This is a great Bondi story, but first things first … let’s talk about the rock.
At Ben Buckler, on the northern headland of Bondi Beach there is a big rock, known locally as Big Rock. (In Bondi we like to call a spade a spade.)
Big Rock is a 235 tonne boulder, which is believed to have been thrown up by heavy seas on 15 July 1912. It seems incredible, but images of the headland from before that date do not show the rock. It’s actually a bit controversial. There are other theories as to how it might have gotten there, and a story exploring same by Lee Cass in an issue of The Bondi View from 2002. The other theories: it actually fell down from the headland; it was always there but was previously surrounded by smaller rocks, etc. Having said all that, the generally accepted version of truth is that it got plonked there by a once in a 100 year cyclonic storm, and that’s indeed what it says on the bronze plaque that is attached to Big Rock.
Anyway, there were also once two Bondi mermaids who sat on Big Rock, which is why it is also often referred to as Mermaid Rock.
The mermaid statues were modelled on two local women: Jan Carmody, who was voted Miss Australia Surf in 1959; and Lynette Whillier, champion swimmer and runner-up in the same contest. The sculptor Lyall Randolph created the mermaids from bronze-coloured fibreglass that he filled with cement.
Jan tells an amusing story in a 2023 interview with Waverley Council's Todd Fuller HERE of how she was too shy to pose naked for Randolph. So, not only did she wear a terry towelling bikini for the sessions, she also had her boyfriend present to make sure that there would be no shenanigans.
Randolph initially tried to sell the idea of the mermaids to Waverley Council, but the Council refused to pay for them. So he erected them on Big Rock (illegally), and at his own A$4,000 expense, which is the equivalent of over A$73,000 in 2023.
The mermaids were installed on 3 April 1960 and became an instant hit with the public. Everyone loved them … except maybe the Roman Catholic Church. Their spokesperson at the time Dr. Rumble [Ed: yes, really] took the view that the naked figures were potentially luring young men to their watery graves.
It hasn’t all been plain sailing for the mermaids. One month after the they appeared on Big Rock, students chiselled (some say dynamited!) mermaid Jan from the rock and removed her as part of a prank. She was later recovered under mysterious circumstances at the Engineering School at The University of Sydney. Repaired, she was restored to Big Rock to rejoin her fellow mermaid Lynette.
Heavy seas claimed Lynette in 1974. She was swept off Big Rock in a storm, and disappeared forever. Jan lost an arm and her tail in the same storm. For two years she sat alone on her rocky throne until Waverley Council removed what was left of her in 1976, storing her in a Council Depot where she was forgotten for many years. Re-found in the late 1980s she was moved to Waverley Library where, in 1999, the Friends of Waverley Library paid for her remains to be preserved by Sydney Artefacts Conservation. She remains on permanent display in a special perspex case on the 1st floor of the Waverley Library in Bondi Junction.
Over the years many have expressed a desire to see the mermaids returned to Big Rock. That will almost certainly not happen. Not only is Big Rock below the high water mark and therefore outside the jurisdiction of Waverley Council; there are also legitimate fears that the return of the Bondi mermaids to that particular spot would potentially yield some tragic consequences. (If you close your eyes you can almost see the distracted selfie-takers being washed out to sea.)
What is more likely is that the mermaids (or some homage thereto) will return to Bondi Beach … but somewhere a bit further away from the water. It’s a process that the Waverley Council Public Art Committee is undertaking that will be subject to its standard criteria for such projects: placemaking, artistic excellence, sustainability and value for money.
As for the mermaids themselves, we can’t wait to welcome them back.
Story Idea: Remo Giuffré
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Postscript
Longtime friend of the mermaids and local artist “Lizmania” aka The Bondi Mermaid began “flapping her fins for her sisters’ return” in 1996 and to this day continues her life’s goal to“reunite her two mersisters Jan and Lynette to their rocky throne so that they can protect our environment and future seas”. You can follow Lizmania's journey on Instagram @the officialbondimermaid.
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References
waverley.nsw.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0003/178113/Bondi_Mermaids.pdf
bondiobserver.com/blog/the-big-rock-bondi-mermaids-this-is-a-great
bondiobserver.com/blog/people-of-bondi-mermaid-lizmania-local
dailytelegraph.com.au/news/nsw/clash-of-the-bondi-mermaids
Video: Jan Carmody in conversation with Waverley Council's Todd Fuller
Images
1. Bondi Mermaids on Big Rock in 1964
2. Big Rock at North Bondi in 2016. Photo: Le Ngoc Long.
3. The plaque on Big Rock
4. Cover of The Bondi View, June/July 2002
5. Jan Carmody (née Percival), 1959
6. Bondi Mermaids and local surfers, North Bondi, 1970
7. Bondi Mermaids full frontal
8. Mermaid Jan rediscovered at The University of Sydney. Photo: Ben Selinger.
9. Newspaper reports on Dr. Rumble's disapproval
10. Mermaid Jan, Waverley Library, 1990
11. Bondi Mermaid Lizmania on Big Rock. Picture: Gregg Porteous, Daily Telegraph.
12. Waverley Council's Todd Fuller in conversation with Lizmania, April 2023
