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!

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.

Last year The Bondi Tram Disco part of the Bondi Hotel, and the Gould Street drive-through bottlo vanished when the bulldozers came in to make way for yet another development at Bondi Beach. Known as The Beach House this new 5-storey development will comprise residential apartments and retail spaces. Waverley Councillor Mayor Sally Betts has been quoted as saying that this development is a win for residents since it removes entertainment areas and thus “some of the antisocial behaviour that was coming from the Hotel in the past.” She’s glad that the Bombora Bar and Bondi Tram Disco have gone.

Here are a couple of video clips that I shot in Spring 2009…

This first clip shows the destruction of the site from Campbell Parade where the Bondi Tram Disco used to be.

This second clip shows the demolition from Gould Street where the Bottle Shop used to be.

Now don’t get me wrong…I didn’t have any great attachment nor fondness for the Bondi Tram Disco nor the Bombora Bar and I’ve never exactly been a regular at the Bondi Hotel, but these entertainment areas of the Bondi Hotel, as grungy and maybe even as antisocial as they were, formed an integral part of Bondi’s character.  I am really just questioning how (yet another)  block of five-star Bondi beach pads and a retail arcade adds any cultural value to a Bondi that’s been steadily stripped of it’s culture and character??

This obsession with taking the grunge out of Bondi over the last 20 years or so ticks me off since for me, part of Bondi’s attraction was it’s seedy or grungy aspect. Of course I’m not oblivious to the huge economic incentive behind these developments in Bondi but at what cost?

I’m just a bit over the whole beautification, trendification and commercialisation of Bondi (and of the beachfront strip in particular) that I’ve witnessed going on here over the years. I know I’ll be criticised for being a raving, leftie, greenie by some for having this opinion. I  have a number of friends who own businesses in Bondi or who are Bondi residents and who I know love the endless development and trendification of Bondi. I suspect this is primarily because of the financial benefits that this brings them, but the development and over-development of Bondi is significantly changing the essential character of Bondi into something else. Maybe this subject needs to be reserved for another post, but can we please just give the development in Bondi a little bit of a break?

Does anyone else feel the same?

If you want to read more about the Bondi Hotel development, (and the developers and mega bucks behind it), check out the stories Bondi Hotel to get Overhaul, , The Beach House and Bondi Hotels get $100m Facelift.

For a  different kind of read, check out some of Adam Gibson’s poetry about Bondi on this site.