1960s - 1980s

Bondi was not always the glamour location of today. It was disparaged as “a seaside slum with zero population growth” in media reports.

Bondi’s surfers – flanked by sewage outlets to the north and south – were accustomed to encountering all manner of trash emerging from the ‘Hep Pit’, a leaky drain at the southern end of the beach, riddled with syringes, hepatitis and other germs.

That was where the phrase ‘Scum Valley’ − now an affectionate name for Bondi − takes its roots. It was coined by local surfers in the 1980s and referred to the scum that came from a sewage outlet to the north and twin stormwater pipes to the south, below where the skate park is today. After bad storms effluent and waste swept onto the beach and into the ocean. There are multiple accounts to the exact origin of this term but it appears to have been first uttered by Greg Rutherford in a backyard lecture to a group of local grommets on Lamrock Avenue in 1979/1980. The term soon gained momentum being utilised as a badge of honor by surfing groups of the area.

Locals remember Bondi Beach being called ‘sewerage city’ because of the treatment plant at North Bondi and the smell emanating from the stenchpipe.

It was not unusual to see syringes on the beach. The proximity to Kings Cross meant drugs, including heroin, were easily procured. A beachside drug scene began developing from the late 1960s and many young surfers were caught up in it, with tragic results.

As real estate prices boomed in the 1980s, Bondi’s population began to change, with many residents forced out by cost. Pollution became an urgent community issue. Action came in many forms including a concert to raise awareness.

Supported by top Australian artists including Johnny Farnham, Jimmy Barnes and Angry Anderson, the Turn the Tide concert held on Bondi Beach on Good Friday 1989 attracted more than 100,000 people. The big crowd – supported by coverage on all major radio and TV stations − forced the state government to act.

Between 1990 and 1992, Sydney’s three treatment works (at Malabar, North Head and Bondi) were converted to a system of deep ocean outfalls with filters and diffusers on the ocean floor. Water quality improved quickly. Waverley Council then worked to upgrade the storm water channel … and Bondi’s place as an international tourist destination began to be restored.

Courtesy Waverley Library Local Studies Collection.