Hundreds of swimmers are washed out to sea on Bondi Beach - February 6th, 1938

On this day in 1938, three massive waves created chaos on Australia’s Bondi Beach. 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:08):
Hello, and welcome to This Day in History Class, a
show that pays tribute to people of the past by
sharing their stories. Today I'm Gay Bluesier, and today we're
looking at the largest surf rescue operation in Australian history,
a day remembered by locals as Black Sunday. The day

(00:34):
was February sixth, nineteen thirty eight. Three massive waves created
chaos on Australia's Bondai Beach. The wave cycle's powerful backwash
dragged roughly two hundred and fifty people out to sea,
but thanks to the rapid response of a local life
saving club, all but five of the panicked swimmers were saved.

(00:57):
The early months of nineteen thirty eight were a busy
time in Sydney, Australia. It was the one hundred and
fiftieth anniversary of the city's founding, and the month's long
celebrations drew visitors from all over the country. One of
the most popular spots for tourists and locals alike was
nearby Bondai Beach, about seven kilometers or four miles east

(01:21):
of downtown Sydney. Its white sands and clear waters always
attracted large crowds on the weekends, but on February sixth,
the crowd grew much larger than usual. The city had
just kicked off a week long international cricket tournament, and
its temperatures rose. Many fans headed straight to Bondai to
cool off. Once there, they mingled with the usual weekend

(01:45):
crowd of sun bathers and surfers, and by early afternoon
there were more than thirty five thousand people clogging the beach.
The area was so congested that members of the Bondai
surf Bathers Life Saving Club wondered if there would even
be room enough to hold their weekly competition. There had
been heavy seas all that morning, but the waves eventually calmed,

(02:08):
breaking evenly about one hundred feet from the shoreline. At
around three pm, sixty or so of the club members
stood around watching the water, waiting for the competition to begin. Then,
out of nowhere, three enormous waves smashed into the shore
in such quick succession that the water was unable to recede.

(02:29):
The men, women, and children in the water were pummeled
by the powerful waves, and when there was finally a
lull after the third waves struck, the combined backwash of
the cycle exerted tremendous force. Hundreds of day's swimmers were
suddenly swept into a deep channel and then pushed down
into the open water. There was a moment of stunned

(02:51):
silence on the beach, but then the life savers of
the surf club sprang into action. Bondai's chief beach inspector,
Tom Meager, later recounted the tough fight they had ahead
of them, saying, quote, fortunately none of the swimmers were
more than about seventy or eighty yards from the shore,
but to get about two hundred and fifty people clawing

(03:12):
and grabbing an indescribable panic out of the surf was
a tall order, one that had not previously been attempted.
The first line of defense that day was a series
of seven surf reels, a piece of life saving equipment
pioneered by Sydney's surf clubs. Each reel spun out a
line that could be attached to a special belt worn

(03:35):
by a life saver or beltman. Once affixed, the line
could then be taken out to people in trouble, providing
multiple swimmers with something to hold on too. Unfortunately, the
water was so full of distressed bathers that the beltmen
were often overwhelmed by those in need of assistance, with
as many as twenty swimmers clinging to their ropes. Several

(03:57):
of the beltmen nearly drowned as they were pulled on
by the very people they were trying to save. Some
life savers even reported having to punch their way through
a wall of panicked swimmers in order to reach those
further out who were in even more danger. As the
beltman and real operators struggled to make headway, other club

(04:17):
members and bystanders sought to assist however they could. Some
men took to the water with surfboards, skis, or rubber rafts,
while others swam out with nothing but their safety training
to help them. Lifesaver Carl Jeppison was one of the
latter few. He reportedly dove into the surf to rescue
six people without the aid of a surf reel or

(04:41):
any other equipment. It took roughly half an hour to
clear the water completely, and by the end the beach
looked like a battlefield. At one point, about thirty five
people were strewn unconscious on the sand as their rescuers
worked frantically to revive them. One of the people aiding
in those resuscitatestions was an American tourist named doctor Marshall Dyer.

(05:03):
Thanks to the quick work of he and dozens of others,
all the unconscious patients were successfully revived. Dyer later commended
the Surf Club for its swift response, saying quote, I
have never seen, nor expect to see again, such a
magnificent achievement is that of your life savers. It is
the most incredible work of love in the world. In total,

(05:28):
approximately two hundred and fifty swimmers had been rescued during
that short chaotic span, one hundred and fifty of whom
were completely unharmed. The vast majority of the others recovered quickly,
but there were five people who drowned. Their names were
Bernard F. Byrne, Ronald D. McGregor, Leslie R. Potter, Michael

(05:50):
Taylor Kennedy, and Charles sweet Sour, a German born chef
from East Sidney who died while saving a young girl.
Given the scope of the emergency, it's a testament to
the skill of the rescuers that the death toll was
as low as it was. For its part, The Bondai
surf Bathers Life Saving Club tried not to single out

(06:11):
individual heroes, maintaining instead that quote everyone did his job.
The Surf Life Saving Association of Australia honored that stance
by recognizing the entire club with a special Meritorious award.
As for what caused the disaster in the first place,
experts now believe it was the work of a rip current,

(06:34):
a powerful, narrow channel of fast moving water. More specifically,
the trouble at Bondai was likely an example of a
flash rip, the most dangerous and least predictable kind of
rip there is. A flash rip can be brought on
by a sudden change in the water or tide, and
can move its speeds of up to eight feet per second,

(06:55):
faster than an Olympic swimmer. Today, rip currents, including flash rip,
remain a constant threat on Bondai Beach. When one occurs,
it's tempting to try to fight the rip by swimming
straight toward shore, but since the water is moving much
faster than a human can swim, this only increases your
risk of drowning due to fatigue. A much sounder strategy

(07:17):
is to swim parallel to the shore until you've escaped
the current, and then make your way back at an angle.
Fondaye's prestigious life saving clubs will still be there if
you need them, but if you can save yourself instead,
I'm sure they'd appreciate the break. I'm Gabe Lucier and
hopefully you now know a little more about history today

(07:39):
than you did yesterday. If you'd like to keep up
with the show, you can follow us on Twitter, Facebook,
and Instagram at TDI HC Show. You can also rate
and review the show on Apple Podcasts, or you can
get in touch directly by writing to This Day at
iHeartMedia dot com. Thanks to Chandler Mean for producing the show,

(08:01):
and thanks to you for listening. I'll see you back
here again tomorrow for another day in History class.