The Myth of Bondi's Black Sunday

Abstract

On 6 February 1938, five bathers drowned while swimming between the flags at Bondi Beach, Sydney, Australia. In surf lifesaving history, the day is known as Black Sunday. The dominant heroic narrative of Black Sunday highlights freak surf conditions and the gallantry, efficiency, and adeptness of Bondi's volunteer surf lifesavers. In this article I analyse this representation as a myth. Here I employ the French philosopher Roland Barthes' concept of myth, not as a falsehood, but as simplistic story, replete with silences and devoid of critical assessment. I argue that the myth of Black Sunday served the interests of Surf Life Saving Australia well in establishing its status as the country's premier safety service. However, the culture that underpinned that myth still persists with ongoing ramifications for risk assessment at the beach.

Bondi's Big Rock: explanations and representations in coastal geomorphology

“…Secondly, Cass alerts readers to the problem of myth‐creating under conditions where one view is ‘repeated unchallenged so often that it [becomes] an accepted fact’ (Cass, , p. 19). Indeed, Bondi is replete with examples including issues relating to early landowner Francis O'Brien, surf bathing, surf lifesaving and surfing (for example, see Booth, ). Third, he captures the very real difficulties and issues associated with interpreting photographs when he writes that ‘an 1890 photograph…does not clearly show the Rock…[b]ut nor does a photo taken by a professional photographer with a professional…camera…on a sunny day in 2002’ (Cass, , p. 19).…”