1911 - 1975

Photographer, painter, signwriter and surf lifesaver Bill Moseley left his mark on Bondi in more ways than one. The gregarious character was a well-known face in the area for more than 30 years from the 1930s.

Beach inspecting and lifesaving on the day of the deadly Black Sunday rescues were also among his skills, which also included designing and painting signage for the Bondi Pavilion and many surrounding businesses.

From a time when cameras were not an everyday tool, Moseley's amateur photography offers a unique snapshot of Bondi during this period. His body of work captures beach leisure, surf culture and even the shelling of Bondi and Rose Bay during World War II.

Charles Howard Percy Moseley, known as Bill Moseley, was born in England in 1911. He migrated to Australia as a teenager as part of the Dreadnought Scheme, which helped young people aged 16-19 migrate from Britain to take up farm apprenticeships.

Moseley quickly decided farming wasn’t for him and moved to Bondi in the late 1920s, soon joining the Bondi Surf Bathers Life Saving Club.

Moseley’s gregarious nature served him well finding work writing signs for local businesses. His art adorned some of Bondi’s popular milk bars, including a gelato sign on the Bondi Pavilion.

In the early 1940s, Moseley met his future wife on the Bondi Tram. They married soon after the war; a portrait he painted of her was hung in the Archibald Art Prize exhibition in 1945. He was also a finalist in the Wynne Prize in 1953 with a painting called ‘Beach Road, Double Bay’.

Moseley also ran a guesthouse at which many of his clients were post-war refugees, helping migrants transition to life in Australia. He painted signs for new migrant businesses as they set up their shops and delicatessens in Bondi.

Throughout his time at the beach, Moseley kept his camera close. He left a photographic legacy that intricately documents Bondi and the greater eastern beaches region. His amateur practice painted a unique perspective of life in the area, including the shelling of Bondi in 1942 and the growth of surf and leisure culture.

 Courtesy Marilyn Moseley.