Eyewitness Accounts
Below are eyewitness accounts from various sources:
Black Sunday
Broadcast 13/5/2002 at 6.30pm on ABC Classic FM.
February 6th, 1938 at Bondi Beach will always be remembered in oral folklore as ‘Black Sunday’. We speak to lifesavers and swimmers who were there on a day which saw five people drown and 250 swimmers needing assistance.
KEN FRANCIS, LIFESAVER ON 'BLACK SUNDAY': You could say it was a beautiful day, and not too hot. Beautiful surf, matter of fact. And, er, I'd already had two surfs in the morning. And I'd sunbaked.
CLEM WALSH, CAPTAIN ON DUTY 'BLACK SUNDAY': Between the two clubs, there were about 80 lifesavers on the beach at the time. We're just the fellas that weren't on patrol, and we were just coming down to compete in a surf race for the club, our own club race. So we were lucky
to have so many members there on the beach when this happened.
SUE WALSH, SWIMMER, BONDI BEACH, 'BLACK SUNDAY': We were all watching the people in the water and suddenly these waves just rolled in one after the other, and the people that were all standing there just disappeared. They were underwater.
CLEM WALSH: About three or four big waves just made up, filled the beach up, and then receded. When the beach fills up, the receding water is fairly strong. It's like another wave going the opposite direction. And it just took the shifted sand with it and it moved it out to sea further. And
people couldn't stand up on it. There was a lot of screaming and yelling. There was quite a lot of people, 250-odd people in the water were needing assistance.
KEN FRANCIS: I walked out and here's a young fella of 16 prostrate, and he'd been there -- they'd been working on him for five minutes so I gave a hand. After 15 minutes, the doctor came along and said unfortunately he'd passed away. We continued for another 15 minutes, but we had no luck.
SUE WALSH: Clem went out in a belt, and then the crowd was all so upset and excited and they started pulling the ropes in on the belts, you know, and that was so dangerous because it pulled them underwater. So Clem had to slip the belt and, um, just go -- you know, swim out and bring them in.
CLEM WALSH: So in some cases it was two and three and four at a time being pulled back to the beach. Took us about 20 minutes to do the lot from the time it started till the time we got the last ones in.
Broadcast 13/5/2002 at 6.30pm on ABC Classic FM.
February 6th, 1938 at Bondi Beach will always be remembered in oral folklore as ‘Black Sunday’. We speak to lifesavers and swimmers who were there on a day which saw five people drown and 250 swimmers needing assistance.
KEN FRANCIS, LIFESAVER ON 'BLACK SUNDAY': You could say it was a beautiful day, and not too hot. Beautiful surf, matter of fact. And, er, I'd already had two surfs in the morning. And I'd sunbaked.
CLEM WALSH, CAPTAIN ON DUTY 'BLACK SUNDAY': Between the two clubs, there were about 80 lifesavers on the beach at the time. We're just the fellas that weren't on patrol, and we were just coming down to compete in a surf race for the club, our own club race. So we were lucky
to have so many members there on the beach when this happened.
SUE WALSH, SWIMMER, BONDI BEACH, 'BLACK SUNDAY': We were all watching the people in the water and suddenly these waves just rolled in one after the other, and the people that were all standing there just disappeared. They were underwater.
CLEM WALSH: About three or four big waves just made up, filled the beach up, and then receded. When the beach fills up, the receding water is fairly strong. It's like another wave going the opposite direction. And it just took the shifted sand with it and it moved it out to sea further. And
people couldn't stand up on it. There was a lot of screaming and yelling. There was quite a lot of people, 250-odd people in the water were needing assistance.
KEN FRANCIS: I walked out and here's a young fella of 16 prostrate, and he'd been there -- they'd been working on him for five minutes so I gave a hand. After 15 minutes, the doctor came along and said unfortunately he'd passed away. We continued for another 15 minutes, but we had no luck.
SUE WALSH: Clem went out in a belt, and then the crowd was all so upset and excited and they started pulling the ropes in on the belts, you know, and that was so dangerous because it pulled them underwater. So Clem had to slip the belt and, um, just go -- you know, swim out and bring them in.
CLEM WALSH: So in some cases it was two and three and four at a time being pulled back to the beach. Took us about 20 minutes to do the lot from the time it started till the time we got the last ones in.
"Some of the men seemed to go mad. I was trying to take the belt to a youngster who was right out, but I didn’t get the chance. As I went by, dozens yelled for help and tried to grab me. I told them to hang onto the rope as soon as I had got it out, but they didn’t wait... I didn’t think I had a chance when they all came at me. One grabbed me round the neck, two others caught me by one arm, another held me round the waist, and another one seized my leg. I hit the man who had me round the neck. I managed to get in on his chin, and he let go. I had to do it. But for that I would have been drowned myself, and some of the others too." - Lifesaver Arthur Elm
‘The work of resuscitation was badly hampered by the huge crowd, mostly looking for their missing relatives and friends and going from patient to patient hoping against hope that it would not be the missing one.
‘As breathing was restored the patients were taken to the [Bondi Surf Bathers Life Saving] Clubhouse where warmth could be applied and stimulants given. After [the] Ambulance Room and Clubroom had been filled the rest were taken up to our open roof.
‘The Manager of the Council’s Dressing Pavilion [Bondi Pavilion] kept up the supply of hot water, sent over in 10 gallon milk cans, and this was used to soak towels in to provide warmth as our supply of hot water bottles was hopelessly inadequate....
‘A broadcast appeal by radio brought extra Police, Doctors, Ambulance men and First Aid helpers to the beach. Local doctors…did wonderful work and a visiting American doctor, Marshall Dyer, who was shooting some film on the beach…worked like a Trojan. Many other Doctors volunteered from among the bathers.’ - Waverley Council head Lifeguard, Tom Meagher
‘As breathing was restored the patients were taken to the [Bondi Surf Bathers Life Saving] Clubhouse where warmth could be applied and stimulants given. After [the] Ambulance Room and Clubroom had been filled the rest were taken up to our open roof.
‘The Manager of the Council’s Dressing Pavilion [Bondi Pavilion] kept up the supply of hot water, sent over in 10 gallon milk cans, and this was used to soak towels in to provide warmth as our supply of hot water bottles was hopelessly inadequate....
‘A broadcast appeal by radio brought extra Police, Doctors, Ambulance men and First Aid helpers to the beach. Local doctors…did wonderful work and a visiting American doctor, Marshall Dyer, who was shooting some film on the beach…worked like a Trojan. Many other Doctors volunteered from among the bathers.’ - Waverley Council head Lifeguard, Tom Meagher