1951 - present

When the band Dragon – created by brothers Todd and Marc Hunter - left New Zealand in 1975 they brought their rock n' roll dream to Sydney, and Bondi was their first home. The pair were part of a growing wave of migration across the Tasman to Bondi in the 1970s and ‘80s. 

At Penkivil Street, “each day we would get up and wander into the band room like zombies, pick up our instruments and keep playing from wherever we had stopped late the night before. It must have been hell for the neighbours … but a lot of songs got written there,” Marc remembered.

Later, living at Ebley Street provided a career boost. Whenever a band didn't show up to perform at the legendary Bondi Life Saver venue, the bouncer walked down the road and invited Dragon to play.

Their debut gig was at Selina’s in the Coogee Bay Hotel. Within a year they had hit the charts with tracks such as This Time (1976), Get That Jive (1977), Sunshine (1977), April Sun In Cuba (1977), Are You Old Enough? (1978) and Still In Love With You (1978).

Keyboard player Paul Hewson wrote most of their 1970s hits, but his and other band members’ drug and health issues took a toll. Dragon called it a day with a gig at Selina’s on New Year’s Eve 1979. The band reunited in 1982 and had a surprise hit with Rain. Their 1984 album ‘Body and the Beat’ became one of the biggest-selling albums in Australia and New Zealand.

In the early ‘80s Hewson moved to a flat in Elizabeth Bay, which he shared with struggling singer-songwriter Paul Kelly. Hewson died of a drug overdose in New Zealand in 1985. In 1986, the album ‘Dreams of Ordinary Men’ was released. A year later, “in a funky old house” on Bondi Road near Waverley Oval, the band recorded the album ‘Bondi Road’.

Todd Hunter helped organise the 1989 Turn Back the Tide protest concert to clean up water pollution at Bondi. He left Dragon in 1995. Marc died of throat cancer in 1998, aged 45. In 2008, Dragon's iconic status was recognised with induction into the ARIA Hall of Fame. Todd Hunter reformed Dragon in 2006 with Mark Williams on vocals. They play Australasian events and festivals most weekends of the year. 

Images courtesy Todd Hunter.