1939 - 1945

Australian military authorities identified Bondi Beach as being a likely invasion point after the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service mounted a surprise bomb attack against the US naval base at Pearl Harbor, Honolulu on 7 December 1941. The authorities fortified the beach by constructing barbed ‘concertina’ wire and other barriers along it. There was limited open space on the beach, so the members of Bondi Surf Bathers’ Life Saving Club’s Bronze Medallion squads had to train in Bondi Park rather than on the sand, and an army officer had to give permission for any beach activity to go ahead.

Operations at Bondi Surf Bathers’ Life Saving Club continued during the war, but surf carnivals were cancelled. Precautionary ‘blackout’ regulations were put in place, so that all windows facing the sea had to be blacked out to help hide Sydney’s location from Japanese forces. All street and suburb names were removed from signs so the enemy would be confused even more. Members of the Volunteer Defence Corps occupied the Bondi Pavilion, which was designated ‘the Bondi Beach Club’ and at which afternoon teas were served and dances held for enlisted men.

On the night of 31 May and 1 June 1942, three large Japanese I-class submarines released three 2-man midget submarines near the mouth of Sydney Harbour. One midget submarine was caught in the boom net, another discharged a torpedo striking the RAN depot ship, Kuttabul resulting in the deaths of 21 naval ratings. The next day the third midget submarine was crippled by depth charges.