Fifty years ago, the last trams shot through to Bondi!
Bondi Beach, Australia's most famous 1960, enjoyed a high capacity tram service which brought crowds of beachgoers to enjoy their day on the sand, in the sun and the surf.
Sadly, successful though the line was, it, along with nearby Bronte - another beach suburb, fell victim to the orchestrated trend throughout the English speaking world to abolish trams and "replace" them with buses!
The last ones ran, packed, throughout Saturday, 27th February with the very last journey with a specially selected early version of the final model of tram running past midnight on Sunday, 28th.
Pictured ->
This picture, with story, featured in Bondi's Spectator newspaper just days before the event. It brought a gratifying number of Eastern suburbs residents all the way to the Shire!
An actual Bondi tram, number 1111 (see photograph below) was on hand for visitors to our Display Hall.
This particular tram, of the main type seen on the Bondi line, earlier served on the northern beaches line, running from Manly (ferry) Wharf to Narrabeen, another well loved beach. It later transferred to the larger northern suburbs system where it routinely took office workers over another Australian icon, the Sydney Harbour Bridge on its way to one of the world's first underground tram stations at Wynyard beneath Sydney's CBD.
After a stint in the inner western suburbs, it was "appointed" to Waverley depot where it ran to both Bondi and Bronte beaches packed. Occasionally, it scored a peak-hour trip loaded with school children on a single track cross country line where joined a different main line to yetr another famous beach, Coogee, which was the first one to receive a tram service.
Pictured: just a few years ago, 1111 was invited back "home" to its beloved Bondi Beach. The local school put on a play written to commemorate not only the famous Bondi trams, but a popular children's book by Libby Hathorn.
As it was found that someone had ripped up the Bondi tramlines, 1111 hitched a ride on a tram-friendly semi-trailer and returned to Bondi Beach Public School for several days. The local Mayor turned up and predicted that trams would one day would return to Bondi Beach! The children agreed that this was a capital idea.