sign in sign up
<<
Home , Bikini

W A V E R L E Y C O U N C I L BIKINI WARS

A W a v e r l e y L i b r a r y L o c a l H i s t o r y F a c t S h e e t

Although two piece of keeping the in have been around since position. ( While it is impossible to say depicted found in the Villa who was the first to wear the Romana del Casale showed risqué bathing to Bondi women wearing tops Beach, there has been a history and to compete in of arrests of women who dared sports), the bikini as we to breach the 1935 ordinance recognise it is commonly on . credited to French engineer Louis Réard in 1946. According to a Sunday However, the humble bikini has Telegraph report seen its share of controversy in 1946, an unnamed woman over the last 75 years. braved Bondi promenade wearing a bikini and ‘caused a In Waverley, bathing near riot’. Waverley Council needed to meet stringent Lifeguard (then known as measurement requirements to Beach Inspectors) Aub Laidlaw be allowed on public beaches. told her she was indecently The Local Government attired and ordered her to the Ordinance No. 52 (1935) changing sheds at Bondi indicated that both men and Pavilion with instructions to put women’s costumes must have on some more clothes. legs at least 3" long, must Later charged with offensive completely cover the front of behaviour, this was just one of the body from the level of the many events in the armpits to the , and have subsequent fight against ‘public shoulder straps or other means indecency’. W A V E R L E Y C O U N C I L BIKINI ARRESTS

Aub Laidlaw later remembered Maybe sensing that they were that event in an interview fighting a losing battle Waverley with the Daily Mirror, 19 April Council debated the bikini 1984: matter at the Council meeting on 15 December, 1951. "I remember the first girl I However, the Council voted to ordered off was a medium continue enforcing the Local sized brunette from Darren St, Government Act. Lidcombe. The beach telegraph had got around before I caught By the , war was well and up to her and the mob was truly being waged on round her. We had to escort her Waverley’s beaches. Over the out the back door of the 1961 October long weekend, pavilion [Bondi Pavilion] to a more than 50 unnamed women tram." (some reports claim as many as 75!) were ordered from Bondi Throughout the 1950s, other Beach because their swimsuits woman also fell foul of the did not conform to regulations. Local Government Act, These arrests were given including Yvonne Freedman, extensive coverage by the and Hollywood film starlet Jean media, who often staged the Parker. In an interview about news stories themselves by his work in 1956 Lifeguard Bill ‘planting’ bikini clad models on Willis said that the Lifeguards the beach and then reporting resented having to act as the subsequent response by censor, however it was their the Lifeguards. During this time responsibility to enforce the the media coined the Local Government Act on the catchphrase ‘the bikini war’. beach. He said that it was demeaning to them as they In October 1961 Joan Mary were emergency service Barry, 25, a dancer and workers, not police. actress, was fined £3 at Paddington Court of Petty Sessions for wearing an offensive swimming costume on Bondi Beach. W A V E R L E Y C O U N C I L BIKINI ARRESTS

Images from :

Beach Inspectors at Bondi. Left to right, Bill Willis, Aub The costume was described as Later that year a rather novel Laidlow; Brian Davidson. ‘at least five inches below the solution to the bikini problem ’; she was fined for was proposed by Waverley Beach girls on Bondi refusing to resume 'ordinary Council Alderman J. Einfield. Promenade, 1947. Norma dress’ and calling apprehending His suggestion was that women Weston, Monica Kelly, Patty Lifeguard Aub Laidlaw ‘a fool’. wearing two-piece swimsuits Jupp, Judith ( Judy ) Parnell. A report of the case in the parade before members of Sydney Morning Herald, 4 Waverley Council and that Bathers on Bondi Beach, 1950 October 1961, claims that “Aldermen could then judge if Barry’s bikini had been the bikinis were decent”. In Bondi Beach Inspectors Dinner confiscated and was available reporting the (unsuccessful) flyer, 1955. for viewing at Paddington proposal Police Station. quipped, ‘The Eyes Have It’. Cartoon by Les Tanner, The Bulletin, October 1961. It wasn’t all women, though, in By the end of 1961 the old the battle of public decency. Local Government Act, Bathers on Bondi Beach, 1960. The Mayor of Waverley Ordinance No. 52 was Alderman Ray O'Keefe said abandoned and a new that he had instructed the ordinance introduced which Images from top: Council’s Beach Inspectors to simply required bathers be ‘clad make sure male swimmers in a proper and adequate Bondi Mermaids on Big Rock, were meeting the exacting bathing costume’ - without 1960. By Wally Glover. standards of the Local defining exactly what this was. Government Act. Reports in the Bikinis (and ) were no Jan Carmody (nee Percival), Sun Herald, 29 October 1961 longer deemed an affront to 1959. quote O’Keefe, "We are taking public decency. a good look at the men as well, Bondi Mermaids on Big Rock in and many of them have been high seas. sent off the beach for wearing exaggerated jockey shorts." Bondi Mermaids and local surfers, North Bondi, 1970.

Mermaid Jan, Waverley Library 1990. P u b l i s h e d b y W a v e r l e y L i b r a r y f r o m s o u r c e s i n t h e L o c a l H i s t o r y C o l l e c t i o n , 2 0 2 0