1881 - 1959

There is great reverence for Stan McDonald. Known to many as the 'King of Bondi', Stan was the second appointed Chief Beach Inspector of Waverley Council. According to the Bondi Surfer publication ‘He held this position with outstanding ability and dignity, earning the admiration and respect of all who visited Bondi Beach’.

Stan set the pattern for Beach Inspectors, beginning the system of congregating people between flag areas, which continues today. Remembered for his powerful physique, Stan became justly famous for the many heroic rescues he conducted on Bondi Beach. ‘His rescues were truly outstanding, requiring skill, strength and stamina.’ (Bondi Surfer). He was twice awarded the Silver Medal for Bravery and also a bar to the silver medal from the Royal Shipwreck Relief and Humane Society and a Certificate of Merit of the Surf Life Saving Association of Australia. In 1928 a shark attacked 19-year-old surf lifesaver, Max Steele. ’Knowing that a shark had attacked, Tom Meagher, Stan McDonald, Allan Rennix and Harry Steele reached the victim together. Steele survived but lost a leg in the attack’. ‘One night after Stan had rescued a man from the surf, he went back to look for his mate who had disappeared, although he was warned a shark had been seen in the area’. (Daily Mirror).

After retiring in 1933, Stan set up Mac’s Beach Hire, which rented out deckchairs, surf-o-planes, towels and sun shelters, as well as providing an extremely popular sun tan lotion spraying service. In 1943 Stan commenced the annual Stan Mac relay, being a 20 person aside surf relay between Bondi and North Bondi Surf Club. 2022 marks the 80th consecutive year of competition - considered a world record in the surf life saving movement for such an event.

On his death on 21 June, 1959, members of the Bondi and North Bondi Clubs lined the Bondi promenade, with pennants of both Clubs flying in the breeze. Three police on motorbikes were in front of the cortege, the Beach Inspectors were lined up along Bondi Beach and the beach was closed for the whole day. Stan is now acknowledged with a plaque on the Bondi Heroes walk. He was the first person to be acknowledged in this fashion. The Mayor of Waverley unveiled a memorial bronze plaque ‘to one of the greatest men that any of them had known’. The plaque ‘commemorates the memory of Stan McDonald who devoted 47 years of his life to the service of visitors to Bondi Beach’.

Courtesy of the MacDonald Family and the Waverley library Local Studies Collection.