I don’t often write about placenames in these columns, but I have been thinking about writing about the placename ‘Bondi’ for some time now.
Of course, ‘Bondi’ is one of the iconic beaches of the world.
For tourists ‘Bondi beach’ is one of those places they must visit when they come to Australia.
But now ‘Bondi’ is etched in the minds of Australians as the name the conjures up the horrible image of the Islamic terrorist mass murder of 15 Jewish Australians (and the injury of 42 more).
Bondi shows us what ‘globalise the intifada’ means—it means taking the slaughter of Jews to a jewel of the Australian coastline.
The issue of this placename has been raised by Craig Kelly in a recent issue of his online newsletter Confidential Daily in a piece entitled ‘The Origins of the Bondi Name.’
He writes that he is putting together a series of books on Australian history, and the first one, he says, will be about Bondi beach, which, he continues, ‘is intimately connected to Australia's history.’
After saying there are various theories about the origin of the name ‘Bondi’ Craig Kelly says one ‘widely accepted theory suggests that Bondi is a local aboriginal word for a “place where a fight with nullas occurred” – with a “nulla” being one of the names to describe a wooden club used by aboriginals as weapons for hunting and warfare.’
He wants to make the point that tribal life in this land before the arrival of the British convict colony was ‘brutal, harsh, and violent, especially for women.’
Well, it might have been—but the name ‘Bondi’ is not supporting evidence for that theory.
According to A. W. Reed’s famous book Aboriginal Placenames (1967) ‘Bondi’ (from the Gadigal word boondi) means ‘the sound of tumbling waters’ or ‘seas rolling in on a beach.’
And the publication date (1967) is important—because it was way, way before the whole Woke / Politically Correct movement was born.
In addition, Brian Kennedy’s reliable and authoritative book Australian Placenames (2006) says that ‘Bondi’ means ‘the sound of waves breaking on the beach.’
And Brian Kennedy adds that the name was first recorded by pioneer surveyor James Meehan (1774-1826).
So that is the real origin and meaning of the placename ‘Bondi’ and it is unhelpful to make an unsupported claim to the contrary.
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