be very proud of this structure but it really annoys me. It is ugly and I believe very unnecessary.

Bondi Beach is not a very big area actually. And all this signposting and touristifying is turning Bondi into a big monopoly board. Surely tourists don’t need to be told that if they look over yonder or walk about 2 minutes ahead they’re going to hit the Bondi “Town Centre!” I know, we have to consider that all-important tourist dollar ,but I think signposts like this are an eyesore and I just don’t see how this adds real value to the Bondi landscape. Given that we live in an age where the internet and information is literally at our fingertips I do wonder why a decision was made to put this thing up.

all for the tourist dollar...and how necessary is this information here, really??

I realise that ranting about this tourist signpost might seem relatively insignificant but it’s just that when you look further up the road and you see the Bondi Hotel contruction site and the rest, it all gets a bit too much!

So late last night I decided to have flick through the latest Wentworth Courier (local newspaper) only to see that in the property section another gorgeous 1930s art deco building (combining retail and residential) is up for sale, in my local neighbourhood. Here we go again…