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Clip description
This newsreel from approximately 1924 shows surfers and swimmers enjoying the first day of real summer weather of the season. It opens with a wide shot of the northern end of Bondi Beach. Although there are some buildings on the shore front, the Bondi Pavilion had not yet been built.
Curator’s notes
Bondi Beach, one of the most famous beaches in the world, is captured in this Australasian Gazette newsreel. Australia’s love of the sun, sea and surf has been a strong part of our national identity and way of life over the past century, particularly from the 1920s when this newsreel was produced.
Newsreels at this time were used mainly to entertain rather than challenge or question the status quo. This newsreel certainly entertains and provides us with a record of this Australian icon.
Elaborate intertitles not only help tell the story but add drama to the newsreel. As it says, 'Perhaps the most thrills go to the surf-board riders’.
