In the 1930s and ‘40s, acrobatic exercise on the beach was a popular spectator sport and Bondi’s Wal Balmus cut a well-sculpted dash in the heyday of beachobatics.

Groups of acrobatic men and women from a gymnastic club would gather on Bondi Beach wearing the most daring costumes, and form their bodies into complex human pyramids.

Balmus, a professional strongman who ran a bodybuilding and fitness school at 75 Oxford Street, Waverley, is one of the gymnasts featured in a noted series of photographs taken by the amateur Bondi photographer George Caddy in the 1930s.

The images were lost until Caddy’s son discovered them in a suitcase when his father died. They have since formed the basis of an exhibition called ‘Bondi Jitterbug’ at State Library of NSW.

Balmus spent 25 years working as a professional ‘equilibrist’, performing dare-devil feats including hand-balancing on the edge of Niagara Falls, Bulli Pass and The Gap at South Head on Sydney Harbour. ‘Pix’ magazine published photographs of him in 1936, aged 46, balancing atop Bondi Hotel and on the Sun building’s tower, 54 metres above Phillip Street.

Balmus’s tanned complexion and well-defined form also made him the perfect life model for the sculptor Reynor Hoff, whose stone statues feature on the Art Deco Anzac War Memorial in Hyde Park, completed in 1934.

Postcards written to Hoff by Balmus reveal he considered it an ‘honour to have posed for you as the model for the spearman’. This is likely to be the central sculpture ‘Sacrifice’ in the war memorial.

Some of the best beach acrobatics displays were said to have been put on by the Graham Men's Gymnastic Club, established in Waverley in 1921. Most Graham Gymnasium stunts were practised at the southern end of Bondi Beach, away from the crowds. In the late 1930s, Sydney had about 30 gymnasiums, with interest in physical culture driven by the belief that personal fitness contributed to the nation’s strength.

Images courtesy of Trove, the State Library of New South Wales, courtesy Paul Caddy and the National Art School.