18th Sep 2023 11:54AM1
Waverley Council Oral History of Waverly Beach Inspectors Early 1900’s.
Interview with Brian Collins, Patricia Collins
Interviewer #1: Lawrie Williams
Interviewer #2: Elida Meadows
(Interviewer #3: Damon Maloney)
LW: It’s Thursday 26th of July, 2001, my name’s Lawrie Williams. I am a team leader
with Waverley Council at Bondi Beach and we are conducting an interview with Brian
Collins.
Brian is 79 years of age, and Brian’s wife Patricia.
Brian’s father was Edward Frances Collins known as [Kim] Collins - he was the manager
/ caretaker of the pavilion for many years.
LW: Brian, I spoke to you on the telephone some weeks ago, and we talked about your
life at the pavilion, living in the pavilion. And what are some of your earliest
recollections? What sort of… When were you born…and ?
BC: I was born in nineteen hundred and twenty two. At that stage my father was
employed by the Waverley Council and we lived – I believe we lived in Imperial Ave
Bondi. Subsequently in 1926 he was appointed manager of the surf sheds after the sudden
death of the previous manager, a Mr Watts.
From there, we moved from Imperial Avenue, he took up residence at the old surf sheds.
They were… ah, my memory of it is not very good because I would have only been 4
years old then. And um, the um, … far as I remember it was an old wooden building,
very close to the now present Bondi Surf Club. And, subsequently we weren’t there for
very long, because they were going to build a new pavilion and we then moved to
Bennett st Bondi, where for those years it took to build the pavilion, which I can’t recall
now, there we lived.
When it was finished completed, we had a residence, a cottage residence where the now
auditorium or was, later on, where many parades and that sort of things, like beach quests
and that were held. Also, there were Saturday night films etc etc were those days. And
um, then they decided to pull the cottage after it had not been up very long and erect this
auditorium.
After it was completed they built a residence, a flat residence on the top of it and that’s
where I lived, spent most of my main life. That would have been completed, I suppose in
the 30’s some time, I just can’t recall the exact time.
LW: I think Aub Laidlaw in a taped interview some years ago, said around 1936, he
recalls the building of the auditorium, your family who he could remember quite well,
moving into that residence.
BC: That would be, he’s right that part of it, because as I said in the 30’s sometime…
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LW: When did your father finish, when did he retire from that position in the pavilion?
BC: In nineteen hundred and fifty-ninet. He was from 1926 to 1959 the manager of it.
And as far as I understand he was employed by the Waverley Council for 47 years. Prior
to that he worked as an assistant on the council in various forms of work what they
designated to him.
LW: Up at the old chambers?
BC: Well, that I don’t know. Exactly what they were, they could have been around the
surf sheds in those days, as I said, Mr Watts was the manager then.
LW: Did he actually live in the old surf sheds?
BC: Mr Watts?
LW: Was it, it was a Harry Watts?
BC: I think it was Harold Watts. Yes, yes, he lived there, I believe. I don’t recall him at
all. Because as I said he died at a young age and I would have only probably been about 3
years old or so.
LW: What are some of the functions of the pavilion that you remember best? What are
the sorts of things that happened in there, in the use of the rooms and the various things
that went on, in and around the pavilion?
BC: Well, I remember the esplanade as it was known as, that was the top portion of the
pavilion, was run by a Roy Scarfield, and it was a very, very popular venue on Saturday
evenings in those days for dances.
And, very large crowds of people would come on Saturday nights particularly, to these
[functions] of which a charge was made for them. And out of there comes some of the
best, probably, dance bands that were known in NSW, and finished at the Trocadero with
it. Basically they were in there…
LW: And that was in, what we know now as a large ballroom called the… Seagull Room.
(voices concurring – three voices)
DM: Seagull Room.
EM: The Seagull Room
PC: Probably.
BC: That’s right.
LW: …it’s the largest room in the Pavilion.
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EM: Yeh, [ ].
BC: There were two rooms –
DM: On the first floor.
BC: - one was a dance floor and the other was what they termed a dining room in those
days. So, they held pretty large functions in its early days, but seems then changed and it
was not so popular with it.
EM: Was it, was it popular Sydney wide? Was it a place where people came from all over
Sydney just [ ]?
PC: Oh, yeh.
BC: Yes, yeh, well there were no other really places as big as it, in 1929, I think it
opened, was it?
So it was the largest place. But when the Trocadero opened in George st Sydney in the
main part, that took a lot of the clientele away from the surf pavilion, or the Esplanade as
it was known then.
LW: Was the theatre in existence from the very beginning – there is a theatre on the first
floor.
PC/BC: No. No.
LW: On opposite sides.
BC: In those days, the only – well, they were known as picture shows. And ah, they – the
main one was at the six ways at Bondi – But ah, no there was never any films. Never
ever. It was mostly ballroom, they had ballroom dancing there.
It was written up as the one of best floor in those days that was in Sydney. I think a lot of
money was spent on the laying of the dance floor with it, because ballroom dancing was
the main type of entertainment in those days.
LW: So, on the first floor you had a ballroom where the dancing was conducted and on
the other side of the stairs as you came up was probably the dining room.
BC: That’s correct and as you come up the stairs there was a big soda fountain bar – in
those days they called them soda fountains. No liquor was ever sold.
(laughter)
PC: No.
LW: That was prohibition was it?
(laughter)
PC: Yes, everyone had a flask in the hip pocket.
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BC: That was different – none was sold but I wouldn’t know whether any was brought in.
None of my mates talked about that. As for the dressing shed themselves, nothing,
anything startling I suppose. One of the most interesting thing would have been the
Bikini Girl as she was known as…
Unfortunately we had the bikini here for 20 years.
(laughter)
PC: we had it for 20yrs here. Don’t know what happened to it!
BC: (laughter) I gave it away. Got rid of it and I regret now that I ever did. And that was
a publicity stunt, by a newspaper which is ah, I think the Daily Telegraph it was, in those
days.
EM: What year as that?
BC: Oh, look I could not tell you a year, but the people, the beach inspector, and my
father and police were well aware that it was going to happen. It was what probably is
known in those days as a publicity stunt. And the newspaper photographers and all that
type of thing was there and I [ ], I remember her. Basically I suppose the other thing,
there was rescues and that sort of thing….
PC: And then there was Bea Miles.
EM: Oh, Right…
BC: Oh, Yes I remember. Bea Miles, that’s another thing I remember. A very excited taxi
driver, I suppose, you’d hear of Bea Miles?
EM: Oh yes…
BC: And Bea in those days was one of the strongest swimmers, I believe, well I’m told,
that there was and this taxi driver brought her out from the city. And she got out of the
cab in South Bondi where in that time, era was a very dangerous swimming place with it.
Anyway, she had a cape on or a dress, and she took it off with her swimming costume
was underneath and she had a belt with a knife in it, (laughter), and she told the taxi
driver that she was going to go out and kill every shark she saw.
EM/LW: (laughter)
BC: Well, he panicked… and he came to the dressing sheds with it, and he came in a
terrible excited and agitated way, that he’d, …what had happened, he’d brought this
woman out and she’d just swum out to sea, he can’t she wear she went, and that I believe
is correct, because the people, the lifesavers, and my own father verify the fact that she
went out that far that she was out of sight.
PC: Couldn’t see her.
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BC: … couldn’t see her… with it. Well, the surf boat, the surf club got their surf boat out
and subsequently she was hauled into the boat and brought back to shore.
EM: Without a shark.
BC: Without a shark…
PC: Not a shark in sight.
(laughter)
BC: By that time the police has been called and they escorted her off the beach.
So um, Bea used to cause a little bit of trouble with it.
I remember a very prominent policeman in those days was a man called Bumper Farrell.
Bea was out in the park on the beach, selling her poetry, making a nuisance of herself
accosting everybody and thrusting paper and demanding that they buy it, with it. So, my
father had to go, and try and appease Bea, he’d learned his lesson with her, I feel quite
sure, many years before, because he would never ever try by force to do anything. And he
was, he could do it, he was a big man, with it, but he would never ever do it.
So he liked to have little joke. And when he came back, Bumper Farrell was arrived, he
was in charge at that time of the police in the area, I think. So Dad said to him; “there’s a
woman around there, Bumper, she’s causing a lot of trouble and annoying people, I’ve
asked her to leave and she won’t go,” but he did not tell him who it was.
So Bumper went around, I believe this is the story I hear, and he came back and he used
some language saying, “You, Kim, can go to so-and-so, I am not having anything to do
with that woman,” and Bea just went on selling her literature.
(laughter)
PC: She wasn’t doing any harm.
LW: Brian, can I just take you back to the pavilion. We talked about the Turkish baths,
and the fact that the former chief librarian Ron Lander…
EM: Brian, can I just show you the photograph as well…
LW: …had shown you this photograph… which was in the pavilion.
BC: I have seen this, somebody from the library came and picked us up…
PC: Yes, yes…
BC: …quite a number of years ago, to verify that. No, that was never, never, ever there.
That I would think, is something on a ship. Without any doubt, that was never ever there.
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LW: Aub Laidlaw in his interview back in 1983, mentioned that there were Turkish baths
in the south east corner of the pavilion, what later became the Bondi Boys Club. He said
that they piped up the seawater from South Bondi…
BC: That is correct, yes.
LW: Could you tell us a bit about that?
BC: Yes certainly. My recollections of that is this: what… would be correct I think… that
they had a shed at the south end of Bondi with rocks with a pump, to pump water to the
Turkish baths which was in the south end of the pavilion… and it was forever breaking
down because sand was getting into the pump and it would have only lasted maybe
twelve months to 2 yrs and they had to close it down.
Now they imported – I believe, imported special Turkish baths from overseas at a large
expense which meant they could not carry on with the actual Turkish baths. But in this
area there were five different temperature steam rooms. It was a very large area. We
started off with a warm room, and you moved to the next room and it would be warmer,
til you finally got to the fifth room which was extremely hot.
LW: Was it all partitioned between the rooms… and tiled?
BC: Oh Yes… all, yes all tiled. Beautifully tiled, beautiful position, and that was run off a
boiler which was underneath the main part of the Turkish baths. it actually faced out on
to the ladies dressing sheds… and that’s where they generated the steam for the Turkish
baths. That was subsequently run by a number of people. One I remember very well was
a man called Charlie Saunders. Charlie was a very good masseur and a prominent person.
A lot of the leading jockeys who came from Melbourne – one I remember was Harold
Badger, who at that time was a champion Melbourne Jockey, for the spring and autumn
carnivals. And they would stay at the Astra hotel. And they made their main place of – as
they called it in those days “sweating” to get weight off, - the old Turkish baths. And I, as
a young person was very impressed by meeting these people of …notoriety, I suppose
you might say. They were well known, written up in the paper and that… and ah…
LW: Jimmy Pike was another.
JS: Jim Pike, - yes Jim lived up in Beach Rd, Jim at that time had fallen on bad times.
But, a very nice man. I remember Jim well. I knew his son, who was about… about my
age I suppose. As I say, he had fallen on bad times.
LW: Did the Turkish baths actually have bath tubs, as opposed to the photograph you saw
that looks like a swimming pool.
BC: Nothing like that. They got baths – big baths.
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LW: They were above ground like a bath tub.
BC: Oh yes, like a home bath, but much larger. And when they couldn’t get the salt water
they’d then mix salt and water I believe, to give people a hot bath. I think people - lot of
people did it for arthritis and for that sort of complaints. And they did get…
EM: When you say “people”, do you mean men and women…
BC: Beg your pardon?
EM: Men and Women? Or was it just for men?
PC: No, they were both…
BC: No. Not together, they had different days, as far as I can remembernow, I know that
as far as the hot rooms were concerned. I don’t know about the baths.
LW: What about at the northern end of the pavilion? You had the baths down in the
spacious southern end…
BC: The Northern end? They were ah, refreshment rooms, [on Sundays] as they were
known as those days. One of the main ones in latter years was Sergeants, they were a big
catering firm in Sydney, well known for their meat pies, I suppose.
LW: Sergeants Pies.
EM: Yeh.
BC: Mm, they were in it for many, many years. Actually they were there when the
trouble happened in 1937 with the…, that’s right in 1937, I think with the ah, bank
collapsing as they called it, on a Sunday afternoon and so many people getting drowned.
EM: Black Sunday.
BC: They provided the hot water, that ah, for the Bondi Surf Club for bodies, that were
laying, people that were laying in it. That I remember well because you could not walk…
on the floor because there were that many people there, and I remember as a boy I could
get in the club in those days, and it was one of my jobs with the others, was carrying
boiling water, or hot water from the fresh [ravines] to the surf club for bags and that to [ ]
it right.
LW: What were some of responsibilities that your father had in and around the pavilion
as the manager? What were some of the jobs that he had to do on a daily basis?
BC: As far as I can remember, he would [arrive] at 5.00 and he would always open the
sheds or pavilion at six a.m. Because he had the regular people, there were judges,
lawyers, doctors who were likely to have a swim before they went to their offices or their
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work. There were a big lot of people did come early in the morning for swimming, where
they would start the day off that way. So he would work from possibly 6 o’clock till
maybe 8 or 9 o’clock at night. Depending on the day, you know, the weather.
LW: Did he have any cleaning duties, outside of his opening and closing, or was there
someone else employed to clean…?
BC: Oh no, there were others employed. There were others employed, yes, and he was in
charge of the beach inspectors in those days…
LW: They had a chief – they had chief beach inspectors, didn’t they? But you’re saying
the manager of the pavilion was actually in charge of the chief beach inspector?
BC: That’s right – [ ] Chief of Beach [ ]. They had a… In early days in winter time there
was no one where. But later on in – years, I wouldn’t know who the first one was, was
employed for the full twelve months. I think there was someone before Aub.
LW: Dinny – from the research we’ve done, Dinny Brown – the father of the footballer
Dave Brown was the first beach inspector back in 1913, then Stan MacDonald came on a
short time after.
BC: They didn’t work twelve months of the year. See, Stan MacDonald – his was ah,
work for the Glacierium. I don’t know whether you know the Glacierium was a skating
rink.
LW: We’ve seen pictures of it…
PC: Down at Central.
BC: Well, that was his winter time job. As [ ] Brian Davidson’s winter time job was in
the snow fields. So they all had winter time jobs – they weren’t there 12 months of the
year. It might have been Bill Willis who might have been the [ ] – but at some stage in
that era, they ah… it was 12 months - I don’t think George Proudfoot was 12 months, nor
Jimmy Lapthorne…
LW: They’re some of the names that have come up when we’ve been talking to other
people.
PC: Other people, yeh.
LW: Jim Lapthorne, George Proudfoot, [Roth] Bassingthwaite.
BC: [Rolf], yes…
LW: He was a casual I think you said…
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BC: Yes, [Rolf] was, because they had the swimming – ah, not swimming – fishing
business over at the north end of the beach there. [Rolf] was more or less part time. You
know depending on the day and that sort of thing, depended on what area, the people you
require. And that went for the dressing sheds too in latter years. If it was raining and that
sort of thing, you didn’t want anybody.
EM: But in the summer you’d be really busy, wouldn’t you?
PC: Yes [ ] terribly, terribly busy because they came in trams, People always came in
trams. [ ] vertical cars. When the tram would arrive they’d be queued outside the dressing
pavilion waiting to get in, for quite some distance. And trams used to arrive then I
suppose on a, well they came from the railway, central railway, and they came from the
quay, about every five minutes. And they were double car trams and there were a lot of
people on them.
LW: Yes, I think Aub said around 200-250 people…
BC: Well, could be, yes…
LW: … would disembark.
BC: That’s right, and the tram terminus in those days was ah, up in Campbell Parade, it
never went to North Bondi like it does now.
LW: Some of the other names we spoke about were [Cappa] Johnson – [Cappa’s] an
interesting name…
BC: Would be a nickname…
LW: He was a beach inspector. Suey Harris – does that ring a bell with you?
BC: No.
LW: Cappa Johnson – he was a, you said, as good a pugilist as he was a swimmer…
BC: Yes, I believe so…
LW: …and I believe in those days – unlike the modern entertainment people have these
days, - engaged in wrestling bouts and boxing matches, using the Indian clubs. Do you
recall all that?
BC: No. No, I don’t concur with that.
LW: Mainly through the surf clubs, I think it was.
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BC: No… I know at the Bondi Surf Club – well, I was engaged there myself, amateur
wrestling, we had. That was ah, getting back to the Turkish baths, when they closed the
baths and ah…
LW: What year was that do you remember? Was it after the second world war?
BC: No… it was before the second world war – it would have been in the late 30’s. The
baths were closed for quite some time. In those days there was, at the Sydney stadium,
wrestling became a very popular time and it was held there on Monday nights. And one
of the first people to rent the old Turkish baths, because one end of the Turkish baths had
a very fine gymnasium, and the wrestlers there, when I can remember now, Brother
Jonathon, Sammy Stein, Dean Lukin, a number of them I just can’t think, and they would
come there on a Thursday or a Friday in the gymnasium, the two wrestlers that were to
wrestle at the stadium on the Monday night,. And they would rehearse of how they were
going to wrestle. So ah, anybody who ever thought it was fair dinkum what they saw, is
living in a fools paradise.
(laughter)
LW: Sounds like nothings changed.
(Laughter)
EM: I’ve got a picture of Brother Jonathon advertising some sort of elixir, health giving
tonic, from the pavilion.
BC: That’s right – well he invented that. He was a very, very nice man. He ah, I was
only, ah you know would have been in my teens and ah he, [ ] friends sort of thing I’d
say.
EM: So, he rented some space to sell some products from the pavilion.
BC: I didn’t know that. No, I didn’t know – no, he was a wrestler, an American wrestler
himself. And that, I don’t know exactly, no, I wouldn’t know what he did, other than that.
DM: So, as a teenager growing up on the beach, in the, in the, near the pavilion, what was
that like? And did you go to school around the Bondi beach area?
BC: I went to St Anne’s at Bondi til I was oh, about 7-8 I think, then I went to Christian
Brothers Waverley College and that’s where I spent my years at school.
I suppose one of the things I can remember very well too, in those days, I think by virtue
of the fact that this man became famous, that I remember it; his father was a man called
[Mayor] O’Keefe.
PC: O’Keefe…
BC: And had a son…
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(noise)
PC: Oh, God! (laughter)
BC: …and he’s called “The Wild One” now… and he probably was. .Mr O’Keefe asked
my father whether Brian could take Johnny down to the beach and introduce him to the
beach inspectors so that they could keep an eye on him when he went in the water. Which
I did do. And that’s the sum total. But now, that was Johnny O’Keefe. So he was a wild
one…
PC: And he started at the auditorium down [here] at the beach. Didn’t he, Johnny…?
BC: That’s where he first sang…
PC: Yes, first sang. I lived down after we got married for a while, and ah, they’d have
Sunday night concerts. Well, Johnny’d rock and roll down there til I was nearly out of my
brain… (laughter). He was a bit noisy, let’s put it that way…
LW: You lived above the auditorium…
PC: Yes… (laughter) Right above it!
LW: High up.
EM: He was a Waverley College boy, wasn’t he.
PC: Yes.
BC: That’s right. But, you now, [ ] I can’t remember much about him, that’s all you know
sort of – I never knew him other than that. It was just um, to get him, ah, down on to the
beach and someone to keep an eye on him, I think his father was a bit worried about him.
LW: Brian, when did you eventually move about, you and Patricia, when did you move
out from the pavilion and move on from the area?
PC: In 1959…
BC: in 1950? About – in 1959, was it?
PC: Yes, yes, May of 1959.
LW: So at the same time, you’d lived there all along and at the same time as your father
retired…?
BC: No, no – we never moved. But my mother got very ill. So we had to come back
there and I went to the war, I was away at the war for nearly six years. Subsequently I
came back from the war and married Tricia and we lived away from the beach. But she
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got very, very ill and I was an only son and ah, dad was still working there and, to help
him out we moved back to look after her and look after him too because she was unable
to. Then we subsequently moved up to Hurstville in 1959.
EM: So did you grow up in Bondi as well?
PC: Yes, I wasn’t a beach girl though, I didn’t like the beach very much.
LW: What street did you grow up in?
EM: In Knowles Ave off [Maroubra] road…
LW: I know where that is, it’s a nice part of Bondi.
PC: Yes, we… I would have lived there all my life, nearly.
EM: Where did you go to school?
PC: Well, I went to St Anne’s, then I went across to Waverley to St Clair’s College.
EM: I’m a St Clair’s girl!
PC: Were you? Oh gee, well I went there for a while. Dad had a shop in Waverly,
opposite the post office.
EM: Oh really?
PC: Yeh, so ah…
EM: Near the hotel…?
PC: Yes… like it was there and the hotel was across…
EM: Right. Yeh they’ve got those great Milk bars.
PC: Yeh
EM: Yes I know.
PC: So that’s where we went to school.
EM: So, you talked about the war. Did your father tell you any stories about Bondi during
those war years?
BC: Yes! A very interesting one, yes. Um, this Roy Scarfield I mentioned that run the
esplanade, went on a shooting trip to Scone. And he shot apparently a Kangaroo, a
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wallaroo it was… that’s a kind of wallaby. She had a baby in its pouch. She – how can I
put this – threw, got rid of the baby out of its pouch and Roy took it and brought it back
to Sydney for his daughter.
Well, apparently every time the kangaroo or wallaby hopped, the daughter screamed, so it
couldn’t stay there. So he brought down to my father and said, well could he, would he
do something with it, either get rid of it, or take it or look after it or give it away or
something so he decided to keep it himself.
Sum total was, he – Josie, as it was known – was reared at the beach, and this was the
war years, and I’m only repeating what’s been told to me, that there used to be a lot of
Americans probably sleeping with a hard night over at the beach, and that sort of thing
and one particular morning he used to go down to the toilets at the north end of the beach
and open them, every morning. And Josie – the wallaroo – used to go with him, hopping
along the promenade.
Well it was a very, very faithful animal. And this day, this Americans said to one of the
beach inspectors ‘there’s a wild animal jumping up there’ and it was explained to him
what it was. But another day, an American again, thought that he was seeing – he’d had
too much to drink and was seeing imaginary objects.
It caused quite some concern this animal it actually stopped all the trams in Bondi for a
while because it was caught underneath one of them. The animal was oh, it lived there for
about 5-6years, I think, and become part of the establishment. It did – in those war years
– cause some [ ]. Course in those days, in that era too, they destroyed the, the army
destroyed the piers that came out on to the beach, because of the fact they considered
them to be a defense hazard.
LW: Now those piers, with the northern and southern courtyards, where the various
dressing sheds were, there were male and there were female. They would walk out and
under the promenade and come out on the piers?
BC: Yes, there was, um – you came out – it went underground and you came up a
walkway and it led you onto the beach. But they lead directly down to the waters edge
and it took a terrible lot of um, I believe, blasting and etc to rid them because of the
foundations that had to be there because of the water tides.
DM: So they were destroyed on the basis that they could assist an enemy in invading?
BC: Well, my father said the fact was that they considered it would impede their machine
gunning from various parts of the beach if there was a landing to take place. That was the
military’s reason for them, for destroying them. They were a defense problem. But in
actual fact it never ever happened. So they might, probably never should have been [ ] but
people weren’t to know that.
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DM: But the tunnels, those tunnels underneath from the sheds out on to the beach, those
tunnels remained in place and were operational?
BC: No…
DM: They were. They were, sort of shut down at the same time?
BC: Yeh. Um, well Stan Macdonald took Chair hire part of it took the men’s portion
where they came out. I don’t know whether it’s still there now.
DM: Run by his grandson….
BC: Oh, by, By Neil?
DM: Yes yes… and they’ve been there for many years.
LW: And we occupy the other one.
BC: Oh, do you?
LW: We occupy the life guards or the beach inspectors [ ], we occupy that for storing our
equipment.
BC: I don’t know, I don’t think that was used.. must have been…
LW: Did you ever go to the Ledo, was it called the Ledo at North Bondi, the big dance
hall?
PC: No…
BC: Well, it was nowhere near as big at the Esplanade, and when the esplanade opened
the Ledo only became basically a restaurant or a take away food place – and served the
north end of the beach part you know, with ice-creams and all that sort of thing, But it
was not near, not as big as, in fact when the esplanade opened, it put the Ledo out of
business.
LW: …because people recollected there that at night time, there were thousands of
people, throngs of people along the promenade walking…
BC: Oh, yes…
LW: …coming and going from the Ledo. And the pavilion, or the esplanade if you like.
BC: Well, I think they mainly came from the Esplanade. New Years Eve, every News
Years eve, was a big, a very big thing, the North Bondi surf club and the Bondi surf club
met at midnight. They, in those days had dances and that sort of thing on New Years Eve.
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And at fixed date, they would both move out on the promenade and meet in the centre of
it. And that would be very, very big crowds and, for New Years Eve celebrations.
LW: What do you know, in those days, the swimming flags were generally in the middle
of the beach and at North Bondi. But what happened at the southern end of the beach?
Which has become very popular now. But in those days what sort of things happened
down there? Did people actually go down the end of the beach, to the southern end?
BC: Not to any large degree.
LW: We were talking about the southern end of the beach, and you were telling us that it
wasn’t very popular, because it was dangerous.
BC: Plus the fact that mostly, it was a very rough sea, there was no surf, because of the
protection it got from the rocks and etc. And it became very popular with the Jewish
people after the war. They came here as refugees and they were, they were afraid of the
surf. They didn’t like the surf. But they liked still water and that’s mostly what this was.
And I, having experienced this myself, had to rescue one particular man who just laid on
his back and floated out to sea on the tide. And it was unbelievable.
But ah, the Bondi Surf Club had to put a reel down there, and two, two personnel, to ah,
just watch these particular Jewish people, because it was still water and the tide taking
them out, they weren’t to let them get too far. Because they didn’t realize that they were
just floating out to sea.
LW: You’ve spoken now about Jewish migrants after the war, who fled from Europe.
You would have probably witnessed, you know, the post-war migration of lot of people
from Greece, and Italy… do you recollect that at all?
BC: Not in very largely in the era that we there. Um, it was mostly people coming to
settle in Bellevue Hill and that sort of the thing, that I think with the Catholic people
would have been, or the refugee people, from those countries in Germany and etc, But
there was no general population, of ethnic population there. I think that happened after
we left.
LW: You talk about Bellevue Hill and a lot of Jewish people moving into that area. We
know that Bellevue Hill these days is a very affluent area, there’s a lot of money there. At
that time what type of area was it? Would land have been cheap, or housing cheap for
these people that had come from war-torn Europe?
BC: No. No it wouldn’t have been. Actually my father was brought up in Bellevue Hill.
He was born in Paddington of [ ] ah Irish parentage. And he spent his younger days in
Paddington, then his father and mother brought property in Bellevue Hill. And in those
days, it would have been reasonably cheap, yes. But it grew, it gradually got very, very
costly.
16
EM: Can I just ask you, when you were growing up in Bondi, you mentioned the Jewish
people, were there any people of different backgrounds, Chinese for instance, in the area
at all [ ]
PC/BC: Not at all. No.
EM: Because we do have Chinese market gardens in the early years of Waverley around
the area. I wonder what happened to the people.
PC: No, there was never…
BC: It surprises me, that you ever had the Chinese Gardens in the…
EM: At Waverley Park, amongst other places.
BC: Did they? I never knew that.
PC: No, there wasn’t there.
BC: No. That must have been in the very, very early…
EM: It was yes.
BC: But down at the beach itself, it would be too sandy to ah, [ ]
EM: So you didn’t have like, aboriginal people/kids or anything in the schools?
BC: No, no. I wouldn’t say there was anything, other than probably would be of Italian
origin like they had the fruit and vegetable shops or something. That would be all, there’d
be nothing else.
LW: When you were kids, do you remember were any of the old farms still around?
Because very early on, even in the early part of last century, the first two decades, there
were still farms around the area. People still had cattle…
EM: Dairy.
LW: Dairy… those things had gone?
PC: When we come up here, it was a dairy (laughter).
BC: No I don’t recall that, but I do recall when I started going to school, I would have
been five years old then or six, walking over sand hills to the school, which was in [ ]
street. That’s the only thing I can remember of the sort of wilderness you might say.
EM: Was the golf course up there back then?
BC: No.
17
EM: Right. Did you know about the Aboriginal rock carvings back then?
BC: Yes. I think one of the jobs that father had to do, I had actually seen those when I
was very young… down, they had a light reel or a boil reel down underneath the Merc I
think they called it in those days…
LW: Yes it’s still known as the Merc.
BC: …and you had to inspect the reel there and that, regularly to make sure that it hadn’t
been vandalized or that it was in good working condition. Because with so many
fishermen, it was a very popular fishing spot, and they had to keep that under control, or
watched, I supposed you might say.
But then I had, but I remember when I was a young lad, seeing those carvings there of the
aboriginal works. Actually the military had a part up, I think they might have had that
where the golf club, the gold course was, a bit further too, pretty large area…
EM: Up near Darling Bay, maybe…
BC: No it was where the old golf course was mainly, round there.
LW: You had the Hotel Astra, which… and the Hotel Bondi which have been there…
Bondi Hotel has been there for a very long time.
BC: It was the first…
LW: That’s right. Do you remember some of the other commercial shops along the front,
things that, you know, places that you remember when you were…
PC: [ ] Milk Bar…
BC: The old Milk Bar – Revici’s.
LW: Revici’s?
BC: That was a very popular milk bar too. And ah, the um, King’s theatre, when that was
on, came. Also the Six Ways Theatre, which was a Hoyts theatre, apparently. Anything
else, I don’t…
EM: Did you ever go to Bondi Junction?
PC/BC: Oh, yes.
EM: Do you remember Spring street before the Eastern Suburbs Leagues Club? Do you
remember what was there?
18
BC: Mainly shops…
EM: You don’t remember the skating rink?
BC: Yes, yes, yes, a skating rink, That became [ ] town, after skating, I never went there,
I was never interested in skating. But, when the popularity of skating finished, it became
[Seatown] Studios.
EM: And they made “On Our Selection” there.
PC: Yes… (laughter)
BC: that’s correct…
PC: …that was a long time ago.
DM: Was Bondi park and the Bondi beach, was it as popular as it sort of currently is on a
busy summers day…
PC: Oh Yes… you’d think so
BC: Oh yes, well, the tables in the collanades of the pavilion, around the back – not
terribly many of them, but people used to arrive early in the morning to sit there and
reserve them for the rest of the family to arrive later in the day. Otherwise they had to sit,
go into the park, it’d be a bit hot I suppose, for them but they had the shade and the table
and everything was more comfortable.
DM: Yes having a look at pictures I’ve seen mainly around the 50’s and 60’s with crowds
of 50- or 60000 people all down on the beach, in the park, on the promenade, on any
given day but there are a lot more cars, a lot more vehicles bringing people down…
PC: That’s right.
DM: … than just the trams. So, yeh, it’s obviously still, it always has been the focus for
Sydney-siders for a day out at the beach.
BC: That’s right. We had a very, very bad hailstorm there, I just can’t remember what
year. Probably in the 30’s…
PC: In the 40’s… No.
BC: No, it’d be in the 40’s…
PC: 40’s…
BC: …we were at the beach and these very large hailstones started…
PC: They were about that big…
BC: Yeh, big as golf balls… and um, we’d came home pretty quick. In those days a lot of
the motor vehicles had…
PC: Canvas roofs.
BC: Yes, canvas covers.
PC: Made a mess of them.
19
BC: And I remember them very well driving along the driveway, the esplanade driveway
all battered and broken, and what have you.
[ ]:
PC: I can’t recall… (laughter) what year it was.
LW: Was anyone injured?
PC: Quite a few people, yes…
BC: Quite a few with hailstones, yes. Yes, they would have been treated by the …
PC: [ambulance]
BC: … first aid people at the club. [ ]
LW: So it was a sudden thing, where the weather was fine, and then…
PC: Then the hail.
BC: Well, it was in the respect that it didn’t rain first, it hailed first.
PC: It hailed.
BC: But very, very black. It was all the signs of very nasty weather, [ ], but ah, in [ ]
court, was a very large block of flats, don’t know whether they’re still there, no I think
that is where the [ ] is,
PC: I don’t think so.
BC: …now but they had all their, ah, it was a large flat area, and they had all their
windows broken.
PC: Every window.
DM: Do you remember any other sort of big storms that created big surf around the
pavilion and onto the beach?
BC: Oh well …the storms were there, they did come. I remember water coming up onto
the promenade… and that sort of thing, and of course that used to bring the sand back up
and banking up against the back sea wall there. That’s why they had a tractor, which I
think a Mr [Rifflen] used to be the driver of the tractor and worked between Bondi and
Bronte.
DM: That still happens, too.
BC: Still happens?
DM: We still grade the beach, probably every couple of years, I think.
BC: Well I think he was permanently doing it, this chap. He was employed by the
council. They owned the vehicle, and he was continually going.
DM: Oh, ok. That might be similar to what we’ve got now, in terms we have a rake… a
big rake behind a big tractor.
20
PC: Oh.
BC: Well, yes…
DM: It’s predominantly coming through to try and get the rubbish that’s been collected in
the sand from the day before. So it goes through about 4 times a week.
BC: In those days, too, when this tractor used to do this particular thing, a terrible lot of
people what they used to term ‘fossickers’ were down there, because the tractor would…
PC: … turn over.
BC: … turn over the sand. And I believe that they used to make a living out of it.
DM: You’d find coins I suppose.
PC: Oh yes…[ ]
DM: Keys and things that had fallen out of pockets.
PC: I can remember when Brian’s father retired, when he had to take everything, things
back to the council. The False teeth!!! (laughter) He had a box full of false teeth.
(laughter) And every purse that had loose change in it, that all went back to the council.
But there was a cardboard box full of them. [ ] all these teeth, I thought ‘God help me’ …
(laughter)
DM: Wonder what happened to [ ]?
PC: Somebody might try them on for size! (laughter)
LW: These days, you know, the media and people generally rejoice in the fact that at
certain parts of the year we have a migration of whales, and dolphins, and you get fairy
penguins down there sometimes, we get seals that get washed up. Back in your
experience in your years at Bondi, do you recall those sort of thing?
BC: I recall penguins, yes. Had a number of those, and also muttons birds. But what my
father used to do was ring the zoo up and they’d come and take them away, like there
were no special…
PC:… no warden or anything like that in those days.
BC: …people in those days. But nobody, a whale, or a dolphin… well, that was just part
of the beach, that was no different to a shark arriving. It was not a big deal at all.
LW: And, of course you had a lot of people down there made a living or amused the
crowds by pulling in sharks.
PC: (Laughter) Yes.
BC: Well…
LW: Fishermen, that could… caught them…
21
BC: There were a lot of beach fishermen in the very early days there, I’d say in the 20’s
and that, and the sharks, you could walk down to the beach and they’d be on the beach,
and they had to employ, council use to bury them. And they had to come and do it.
EM: Do you remember any shark attacks while you were young?
BC: Yes… but I never saw it. It happened but I never saw it, no.
LW: Yes. I think the last shark attack, there were 2 in the one year, and that was 1928. A
chap lost his leg, a chap from Bondi Surf Club. Max Steele? And a young fellow…
BC: I remember being told about that.
LW: … yes, and a young fellow, I think, died as a result of a shark attack that same year.
So you would have been fairly young…
PC: Yes.
BC: Possibly, when they put the nets… out on the beach it stopped. I think, would have
stopped the shark attacks to a big extent.
LW: When did that happen? What year was that?
BC: I’m sorry, I couldn’t recall that, but I remember, I remember them coming… I used
to remember them regularly coming and laying them and taking them up… and going
away with them and I believe that they could catch quite a number.
LW: Those fishermen on the beach woh were catching the sharks were they meaning to
catch the sharks, was that what they wanted to do?
BC: That was their sport.
LW: That was their sport?
BC: They did it at night. Well, there were people in the water in the day. So any noise
that would be there would frighten them away.
DM: There’s a boat club, at North Bondi, like a boat, boat shed really. Was that…Do you
recall that being there during the 30’s and 40’s? It’s just a simple boat shed, I’m intrigued
by this boat shed…
BC: no… no, whereabouts would you say it is?
LW: It’s out toward Ben Buckler… just next to the last block of units going out to Ben
Buckler, it’s the amateur swim, ah, fishermen’s club.
22
BC: Oh, ok…
LW: I know that Aub…
BC: It’s… not where [Roth] Bassingthwaite and those had their boats sheds, was it? See
they used to go out fishing from there.
DM: Right. Ok.
BC: Would that be…
DM: That would probably be the site.
BC: …probably where you mean? Oh yes…
LW: There’s a slipway in the water.
BC: People called Platts. Platts, was, they were a very, oh, I’m guessing long before
Basso. Um, that was their livelihood. They used to get, used to come up on the beach, big
hauls of fish, particularly garfish. It was a lucrative business in those days, and they had,
ah, well they weren’t big boats, they were only say, skiffs, or that sort of thing…
DM: Well, that’s similar to what’s still happening there today.
BC: Oh, what’s… are they the boat sheds you mean?
DM: Yes.
BC: Yes, that’s what they are.
DM: So there’s a lot of fishing within that, within, off the Bondi beach area, within the
boat? Like, the boats went out regularly each night?
BC: Well, I think they only went when the fish were around… they seemed to know the
reason… that um, to get them. Because, I know my mother used to love garfish and she’d
send me off as a boy down to get the garfish to buy them off that skiff, [ ] down there off
the beach with it.
PC: [ ]
DM: yeh.
BC: The word got around in Bondi that the trawlers were out and that a lot of people
would arrive to buy fish.
DM: Buy straight from the trawler.
BC: Ah, I suppose it was cheap too, I never remember, in those days.
23
DM: Yeh, well the boats are still there, I don’t think there’s probably as many as there
were…
BC: Well, there wouldn’t be as many fish but in those days there were quite a number of
fish, I used to get a lot of whiting off the beach.
DM: Ok.
LW: You still get a bit of whiting now but of course there’s not as much, not as many fish
out there as there was, you know, in the old days.
EM: And people still fish off the rocks and get swept off….
PC: That just doesn’t make sense to me. You hear of the waves and all that…
DM: Particularly when the big… surf, and we’ve had a few…
PC: .. a few of them lately.
DM: … of the big surf over the last month or so.
LW: Do you remember, did you have much to do with the Bondi Icebergs club?
BC: No. No, not really. You know, only probably what I was told, or read but that was of
no great consequence.
LW: Was it a popular club in its time?
BC: Well, ah, not really I don’t think. It was um, not with the younger people for sure. It
was mostly the elderly men and I think it was a more social than anything that they went
there. Because they used to have their beer and what have you and that was what it was.
But mainly for younger people, the surf clubs were the main thing,
LW: And there were a lot, a range of activities outside of the normal boat rowing and
surf-swimming and body-surfing, the clubs offered other activities?
BC: Oh, yes, the ah, as I mentioned about amateur wrestling, that was there, and
boxing…
LW: Physical culture, was there such a thing?
BC: What?
LW: Physical culture?
24
BC: No. nothing like that.
LW: Gymnastics, any of those sorts of things?
BC: Oh well, yes there was a probably a bit of that.
DM: Just one thing sorry, just to change the subject slightly and pick on something, in
1950-, you left the pavilion in ’59?
BC: Yes…
DM: In 1954 there was a visit by the Queen. Do you remember that at all?
BC: Yes.
PC: Yes.
DM: What did that look like? From pictures that I’ve seen it looked like it was quite a big
day, in terms of ceremonies…
PC: It was, yes…
DM: …and there was a surf carnival put on… as I understand it.
BC: It was,. She came from… my recollection of it, she came from Randwick Race
Course where she was attending a race meeting there, to the surf carnival in the
afternoon, and with Prince Phillip. That’s right, yes, I remember that.
EM: Do you remember they decorated the pavilion? They put a whole… I’ve got a lovely
picture of palm fronds and things on the columns…
BC: Yes…
PC: There were a lot of people there.
BC: A terrible, terrible lot of people
EM: Was your father involved in those preparations?
BC: Well, he would have been.
PC: Would have been.
BC: …I should imagine, he never… he would have had to be, because the fact that they
would have been using the pavilion as the place to do their work.
EM: But you don’t recall if he was presented to the queen?.
BC: No, no, he never was.
LW: Do you know who succeeded your father after 1959?
25
PC: Yes. Carl
BC: Yes…Carl Walden, but he did not live very long, he was a very sick man. And then
Mrs Walden took up residence in the flat that was above the ah…. For quite a number of
years, I think.
LW: It was a two bedroom flat?
PC: Yes. Two bedroom.
DM: So Mrs Walden stayed there…
PC: She stayed there.
BC: Yes.
DM: …there was no caretaker. Or was she doing some of the tasks?
BC: Oh, well I don’t know, the council did pay her, but I think it was more or less a
caretakers job.
PC: [ ]
BC: I don’t know what her responsibilities would have been, I would not have known.
DM: Right, right. Because it was a caretakers one up until very recently as I understand
it, up til about 1999. There was a full time live in caretaker, that changed in 1999. It
stayed that way for quite a while.
It’s now rented out as office space for some community …groups who do work in and
around the pavilion who put on festivals and put on events. We’ve certainly still got the
role of caretaker still happening in the pavilion.
BC: The um, day that we were, at the Turkish baths that the council got us out there, the
gentleman from the library there, took us around and showed us the pavilion, well I’d
never been there and I haven’t been back again, and it’s [ ] changed all up.
PC: Oh, I’ll say.
DM: How long ago was it that you visited?
PC: Oooh? Oh, must 4-5, 5 years?
BC: Oh, it was longer that, I think, Tricia.
PC: It’s a good while, long time…
BC: Dad was [ ]…
26
PC: …When I looked at the floor, and I saw all this mosaic floor. And I said, well I’m
walking on mosaic today, but I was walking on concrete a few years ago…
(laughter)
Was none of this fancy floor for me!
DM: Well, you would noticed more changes now since, particularly after the Olympics.
PC: Oh, yes.
BC: Yes.
EM: Did you see the pavilion – on the television?
PC: Yes, yes.
DM: Where the beach volley ball was held….
BC: Oh yes.
DM: …so the Olympics put in a lift and there’s music studios in the southern courtyard
courtyard,
PC: Dear, oh dear!
DM: … and where the old Turkish baths are, is now is the process of getting converted
into office accommodation, and ah, quite… quite big changes…
PC: I’ll say! I wouldn’t know my way around!
LW: Do you recall where the beach inspectors… did they have a room in the pavilion
during that time, and if so whereabouts was it? Because I remember…
BC: I cannot recall and I do not think there was one!
LW: Where did they operate from? They just went down to the beach, did they and set
up?
BC: Well, mainly, mainly… well as far as I know, all of them were either members of the
Bondi Surf Club or the North Bondi Surf Club, and they arrived at work in their costumes
and that was probably, well they had, yes, they changed at their various surf clubs.
LW: So although they were employed by the council they would just turn up at the surf
club that they were a member of and get ready from there, and go down to the beach.
BC: And I think that probably’d be their wish… that would be their wish to do that. Apart
from that, I wouldn’t, I couldn’t tell…
27
LW: I think I recall in the 1970’s that there was a room, or two rooms, at the northern end
of the pavilion, when a chap called Alan Johnson was the chief beach inspector. Alan
worked under Aub for many years. There were two rooms there but it sounds like that
came along later in time…
BC: I would think so, because, see ah, when my father was there, in those days he was
responsible for the beach inspectors, then subsequently whether it was Aub or that, they
made it an independent thing and the head beach inspector was the man in charge, so
that’s probably the day, the time that those rooms might have come.
LW: Do you remember any of the names of the people that were in charge? Tom Maher
perhaps?
BC: Tom, yes. I knew Tom very well.
LW: Was Tom a chief beach inspector or in charge…?
BC: Yes.
LW: He was.
BC: He was the one in charge when the terrible drownings happened, and it subsequently
caused him to have a nervous breakdown. He was a very dedicated man, Tom Maher… I
served time in the islands with him actually, we started a life saving club at Toraketa
beach in Bougainville because so many Americans had been drowned, that they were
there before the Australians, the Australians came to take over from them so they could
move on to the Philipines.
And ah, there were so many men had been drowned, they were very treacherous beaches
that we decided, Tom was the main instigator of it, to set up a seal club and he got
members from the Australian forces that were arriving there, that were members of surf
clubs to join it. So ah…
LW: That’s very interesting.
BC: A very dedicated man, Tom Maher.
LW: Stan Mcdonald finished on the beaches in 1933, when of course he took over the
deck chair hire…
BC: yes, that’s right…
LW: …in ah,…
BC: …surfer planes…
28
LW: That’s right – was, in your recollection, was Stan Mcdonald a chief beach inspector?
BC: Yes! An only one…
LW: An Only one… So he served alone…?
BC: For a long time, for a long time… he lived in the Bondi Surf Club. They built
quarters for him when they built the new surf… that Surf Club there. And Stan lived
there – he was on call 24 hours a day.
LW: And when Stan finished as a beach inspector, was it Tom that succeeded him, Tom
Maher?
BC: I think so… I think so.
LW: Until Tom left for the war of course.
BC: That’s right… yes…yes.
LW: When he was living in the surf club was he the resident care-taker, or were the
rooms just built for him as a beach inspector?
BC: No, he was a resident care-taker.
LW: He was the resident care-taker. Do you recall that when he started his deck-chair
hire and surfer-plane hire, or aqua-plane hire, do you recall the sort of sun-tan oils back
then? He had a mutton bird oil for a long time.
BC: Yes, in the pavilion and there was a gentleman chap there, and he had an oil business
too, there was one in the surf pavilion, and then Stan opened a similar type of one on the
beach. But uh, I don’t know what sort of oil, no I can’t remember what sort of oil they
used and that sort of thing
LW: Because I’ve spoken with members of Bondi Surf Club over the years when I was
the resident care-taker there, and they told me about some of the things they did to get a
sun-tan, including using foil to reflect the sun, and using Kerosene, did you ever hear
that?
BC: No, no…
LW: … using Kerosene on the skin…
EM: Kerosene?
BC: I think a lot of that’s in their mind…
29
LW: Is it?
(laughter)
BC: I never heard of kerosene.
DM: Put a match to it and that it’d be the end of it…
EM: No, I don’t have anything more to say. I just thought it would be interesting to ask
both of you… this is a little bit off the track…but um, so ah you weren’t a beach girl, and
you lived down at the pavilion… How did you meet?
PC: At work.
BC: At work.
EM: At work.
PC: Yes!
BC: I worked for, we both worked for a…
PC: [ ]
BC: [ ] company…
EM: Oh? Where was that?
PC: Broadway
BC: Broadway. Birch, was the biggest [courier] in the southern hemisphere.
EM: Right. And then you found you both lived in Bondi...?
BC: Yeh, I just suppose it, just um, met at work, and lived in the same area, just probably
[ ] we met going home, coming home… that sort of thing, and so on eventuated.
EM: Did you take her to the dances at the Pavilion?
PC: Oh No!!! I think [ ] thank you very much…
BC: No, I think they were finished then. See, what happened with those, they died off
there, when the Astra was built they built a dance place there and Roy Scarfield went
from there to the Astra and a chap called Herb Gilbert took over the Esplanade.
EM: So, what did courting couples do in Bondi, apart from dance?
PC: Go to the pictures.
BC: In latter years, to the Kings Theatre and before that, the Hoyts Theatre… that was all
there was… [ ]
EM: And watch all those American films… [ ]
30
PC: Oh yes…
BC: Yes yes.
PC: [ ] He’s not a film buff either, but I liked all of those!
EM: But he did take you to the pictures?
PC: Oh yes, he sat at the pictures!
EM: Walks along the beach…
BC: Oh, Yes yes… they were the main things I suppose.
PC: There wasn’t very much to do in those days, when you come to think of it.
LW: If you had a dinner out, where would you go?
PC: Oh, probably Carls…(laughter) which was a big deal.
LW: Cars?
PC: Carls…
EM: Carls.
LW: Oh, Carls…
EM: Which Carls?...
BC: There wasn’t much around in Bondi put it that way, it would have had to be in the
city somewhere.
PC: …Either in George Street or where was the other one, Castlereagh Street.
BC: There was a number of them.
EM: There were a few. They were still around when I was young.
BC: Though mostly in Bondi, there were…
PC: There wasn’t very much there…
EM: [ ]
BC: Milk bars… as they were called.
PC: Milk Bars.
BC Palton’s. Paltons were basically the big ones…well, there were no others I don’t
think.
PC: I don’t think there were any restaurants.
BC: No, [ ]
EM: Times changed
31
PC: Very boring.
LW: Times have changed
PC: Yes, I wouldn’t know how to get there now with all the one-way streets.
LW: Well, thank you very much for the opportunity to share your recollections.
BC: Oh, it’s been a pleasure. All I can hope is that it’s been of some benefit.
LW: I think it will be of immense value for us, compiling not just a history of the lifeguards
but just generally on the area and the pavilion.
BC: If there’s anything in time that crops up, that I can help you with, just give us ring.
EM: Thank you, thank you.
LW: Thank you.