Bondi Beach

Bondi is a kilometre of sand in a shallow bay eight kilometres east of central Sydney, closed at each end by sandstone headlands. It is the first beach most visitors to Australia see and, unusually for a famous beach, it remains primarily a working local one: the crowd on a Tuesday morning in June is people swimming laps, not people photographing sand.

Its place in the record is institutional. Bondi Surf Bathers' Life Saving Club, founded in 1907, is generally recognised as the first of its kind in the world, and the volunteer surf lifesaving movement that spread from here now patrols beaches across several countries. The beach also gave its name to a rescue that entered Australian folklore — the Black Sunday of 1938, when a set of waves swept some two hundred people out and lifesavers brought back all but five.

The shore is a clean crescent of golden sand with the surf running best at the south end, where the Bondi break sits beside the rocks. The north end is calmer and where families gather. A rip called the Backpackers' Express runs out along the north corner and catches visitors precisely because it looks like the quiet part. At the south end an ocean pool, the Bondi Icebergs, has been cut into the rock since 1929 and is flushed by waves at high tide.

Development is suburban rather than resort. Campbell Parade runs behind the beach with cafés, surf shops and hotels; the sand itself carries nothing but flags, towers and a pavilion. The coastal walk south to Coogee, six kilometres past cliffs and smaller bays, is as much the attraction as the beach.

Bondi is a working suburb with a famous beach in it, and the two facts sit together more easily than visitors expect. Surf lifesaving began on this sand in 1907 and the flags mean what they say. Swim between them, walk the Coogee path, and accept that on a February Sunday you will be sharing the place with the entire eastern suburbs.