1943

“SYDNEY, Saturday.— Unable to buy beer in the city and Eastern Suburbs today, thousands of men brawled at Bondi for two hours, in one of the worst riots on record. It was just one more in the series of street and hotel brawls which have marked Sydney's life in the past few weeks." - The Truth Newspaper.

In 1943, a series of Saturdays without horse racing saw violence across Sydney from large crowds of men including soldiers and citizens. One of the worst sites for these brawls was the Astra Hotel in Bondi. Reports suggest between 1500-3000 men were involved in the incident. Being a particularly hot day, most city hotels had run out of beer long before 3 o'clock. Those at Bondi Junction had met the same fate. Their clients, hearing about the beer at Bondi, started was described as a “river of men” from the city heading for the beach. By 4 o'clock the police had been called. 

At the Astra, the staff of 44 had been serving at top speed in the humidity since 11 a.m and soon ran out of beer like the rest of Sydney. The staff and manager attempted to close the bar, naturally the crowd was disappointed and fighting broke out.

Reports describe Police as being covered in blood as they constantly broke up fights. The Astra manager told Truth Newspaper afterwards that “he had never seen anything like the brawl”.
Police were in fights all over the place. Constables J. Butcher and E. Clarke had a terrific time trying to separate the combatants. They were reinforced later by Sergeant Blowes, Detectives Barnes, Terry, Cornish, McDonald, Detective-Sergeant P. Miller, and other police, who had dashed from points all over the Eastern Suburbs. At the peak of the brawl, one man was caught by the Bondi tram's cow-catcher. The man was not seriously injured, but was taken to St. Vincent's Hospital.

After increasing tensions across the city the Brawl was used to ask Governments to address the Liquor shortages in Sydney.

Courtesy the Waverley Library Local Studies Collection.