The notion that there was an abundance of such open recreational space in this now highly built-up environment fascinates me.

Admittedly, I am not quite sure of the why’s, the how’s and the what’s, but the tennis courts that have been on Wellington St, Bondi for what I understand has been about 60 years (i.e. since before I was born), will be re-developed into a block of apartments. How utterly surprising! Not!

It has been reported that The Sydney East Joint Regional Planning Panel (i.e. NSW Planning) recently approved this decision, despite Waverley Council objecting to the rezoning of this land. Residents and locals have also been objecting to this proposal but the development will still go ahead. I understand that the battle around this proposed development has been going for a few years. You can read more here.

image courtesy Rescue Bondi

The opportunity for residents to use this space for recreational, health and fitness purposes will be no longer. Another relatively short-sighted decision?

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!

The architectural design of Boheme is OK, though it doesn’t really do all that much for me. I can see a building like this perched on a hill somewhere in the Northern Beaches area of Sydney. But I don’t really see how it blends into the Bondi art-deco urban landscape. It seems to be quite out of place here to me, although the price tag for such real estate is unfortunately not out of place here – these days. Boheme was apparently designed by “interior architects” Bates Smart.

'Boheme' perched above Adina hotel and apartments, Hall Street, Bondi

Still, although I was a little sad to see the demolition of the Hakoah Club (and a bit of Bondi history go with it), I’m trying to embrace this new Hall Street development as part and parcel of urban change. I can see how these additions and other recent changes to Hall Street could be attractive to Bondi visitors and tourists, but maybe less so for long-time locals!

Personally, I haven’t spent a lot of time there, but I have ducked into Harris Farm late at night here and there to do a bit of shopping, in quiet time, which has been convenient.

It appears that others, like Paul Paech, have also written about this change to Hall Street.

I’m very interested to hear what Bondi Banter visitors think of the changes in Hall Street, so please feel free to rant or banter away…

Not that it was something close to my heart. It was not a part of Bondi that I was particularly fond of, but many people have been asking why this hotel is now going to be turned into residential and rentable apartments.

goodbye Swiss Grand, make way for the Pacific Apartments...

Well as you might expect, the potential to make more money from residential apartments versus hotel rooms (which have slow and down times in the winter months) was an obvious reason for the sale.

Two penthouses were recently purchased (off-the-plan) of the new upcoming development, Pacific Bondi Beach, with the intention of combining them into one uber apartment.

When I discovered how much was recently paid for these two penthouses – amongst other feelings – I was somewhat stunned.

At $21million dollars (apart from being an obscene amount of money to pay for an apartment), this is apparently the highest price paid for an apartment in this country.
Now I know why I find everything so damn expensive about living here these days – because it IS!!

Well I could say a lot about this here – but I won’t.
I will restrain myself.

But please, don’t be shy. I would love to hear some reader’s thoughts…and to get you going, check out this link.

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!

Here are a couple of photos from last year showing the site with the Club in rubble…

the Hakoah Club site seen from Hall Street, July 2011

the Hakoah Club site seen from O'Brien Street, July 2011

And here is a photo of the new building, Boheme, still incomplete, on the Hakoah Club site. I snapped this pic last week.

Boheme, still under construction, where the Hakoah Club stood

Bates Smart, the designers of Boheme, state on their website, that the Hakoah Club was “the social headquarters of Sydney’s Jewish community for 35 years.”
Yes, the club was certainly an important social space for many people in the Eastern Suburbs Jewish community – dare I suggest, particularly for the over 50s. It was a football (soccer) club and a social venue, but I don’t know how many people in Sydney’s Jewish community would agree with the statement that the Hakoah Club was “the social headquarters” of Sydney’s Jewish community.
Like most other ethnic groups, the Sydney Jewish community comprises a diverse group of people who chose to socialise in many different ways. The Hakoah Club was one venue in Sydney were such socialisation occurred.

In any case, I don’t really know what else I can say about this new megalith here, except that it will no doubt change the landscape and culture of the Hall Street I‘ve known for the past 35 years.

The Hakoah Club in Hall Street is now well and truly history.

Let’s see what commercial and real estate wonders Boheme will contribute to the Bondi community. I await in anticipation, and while I do, I am interested in reader’s comments….

The North Bondi Surf Life Saving Club as it was in June 2012

Now you don’t.

Post-demolition of the North Bondi Surf Life Saving Club, early September 2012

In May this year the North Bondi Surf Life Saving Club (SLSC) voted to replace the existing Clubhouse with a new building.

The word got around and signage went up…

The clean-out had begun, but funds were still needed for the new building

Then a few weeks ago, the iconic building, that has stood on the promenade for 77 years (where Ramsgate Avenue meets Campbell Parade), turned to rubble.

Like many other buildings that had always been part of the Bondi I knew, the old North Bondi Surf Club building was demolished and is no longer part of the Bondi landscape.

At a cost of several million dollars, the new Bondi Surf Club building will comprise four levels, including a dug out basement to store boats, skis and training equipment.

As stated in a flyer that the North Bondi SLSC circulated to gather support and donations for the new building…

“the design of the new Club aims to capture the gentle arc of the beach at Bondi. It will provide a modern, state of the art facility for volunteers who patrol the beach. It will become a symbol of the traditions of a truly great lifesaving club and will demonstrate the pursuit of excellence which lies at the heart of the club’s long tradition.”

Nothing lasts forever and urban development is well and truly now part of the “Bondi character” but it is understandable that the building that previously occupied the space where the North Bondi SLSC stood, was no longer sufficiently serving the needs of the Club nor it’s large membership.

When a family grows, it needs a bigger house and so the family often moves. But you can’t move the Clubhouse away from the beach, and so I guess that the most sensible alternative was to replace it with a building that would be more functional for the needs of the Club in 2012 and beyond.

This is what the site looked like yesterday…

The digging has begun...

I will miss seeing the old “Pizza Hut” building on the promenade at North Bondi. So it is with a sense of reluctant acceptance that I await to see the new Clubhouse erected on the ever changing Bondi Beach landscape.

These images of the previous two North Bondi Surf Live Saving Clubhouses and the upcoming future Clubhouse, are taken from the flyer that the North Bondi SLSC circulated earlier this year, to gather support and donations for the new building.

I have had very little time for anything while I have been completing a big and demanding project, and with the cold weather and short days, my inspiration has run a little low.

That’s my excuse – and that’s been my reality.

I haven’t spent much time around the beach these last few weeks, but it is a time of year that I relish in Bondi, without the masses.

A new post will follow soon…

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?

Nielsen Park - taken with my Hipstamatic iPhone app, 8/2/11

I was a bit surprised to find Nielsen so quiet today. Only a handful of people around and virtually no-one in the water. I got my goggles on and ventured in. The sky looked rather ominous and the water was quite cool at first. But then, after a few strokes… it felt delicious. I just felt so good swimming in there. To top it off, I never saw so many fish as I did this morning. There was a large school of them, stretching for something like 10 or 15 metres. Am not sure what kind of fish they were, but they were about 15-20cm long and pale-ish in colour.

Rain thereatened but held off. After I got out of the water the sun decided to come out for a bit and I lapped it up while I could… nothing like some sun and salt water therapy!