1894 - 1925

It’s hard to imagine, but between 1894 and 1925, a large part of the present-day Bondi Park was a very large tram-turning loop. Trams were introduced in Sydney during the 1860s and were the city’s main mode of transport till the late 1950s. Their routes were short at first, but Sydneysiders kept demanding new ones, and the tram network became the British Commonwealth’s second largest, after London.

Bondi was an obvious and popular destination for a tram line, but planners had to work out not only how to enable thousands of beach goers to alight and depart there but to make sure that operation of the greater tramline remained smooth. The solution they came up with was a combination of double-ended trams and a large, balloon-shaped loop that took up a large part of the present-day Bondi Park.

Both the Bondi tram and the loop were opened on 19 February 1894, and tens of thousands of excited beach goers were soon flocking to the crescent-shaped sands every day.

The purpose of the line was to make travel to and from the beach much easier for Sydneysiders and tourists alike, but the loop was meant to be only a stop-off point where tram drivers could reserve or fill their vehicle’s water tank; it had no pavilion, milk bar or cafe next to it.

The loop was the source of the Australian slang expression “He [She] shot through like a Bondi tram!” – meaning “He [She] got the hell out of there!” – this was because the driver steered around the configuration at great speed and that the driver had time when to return down the single line to avoid oncoming trams.

The Bondi route was only a single line, and for the morning commute, the central-city trams would leave in pairs, the first tram travelling much faster than the second; then, in Darlinghurst, the first tram would “shoot through” to Bondi Junction, where passengers could quickly alight or board; then, at the Bondi loop, the tram would rejoin its partner.

Demolition of the Bondi tram loop, on Friday, 15 May 1925, was part of Waverley Council’s Bondi Beach and Park Improvement Scheme, because Council envisaged a future in which cars predominated and trams would be relics of a bygone era. The loop’s South Bondi site was planted with grass and turned into a major section of Bondi Park, between “the playground of the Pacific” and stately Campbell Parade.

Courtesy the State Library of New South Wales and Waverley Library Local Studies Collection.