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Replay Interview with Lawrie Williams, Bondi Lifeguard and passionate Bondi Historian, documenting the history of the people and places around Bondi Beach.
7 Plays2 months ago
This week we are re-sharing the awesome interview with Mr Lawrie Williams as Leigh, Maxi and Lawrie were all finally able to meet in Bondi. Lawrie joined the Waverley Council professional lifeguards in 1978 when they were known as Beach Inspectors. A lifeguard through the late 1970s, the 80’s, 90’s, and early 2000’s, then re-joining as a casual last year it would be safe to say Lawrie has seen so much over his 24 years in the job. Lawrie also has a love of local history, and in time for the 100 year centenary celebration back in 2013 he put together the history of the Lifeguard Service at the Waverly beaches, Bondi, Tamarama and Bronte. Now creating an audio book telling the story of the Lifeguard Service over the years and telling local stories of Bondi through is Bondi Historian social media accounts, enjoy this chat with Lawrie.
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Transcript
Introduction and Mission
00:00:10
Speaker
G'day, I'm Trent Maxwell.
00:00:12
Speaker
And I'm Lee Mason.
00:00:13
Speaker
And we want to welcome you to our Live, Learn, Survive podcast.
00:00:16
Speaker
Since 2018, Lee and I travelled the globe and met face-to-face over 30,000 children in six countries across three continents.
00:00:23
Speaker
We've created a series of award-winning children's books, a global online education program, and are founders of the Live, Learn, Survive charity, all focused on teaching children and young adults life skills that not only help themselves, but help others too.
00:00:36
Speaker
We're on a mission to spread awareness about fire and water safety and first aid education to inspire the next generation of first responders.
Guest Introduction: Laurie Williams
00:00:43
Speaker
So join us for the next half an hour for some fun, inspiration and kindness and we'll try and learn something.
00:00:48
Speaker
So how are you this week?
00:00:50
Speaker
Lee, welcome aboard.
00:00:53
Speaker
I am good, Maxie.
00:00:54
Speaker
How are you?
00:00:55
Speaker
I'm great.
00:00:56
Speaker
I'm great.
00:00:57
Speaker
And what a week it's been.
00:00:58
Speaker
We've got another special guest today.
00:01:01
Speaker
One of our favorite days, Maxi.
00:01:02
Speaker
We love a guest.
00:01:03
Speaker
We do love a guest.
00:01:04
Speaker
We love asking questions of a new guest.
00:01:06
Speaker
And a very special guest today.
00:01:08
Speaker
So someone who's been very important in your life.
00:01:11
Speaker
So shall I give the big intro?
00:01:13
Speaker
Yeah, I've known this person for 17 years.
00:01:16
Speaker
big influence in my life and becoming a lifeguard.
00:01:20
Speaker
I wouldn't say a great lifeguard.
00:01:21
Speaker
Hopefully, you know, maybe he can give me a rap there, but a really good lifeguard.
00:01:26
Speaker
He's taught me a lot.
00:01:27
Speaker
So enough of my chatting.
00:01:29
Speaker
Let's introduce him.
Laurie's Lifeguard Journey
00:01:30
Speaker
Here we go.
00:01:30
Speaker
So today, Maxie, we are joined by Bondi lifeguard, Mr. Laurie Williams, who has said that we can call him lots.
00:01:38
Speaker
So Laurie joined Waverly Council professional lifeguards back in the 70s, 1978,
00:01:44
Speaker
when they were known as beach inspectors.
00:01:47
Speaker
So born and raised in Paddington, Sydney, Laurie joined the North Bondi Surf Club as a 13-year-old in the early 70s.
00:01:55
Speaker
He lifeguarded through the late 70s, the 80s and 90s,
00:02:00
Speaker
and the early 2000s and then rejoined the service as a casual last year.
Passion for History
00:02:05
Speaker
I reckon it'd be safe to say, Maxie, that Laurie is seeing plenty over his 24 years on the beach.
00:02:10
Speaker
But here's the thing, not stopping there, Laurie has a love of local history.
00:02:15
Speaker
And in time for the 100-year centenary celebration back in 2013,
00:02:20
Speaker
He put together the history of the lifeguard service at your beaches, Waverly, Bondi, at your Waverly beaches, Bondi, Tamarama and Bronte.
00:02:31
Speaker
I should know better.
00:02:32
Speaker
Not stopping there, Laurie has continued his research, he's created an audio book project to tell the story of the lifeguard service in the contents of what was both going on locally and globally through both world wars and the Great Depression.
00:02:47
Speaker
Bringing this to social media, he's known as the Bondi Historian.
00:02:51
Speaker
Laurie continues to share quirky stories about the people and the places of the local area, sharing historical stories that have woven the rich tapestry that is Bondi Beach.
Challenges and Evolution in Lifeguarding
00:03:02
Speaker
And what amazing stories it has to tell.
00:03:04
Speaker
So, Maxie, let's give an amazing warm welcome to Mr. Laurie Williams.
00:03:08
Speaker
Welcome, Loz.
00:03:09
Speaker
Welcome, Loz.
00:03:10
Speaker
A very good midday to you.
00:03:14
Speaker
Yes.
00:03:15
Speaker
It's great to be on with you.
00:03:18
Speaker
Yeah, mate.
00:03:19
Speaker
Again, thank you for coming on, mate.
00:03:21
Speaker
I really appreciate it.
00:03:22
Speaker
You've been a massive influence in my lifeguarding career.
00:03:26
Speaker
You've taught me a lot.
00:03:27
Speaker
We've had some really good times and we've had some, you know, I'm not saying bad times, but we've had some big jobs on the beach, some incidences as well.
00:03:35
Speaker
So today it's all about having a good chat.
00:03:38
Speaker
asking you a few questions, getting to know the Bondi historian and yeah, look forward to having a chat mate.
00:03:44
Speaker
So Lee, do you want to kick it off?
00:03:46
Speaker
Let's start it off.
00:03:47
Speaker
So Laurie, what year did you start lifeguarding and what did your role look like then?
00:03:53
Speaker
1978, so you know, the core duties, the primary duties that we had back then as beach inspectors or lifeguards as they're known now, were pretty much the same.
00:04:06
Speaker
You know, it's all about
00:04:07
Speaker
preventing rescues, performing rescues, major and minor first-age, reuniting children with their parents, dealing with antisocial behaviour on the beach, but probably the standout
00:04:24
Speaker
The standout duties back then were there was a focus on beach ordinance or compliance and those sort of issues were difficult for someone my age.
00:04:37
Speaker
You know, there were still a lot of guys around that had been there
00:04:41
Speaker
They had quite a few years under their belt.
00:04:44
Speaker
They were old school in their attitudes.
00:04:47
Speaker
Things like policing dogs, the dogs prohibited on the beach, board riders, which is still an issue but not the issue that it was because most of the board riders, if not all of them back then, were all local kids.
00:05:05
Speaker
and adults for that matter no bikes no bike riding on the promenade no skateboard riding on the promenade no fun on the promenade so you you you like what we know now is bondi you some some of the older lifeguards would have heart attacks since what what goes on yeah and remember this that uh we're all local people um that worked on the beach and we were dealing with
00:05:31
Speaker
people that we knew or knew of, or we knew their parents.
00:05:35
Speaker
And, you know, I was pretty much around the same age as a lot of these guys.
00:05:40
Speaker
And I was surfing at the time.
00:05:41
Speaker
So I was surfing with these guys one minute, and then the next minute I'm down there with a loud hailer telling them to get away from the flags.
00:05:52
Speaker
You know, it was really hard as a 20 year old because you were also,
00:05:56
Speaker
Your whole world in the eastern suburbs was centered around the beachfront and Bondi Junction.
00:06:04
Speaker
We didn't have to venture far.
00:06:05
Speaker
It was all here for us.
00:06:06
Speaker
So I guess my point is we were bumping into these people morning, afternoon and night.
00:06:14
Speaker
I was playing footy against these guys.
00:06:18
Speaker
You know, they were out to smash me.
00:06:19
Speaker
I was just going to say, you mentioned night.
00:06:23
Speaker
Was there some words of a nighttime loss?
00:06:26
Speaker
Yes.
00:06:27
Speaker
Yeah, look, we, you know, one of the big nightclubs back then was the Regis Room.
00:06:33
Speaker
It's now known as the Beach Road Hotel, but the hotel was known as the Bondi Rex and the nightclub around the side or the disco was the Regis Room.
00:06:42
Speaker
And it was like,
00:06:45
Speaker
the whole of the eastern suburbs in that demographic of like 16, let's face it, they were 16, 16 up to 25 and everyone descended on the Regis Room.
00:06:58
Speaker
So I'm dealing with guys that I've had to have words with down the beach.
00:07:03
Speaker
So yeah, there was some pushing and a bit more.
00:07:07
Speaker
There's definitely some times.
00:07:08
Speaker
Um, mates, when did you realize that you wanted to become a lifeguard?
00:07:13
Speaker
What age and yeah, what made you want to become a lifeguard?
00:07:18
Speaker
Well, it, it wasn't, uh, it wasn't something that I aspired to.
00:07:25
Speaker
And the reason was that I was living in Bondi Surf Club as a resident caretaker at the time.
00:07:31
Speaker
I'd been there for a year and I took a break from working in a local hardware store over in Rose Bay.
00:07:39
Speaker
So I wasn't doing much.
00:07:41
Speaker
And I got the tap on the shoulder from one of the guys in the surf club to say there was a job going on the beach.
00:07:49
Speaker
I didn't aspire to do something that I thought was all about keeping people in line.
00:07:57
Speaker
But the opportunity came up and I jumped at it.
00:08:00
Speaker
And it was pretty much for someone who was young and fit.
00:08:05
Speaker
I was a water person from way back.
00:08:08
Speaker
It was a walk-up start for me.
00:08:10
Speaker
So...
00:08:13
Speaker
I didn't have the aspiration going into it, but I definitely developed the love for it increasingly over the years, over the decades, just like a radio station, you know, the 70s, 80s, 90s, 2000s.
00:08:24
Speaker
I read, my career reads like that.
Mentorship and Community Support
00:08:29
Speaker
Incredible.
00:08:30
Speaker
Just before we go into the next question, Loz, did you have a favourite decade of lifeguarding
00:08:37
Speaker
did you have a favorite decade?
00:08:39
Speaker
Yeah, it's just something that I just thought of then when you're just going through the decades.
00:08:42
Speaker
I'm like, did you have a decade that was like prime...
00:08:45
Speaker
Yeah.
00:08:45
Speaker
Just good times.
00:08:47
Speaker
Absolutely, the 80s.
00:08:49
Speaker
Absolutely.
00:08:50
Speaker
It was the whole backdrop or context of what was going on socially, the music.
00:08:59
Speaker
We were all a bit older.
00:09:00
Speaker
We were in our 20s.
00:09:02
Speaker
We were having fun.
00:09:03
Speaker
We were playing footy.
00:09:04
Speaker
We were surfing.
00:09:06
Speaker
And the other side of that is those –
00:09:12
Speaker
those legacies from years gone by, you know, really heavy policing on the beach and on the promenade, they were disappearing.
00:09:21
Speaker
Things were changing.
00:09:23
Speaker
The area was, there were a lot of Islanders, a lot of Maoris, which was great.
00:09:29
Speaker
We also had a bit of a Bohemian colony here.
00:09:33
Speaker
You know, they were actors and artists.
00:09:36
Speaker
It was that first sort of phase before gentrification and money.
00:09:41
Speaker
It was fun.
00:09:42
Speaker
All those people were here for fun and good times.
00:09:45
Speaker
The musos that were down here, you know, like, I don't know, just Dragon from New Zealand, MySex, all those guys, Richard Clapton,
00:09:57
Speaker
They were all coming down the beach.
00:09:59
Speaker
It was just, and everyone was, it was a real egalitarian thing.
00:10:03
Speaker
No one stood head and shoulders above the rest.
00:10:08
Speaker
Once you took off, you know, your shirt and your trousers, you were just like anyone else.
00:10:12
Speaker
And that's how everyone acted.
00:10:14
Speaker
Yeah.
00:10:15
Speaker
You know what, it's interesting that you just saying that, that was one of the things that I've always loved from very first coming to Australia was that there was an equality that I didn't know
00:10:30
Speaker
coming from England that, you know, it was more in England, you know, what school you went to, whatever, whatever.
00:10:36
Speaker
And I still feel even to today in Australia, it's, you know, it's obviously very different, but there is still a bit of that is people take you for who you are.
00:10:46
Speaker
And it's really refreshing.
00:10:50
Speaker
So I get that you're saying that.
00:10:52
Speaker
I can imagine it would be a special time back then.
00:10:55
Speaker
You can tell the way you're talking about it.
00:10:56
Speaker
Your face lights up talking about it.
00:10:58
Speaker
You can tell it's like, yeah, good times, you know.
00:11:02
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, it was a lot of fun.
00:11:04
Speaker
And, you know, lifeguarding was progressing by way of technology, whether it was medical technology or the equipment we used.
Stress Management in Lifeguarding
00:11:17
Speaker
Things were on the improved, old attitudes and old values, some of which we still uphold, but they were disappearing, especially in our approach to, you know, crushing these poor kids, you know, with their skateboarding and...
00:11:36
Speaker
and riding bikes and board riding, we weren't confiscating.
00:11:40
Speaker
A good example for you, Maxie and Lee, is that we weren't confiscating boards anymore, which we had done.
00:11:48
Speaker
And I absolutely abhorred that part of our role in that if we had
00:11:57
Speaker
we didn't really it was all bluff but yeah we we could confiscate a board and and and issue a receipt for the board and then write that person up in in the book of infamy which is up in our archives in the library nowadays um yeah and you know you that was really hard it was really hard seeing a kid
00:12:21
Speaker
just a cheeky 13, 14-year-old have their board taken off them for what was a subjective amount of time.
00:12:29
Speaker
You would have been in that book for sure, Maxie.
00:12:32
Speaker
Yeah, I reckon I would have.
00:12:35
Speaker
I was never really too cheeky, but maybe the odd left or right into the flags.
00:12:39
Speaker
I reckon that's what would have brought me undone, I reckon.
00:12:42
Speaker
They wouldn't have caught you.
00:12:43
Speaker
There's no way they would have caught you.
00:12:48
Speaker
I can just imagine nowadays, I just got a visual of Maxie out there on the beach with almost like his old clipboard and whatever, giving people receipts and taking the boards off him.
00:13:01
Speaker
That would just be, I think you should, we need to get Maxie, you with Loz on the beach one day on your days off, just, what do you call it, reconstructing that for people.
00:13:16
Speaker
Can you imagine just going up and saying, mate, give us your board.
00:13:20
Speaker
You've lost it for two months.
00:13:21
Speaker
I can see Maxie.
00:13:22
Speaker
And what's your name again?
00:13:24
Speaker
How do you spell that?
00:13:25
Speaker
Here's your ticket.
00:13:25
Speaker
Come back in eight weeks.
00:13:26
Speaker
You can have your board back.
00:13:28
Speaker
And look, you know what, Lee?
00:13:29
Speaker
There were lots of Maxies back in the day.
00:13:32
Speaker
There were those kids that just kept smiling and you couldn't.
00:13:36
Speaker
And, you know, I'm a sucker for that and I would find a way to get their board back to them somehow.
00:13:43
Speaker
Yeah, exactly.
00:13:44
Speaker
I might confiscate it till the end of the day and when, you know, the older guys went off duty, I'd find a way to get that board back to you.
00:13:52
Speaker
And you know what?
00:13:53
Speaker
The kids would have, you know, would have loved that and they would have respected you so much as a lifeguard.
00:13:58
Speaker
So that's awesome.
00:14:00
Speaker
And they'd say to you, we'll never do it again until tomorrow.
00:14:03
Speaker
Yeah, yeah.
00:14:04
Speaker
And I still, you know, through social media, I still chat with people
00:14:10
Speaker
uh guys who were kids back then when i was lifeguarding and and they say that i you know we always remember you as that that friendly guy that just you know you weren't like the other the other guys do you know what now it will be their badge of honor that you wrote them up in the book that'll be the thing they'll be wanting to be in the book
00:14:29
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, exactly right.
00:14:31
Speaker
It's true.
00:14:32
Speaker
It's true.
00:14:33
Speaker
I'm proud of being in the book twice.
00:14:35
Speaker
You know, once having my board confiscated for being cheeky
Early Lifeguard Days and Recognition
00:14:39
Speaker
and inside the flagged area on a wet day, I might add, with no one around.
00:14:44
Speaker
And then the other side of the ledger was taking one poor sod's board off him for maybe a week.
00:14:50
Speaker
But, yeah, I remember him.
00:14:52
Speaker
Yeah.
00:14:53
Speaker
So I'm sensing already, Loz, so many people look up to you.
00:14:58
Speaker
So when you were a kid, who did you look up to?
00:15:00
Speaker
Who inspired you?
00:15:02
Speaker
Well, I had a number of mentors and most of them were mentors, aside from my lovely mother, God bless her soul.
00:15:14
Speaker
You know, most of them were from the beach.
00:15:19
Speaker
So they were, when I joined the surf club, guys like Guy Oakley, who was just Mr. Natural when it came to his abilities in the water and his easygoing nature, his friendliness, his happiness, his array of sunshine and a great mentor for me as a competitor.
00:15:41
Speaker
Brad Mayes, when I always knew Brad was one of the best surfers of Bondi, a really stylish surfer.
00:15:50
Speaker
I admired the way he surfed, but I admired him the person, because again, he had that easygoing,
00:15:56
Speaker
devil may care attitude and that was something that i was all about back then devil may care um and you know moving on cedric emmanuel when i when i lived in uh bongo surf club he was a guy in his probably in his 60s maybe early 70s back then he'd been
00:16:15
Speaker
In his heyday, he was a boxer, a wrestler, played rugby, competed for the surf club, but he was the most wonderful human being.
00:16:25
Speaker
He was what it was all about, what you'd aspire to, to be a good human.
00:16:30
Speaker
And my karate sensei or teacher, Steve Fifield, again, another shining light.
00:16:38
Speaker
He wasn't just about, you know, teaching you to destroy people.
00:16:43
Speaker
He had this holistic approach to life.
00:16:46
Speaker
He was Mr. Philosophy.
00:16:50
Speaker
There you go.
00:16:52
Speaker
That's awesome to hear, mate.
00:16:53
Speaker
And, mate, we spoke about before about you being a caretaker at North Bondi Surf Club and in the bio about being a young kid in the North Bondi Surf Club.
00:17:04
Speaker
Can you talk about your life in the surf club early days?
00:17:08
Speaker
Did you compete?
00:17:09
Speaker
Did you do any patrols?
00:17:12
Speaker
What was it like back in the surf?
00:17:13
Speaker
Yeah, yeah.
00:17:14
Speaker
So...
00:17:15
Speaker
I came down with a group from Waverley College, which is where mum had me enrolled.
00:17:22
Speaker
And there was a group that came down with a couple of the brothers, Christian brothers, and we had our own patrol, the Waverley College patrol.
00:17:31
Speaker
You know, mum wanted to get me off the streets of Paddo, God love her, because, you know, Paddo back then was a pretty tough place.
00:17:40
Speaker
Anyway, you know, for a while there, it was just a place for me to put my stuff.
00:17:47
Speaker
And then I'd go down to the beach and hang out with the kids on the beach who were riding cool lights, do my patrols.
00:17:53
Speaker
But as the years went on, I became more involved in the club.
00:17:57
Speaker
I became their first junior captain, which was a wonderful year for me.
00:18:02
Speaker
I loved board paddling, which set me on the right path to lifeguarding.
00:18:08
Speaker
I didn't know it at the time.
00:18:10
Speaker
But, you know, just the guys there, the older guys who were like the dad that I didn't have, they were just the most wonderful people to be around.
00:18:22
Speaker
So increasingly, as I got older into my later teens, I enjoyed hanging out in the club more and more.
00:18:31
Speaker
That's amazing.
00:18:32
Speaker
And it's so important, isn't it?
00:18:34
Speaker
Like you say, having those role models.
00:18:36
Speaker
So I think so often, you know, Max and I, we've traveled and been to these clubs all over, you know, and, and, and how,
00:18:44
Speaker
important some of these people that are volunteers in clubs that that they are like they are role models and they are they do become more like family i grew up in this i had a i had a great family life with my parents but we were in part of a swimming club and the club become your family that was what we did you know and it's it's so um important work that gets really unrecognized doesn't it
00:19:09
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, 100%.
00:19:10
Speaker
Mate, it's awesome.
00:19:12
Speaker
Actually, I've known you for 17 years, and I never knew that you were a junior club captain.
00:19:16
Speaker
That's a pretty cool thing.
00:19:18
Speaker
Yeah, yeah.
00:19:19
Speaker
I was the first junior club captain, and I organised, you know, beach footy competitions, film nights in the club, barbecues on the weekend to raise money, dances for, like, under-18s.
00:19:34
Speaker
You know what?
00:19:34
Speaker
It was kind of like...
00:19:36
Speaker
I'd always had that ability and never had the, I never had anywhere to showcase it.
00:19:44
Speaker
And someone said to me, a guy put me through a Rotary program, which was called the Rotary Youth Leadership Award.
00:19:52
Speaker
Once I did that, I was,
00:19:56
Speaker
You know, I think around the same time I was a junior captain and that was a calling for me.
00:20:03
Speaker
I realised I was an organiser and, yeah, it was great.
00:20:07
Speaker
It was a great year.
00:20:08
Speaker
It was a pivotal
Historical Projects and Social Media
00:20:09
Speaker
year.
00:20:09
Speaker
Great stuff, mate.
00:20:10
Speaker
Great stuff.
00:20:12
Speaker
Incredible.
00:20:13
Speaker
Absolutely incredible.
00:20:15
Speaker
It's you, Lee.
00:20:15
Speaker
Yeah.
00:20:18
Speaker
Talking about all of this, you've had obviously a very long career.
00:20:22
Speaker
What's been the most stressful part of it for you?
00:20:24
Speaker
Because it's a, you know, you've obviously stayed with it.
00:20:27
Speaker
You've been able to make, it is a stressful job.
00:20:29
Speaker
What, what's been the most stressful part?
00:20:32
Speaker
Well, I think, um, I look at some of the, a couple of the resuscitations that we did where children were involved.
00:20:42
Speaker
I found that very distressing.
00:20:46
Speaker
There was a body retrieval that I was involved in that involves someone that I knew, whereas previously with body retrievals they're usually not people that you know.
00:20:59
Speaker
And, you know, you've got to distance yourself emotionally to be able to deal with that.
00:21:06
Speaker
But when it's someone you know, it's...
00:21:10
Speaker
It can be hard.
00:21:10
Speaker
Very different.
00:21:11
Speaker
Yeah, it's very easy to internalise that stuff.
00:21:14
Speaker
You need to deal with it.
00:21:15
Speaker
Yeah, but definitely anything to do with children.
00:21:21
Speaker
I never found the rescues distressing.
00:21:25
Speaker
I always enjoyed doing them.
00:21:26
Speaker
I always enjoyed the challenge.
00:21:28
Speaker
But I definitely, when it came to major first aids and if they involve children, yeah.
00:21:35
Speaker
They stick with you.
00:21:38
Speaker
And mate, I know that you're very active, you move the body a lot.
00:21:42
Speaker
You've, you know, you mentioned before karate and so on.
00:21:46
Speaker
How do you deal with the stress?
00:21:49
Speaker
I'm actually answering the question for you.
00:21:50
Speaker
I know you do a lot of exercise, but is there any other ways or, you know, give us, give us a, tell us how you deal with your stress.
00:21:57
Speaker
Well, you know, I mentioned that term internalising things, which is a male problem and continues to this day, although we do have a lot of material out there to help people realise that it's not the way to go.
00:22:13
Speaker
I was always lucky.
00:22:14
Speaker
I'm like you two.
00:22:15
Speaker
I love a chat.
00:22:17
Speaker
And I think that is imperative.
00:22:21
Speaker
when you're dealing with something that is distressing is you've got to talk to your peers.
00:22:31
Speaker
And I know you guys do a lot of that now.
00:22:35
Speaker
Talking about what's happened and not internalising it, that I think is the key to dealing with those stressful situations.
00:22:47
Speaker
Yeah, 100%.
00:22:48
Speaker
And like adding on to that, do you like to exercise if you are a little bit stressed?
00:22:54
Speaker
Do you like to just go and blow off some steam?
00:22:57
Speaker
Yeah, well, I definitely do.
00:22:59
Speaker
I mean, we, you know, having lost a child a few years back, I could have taken one of two paths, one not so good in terms of how I dealt with that loss.
00:23:14
Speaker
And I found that, you know, throwing myself into exercise and eating well, I knew that was the path I had to take.
00:23:23
Speaker
And it's definitely the way to go.
00:23:27
Speaker
You know, just whether it's running, surfing, no matter what you do, keep the wheels turning.
00:23:32
Speaker
Yeah, keep it well oiled and moving, mate.
00:23:36
Speaker
Yeah, you've had some stressful times over the years, mate.
00:23:41
Speaker
And, you know, me and you have had some really good chats over time and you mentioned it's very important to talk to mates and people that, you know, in my eyes, Loz, you know, you're still young, you know, even though you're a little bit old, you're very experienced.
00:23:54
Speaker
But, you know, me and you have had some really good in-depth combos about life, about situations, about stress.
00:24:02
Speaker
And you're definitely one of the more role models I'll turn to to get some advice.
00:24:07
Speaker
So thank you for helping me and stuff that you've dealt with.
00:24:12
Speaker
I'm always here to listen and help.
00:24:15
Speaker
And helping you, I'm helping me.
00:24:17
Speaker
It's a two-way street.
00:24:19
Speaker
Absolutely.
00:24:20
Speaker
That's often the way, isn't it?
00:24:21
Speaker
That's what people don't, you know, realise.
00:24:24
Speaker
You know, helping each other and if you're feeling a bit and you can help someone else, it makes you feel better too.
00:24:29
Speaker
Yeah.
00:24:31
Speaker
Yeah, just start the conversations.
00:24:33
Speaker
It's so important.
00:24:35
Speaker
Yeah, yeah.
00:24:37
Speaker
So, Laurie, to just mix it then a little bit, we want to know all about this history.
00:24:42
Speaker
So you're often known as the Bondi historian.
00:24:47
Speaker
Tell us about it.
00:24:48
Speaker
I am fascinated by it, about this.
00:24:50
Speaker
So, yeah, tell us about it.
00:24:52
Speaker
Well, it started...
00:24:55
Speaker
uh you know when i changed roles with council um i had a lot to do with bondi pavilion and remember that building is something is a building i've worked out of for most of my working life without knowing anything about its history yes um you know it was a place we got changed and showered and so on so forth um
00:25:18
Speaker
When I took on this new role on a place management team, I had to learn about that building very quickly because I was responsible for the maintenance there.
00:25:26
Speaker
And out of that, I'd always had a love of history going back to school.
00:25:32
Speaker
It was one of my pet subjects.
00:25:34
Speaker
But out of that, having to research the pavilion grew my love of the history of the area.
00:25:42
Speaker
And it grew and it grew.
00:25:44
Speaker
And of course, you know, I was fascinated by what went on, on, you know, the busiest beach in Australia.
00:25:54
Speaker
And there was so much because we're so close to the city.
00:26:00
Speaker
We're the first, we're the beach of choice for anyone that comes out of here, any type of celebrity, whether it's in the entertainment industry or sporting.
00:26:08
Speaker
And it's always been like that.
00:26:09
Speaker
That's what I found.
00:26:11
Speaker
So,
00:26:12
Speaker
my appreciation for that history grew and grew and grew and I decided to create the Bondi Historium and specialise in Bondi history.
00:26:24
Speaker
Aligned with that around the same time, I knew that we hadn't, you know, I thought it was wrong that we hadn't documented the history of the lifeguard service.
00:26:37
Speaker
So I knew we were on the threshold of 100 years.
00:26:39
Speaker
This is
00:26:42
Speaker
1913 to 2013.
00:26:43
Speaker
So 1912, sorry, 2012, I embarked on a project to document the history of the lifeguard service, Bondi, Brony and Tamarama, and have that ready, a potted history ready for our celebrations in 2013.
00:27:03
Speaker
I've gone on from that now, and I intend doing an audio book
00:27:11
Speaker
which will thread the history of the lifeguards through all the different periods in time.
00:27:17
Speaker
So in the context of things like two world wars, the Great Depression, the social change at the end of the Second World War, and so on, just to make it a, you know, a riveting and interesting read.
00:27:33
Speaker
My social media is really all about sharing these stories with people
00:27:39
Speaker
Anyone, anyone and everyone, I want them to get an appreciation of what has gone on in this wonderful place for years and years.
00:27:50
Speaker
Loz, we've had some great chats over time about some of the history around Bondi and I just can't get my head around some of the...
00:27:58
Speaker
Yeah, the good history, the bad history, the dark history, there's so much that has gone on around these sands.
00:28:05
Speaker
And it's not just in the last couple of hundred years, we're talking thousands of years back in the indigenous history as well.
00:28:11
Speaker
And with the history stuff that you do do, you just mentioned before, it's just around Bondi, but is there any other history that you really enjoy to learn or know about?
00:28:25
Speaker
Well, I love all history.
00:28:29
Speaker
Anything that's historical is of interest to me, whether it's ancient Egypt, imperial Rome, classical Greek history.
Documenting Bondi's History
00:28:39
Speaker
It all interests me because although it might be in the past, there's definitely lessons to learn from the past going forward.
00:28:47
Speaker
So I'll always draw some sort of influence from what I read.
00:28:54
Speaker
about history of different civilizations.
00:28:58
Speaker
Indigenous history I love.
00:29:02
Speaker
You know, I'm really fascinated by it and I love it.
00:29:07
Speaker
When I was doing history walks, it's always how I begin and always how I end.
00:29:16
Speaker
because it is a fascinating story when you think of their history in Sydney in particular, you know, which I know in other parts of the country it goes back as far as 65, 70,000 years, which is simply amazing.
00:29:33
Speaker
But in the Sydney area, maybe around 20,000 years, maybe, and probably longer.
00:29:39
Speaker
Yeah, all that stuff fascinates me.
00:29:42
Speaker
Have you got something for the people listening?
00:29:43
Speaker
Because we do have people all over the world that listen to this podcast about different things.
00:29:48
Speaker
And have you got something there that you can share about Indigenous history for 20,000 years?
00:29:52
Speaker
The last 20,000 years?
00:29:55
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, look, a lot of...
00:29:59
Speaker
A lot of the traces of their existence along coastal New South Wales is underwater because at the end of the last ice age, with the Great Melt, we lost a lot of coastal New South Wales up to however many k's out to sea.
00:30:16
Speaker
So there is history that's submerged.
00:30:23
Speaker
Aboriginal ceremonial site at North Bondi is really special to me.
00:30:30
Speaker
It's hundreds, if not thousands of years old.
00:30:34
Speaker
It's a series of petroglyphs or carvings on a sandstone outcrop.
00:30:39
Speaker
And the fact that it has a dual meaning, both
00:30:44
Speaker
One side of it is spiritual, celebrating the marine animals that sustain them.
00:30:52
Speaker
And also it was a practical pointer for anyone that was visiting.
00:30:59
Speaker
And of course, there was a whole ritual around other tribes visiting outside of their own areas.
00:31:06
Speaker
But it indicated where those sources of food could be found.
00:31:11
Speaker
For example, there were those carvings of shark, whale, fish, a number of different fish.
00:31:19
Speaker
And, you know, I love that they may have, men may have danced to Korobori because it's said, and it's not conclusive, but it said that it was a ceremonial ground for
00:31:32
Speaker
boys becoming men so they would have danced to corroboree so there's nothing um you know just standing up there and looking at the expanse of the ocean and looking all the way down to maroobra and just dropping yourself into that time when there was nothing there but sand dunes and scrub and ocean and
00:31:51
Speaker
you know, a bonfire and, you know, men dancing this ritual that they'd done for, you know, probably a few thousand years.
00:31:59
Speaker
That's pretty magical.
00:32:01
Speaker
Amazing stuff, mate.
00:32:02
Speaker
Incredible.
00:32:03
Speaker
Absolutely incredible.
00:32:04
Speaker
I could listen to you for hours, Laurie.
00:32:06
Speaker
I really caught it.
00:32:07
Speaker
That audio book, mate, that's going to be something that's going to be on repeat.
00:32:12
Speaker
I'll tell you, you would have some amazing stories to share.
00:32:15
Speaker
And you know what as well, the fact that it is being documented, I mean, just like these stories need to be told, don't they?
00:32:22
Speaker
So that they get written down, that they get spoken about, that they get passed on for the generations.
00:32:27
Speaker
There's so much history that gets lost.
00:32:30
Speaker
And, you know, when we've, we've come, you will know, Maxie loves his history.
00:32:35
Speaker
When we've traveled, you know, we, we, if we've ever got half an hour in a town, Maxie, where is the, always the first place we go and look for?
00:32:44
Speaker
museum or you know the oldest place in the town that we can you know like how old is this place and um i love that he asks the questions yeah you always ask the questions the thing is he used to ask me the questions because you know we'd be in the uk he'd be asking me the questions thinking i had all the answers and i'd be like
00:33:07
Speaker
I don't know.
00:33:12
Speaker
You got the wrong idea.
00:33:16
Speaker
I'm just adding on to that.
00:33:17
Speaker
Lee just made a good point.
00:33:18
Speaker
It's so important to document history.
00:33:22
Speaker
I think it is because people can learn from past mistakes or, you know, in the past of learning things of how they did things back in the day and how beautiful and rich life would have been.
00:33:32
Speaker
But, mate, hats off to you.
00:33:33
Speaker
I've been living in the eastern suburbs now and I've done more schooling for the last, you know, 20 plus years.
00:33:40
Speaker
And I don't think I've come across someone yet in all the different people that we meet as lifeguards and, you know, different types that have
00:33:51
Speaker
dedicated some time or a lot of time to the history.
00:33:55
Speaker
And the fact that you're going to be documenting this through audio books or through books, and if you have done that, you know, how lucky are the people from the eastern suburbs, people from Sydney, people in New South Wales, Australia, around the world.
00:34:08
Speaker
The fact that you have that passion, mate, so many people are going to benefit from it.
00:34:12
Speaker
So thank you for doing what you do.
00:34:15
Speaker
I feel I'm the lucky one because...
00:34:20
Speaker
I'm just telling the stories.
00:34:22
Speaker
Yeah, but you're telling the stories, but no one really has kind of told the stories the way that you tell the story.
00:34:29
Speaker
So that's a beautiful thing, I think.
00:34:30
Speaker
Do you know what I think?
00:34:31
Speaker
So many people talk, but what you're actually doing, Laurie, is listening and documenting it.
00:34:38
Speaker
Yeah.
00:34:39
Speaker
So it stands the test of time.
00:34:41
Speaker
So, you know, people will say things, but very few people will actually take the time to care enough
00:34:48
Speaker
to go, we need to write this down or we need to talk this
Impactful Advice and Lifeguarding Stories
00:34:52
Speaker
and record it.
00:34:52
Speaker
And we need to.
00:34:53
Speaker
And that takes someone like very special, which you obviously are to go, you know what, we're going to capture this because in the blink of an eye, it can be gone.
00:35:03
Speaker
You know, one person knows a really cool thing and then the next thing they're not around and it can really happen.
00:35:10
Speaker
In the case of almost half a generation, the stories get lost.
00:35:15
Speaker
So the fact that you've cared enough to listen and then write it, I think is pretty special.
00:35:22
Speaker
And if I can jump in, Lee, it's important to me as well because we've had a major shift in demographics down here and even the socioeconomics of the place has changed dramatically from what was primarily a working class
00:35:39
Speaker
say middle, lower to middle class area and now it's, you know, it's moneyed up around here.
00:35:46
Speaker
It's expensive to live here.
00:35:47
Speaker
There's a lot of new residents, but I will say there's a lot of the new residents that want to know more about the place and I'm happy to be that guy.
00:35:57
Speaker
Absolutely.
00:35:59
Speaker
That tells the story.
00:36:02
Speaker
It was home for you and it's your, like, where you, but for people that have moved to Bondi, it's a very privileged place to live now.
00:36:09
Speaker
It's a, you know, it's an extraordinary place and it is a real privilege to be able to live somewhere like Bondi.
00:36:16
Speaker
So I've been down here now, I think next year is 53 years, and there's still people around here, probably around the same age and older, that see me as a blow-in from Paddo.
00:36:31
Speaker
And hey, I get that.
00:36:33
Speaker
I was born and raised, born in Surrey Hills and raised in Paddington by, you know, a third generation Paddo mother.
00:36:43
Speaker
I get that, but Bondi was my salvation.
00:36:46
Speaker
It was, you know, it's where I grew up.
00:36:49
Speaker
If you haven't got three generations in the graveyard or whatever, you've got no chance to get in a street named after you.
00:36:56
Speaker
Or is that still, you know, my first home was Country Victoria and that was a bit the same there.
00:37:03
Speaker
You know, 53 years, Laurie, you just like, you know, you came in from around the corner.
00:37:08
Speaker
I know.
00:37:09
Speaker
Yeah, exactly.
00:37:10
Speaker
Exactly.
00:37:10
Speaker
And, you know, I'm good with that.
00:37:12
Speaker
Yeah.
00:37:14
Speaker
It was my salvation and it's truly the place where I grew as a person.
00:37:19
Speaker
So I'm...
00:37:21
Speaker
What a journey, absolutely.
00:37:24
Speaker
Great stuff, mate.
00:37:25
Speaker
No, yeah, I was just going to say there's a question here that we missed for before we went into the history.
00:37:31
Speaker
And I'm just going to just quickly ask, because I know you spoke about mentors and stuff before, but best piece of advice you've ever been given?
00:37:42
Speaker
Ah, there's a couple of good ones.
00:37:46
Speaker
Yeah, one of the best ones was surround yourself with people that talk about ideas and not other people.
00:37:56
Speaker
Oh, I love that.
00:37:58
Speaker
It's, you know, I've heard different versions of it, but I love it because, you know, it's all about talking about positive things and not small talking about other people.
00:38:11
Speaker
Another classic from an old timer was never start an argument and never finish one.
00:38:17
Speaker
And I didn't understand it at the time, but now I do.
00:38:21
Speaker
You know, it's,
00:38:23
Speaker
just biting your tongue, let the other person let off their steam and don't finish it.
00:38:29
Speaker
You know, that's just an ego thing.
00:38:33
Speaker
That's a really good one.
00:38:34
Speaker
I like that.
00:38:35
Speaker
And on a lighter note, don't piss into the wind.
00:38:40
Speaker
Or eat yellow snow.
00:38:43
Speaker
I was going to say that you eat yellow snow, that's like, that's from my, that would be good advice in winter in England for sure.
00:38:52
Speaker
But not over here so much, yeah.
00:38:54
Speaker
Not over here so much.
00:38:56
Speaker
I just thought that would throw that in for a bit of levity.
00:38:58
Speaker
Absolutely.
00:38:59
Speaker
Brilliant, brilliant.
00:39:00
Speaker
That's great, mate.
00:39:01
Speaker
And like I said, that was just before we went into history.
00:39:04
Speaker
But before we go into Lee's next question, just give us one quick crazy Bondi fact if you got one.
00:39:12
Speaker
I do.
00:39:13
Speaker
A lot of people wouldn't realise.
00:39:16
Speaker
Now, I thought about, you know, Nosy Bob, the colonies hangman who lived, you know, responsible for 60 odd hangings as the state hangman, essentially.
00:39:30
Speaker
But I thought about, you know, that's becoming more commonly known now, Nosy Bob Howard.
00:39:36
Speaker
But I thought about Shark Alley.
00:39:38
Speaker
Now, do you know about Shark Alley, Trent?
00:39:40
Speaker
I do.
00:39:41
Speaker
I've heard a bit about Shark Alley over the years, but I'm sure Lee and others listening haven't heard of Shark Alley.
00:39:48
Speaker
I don't know about Shark Alley.
00:39:49
Speaker
So now the rip in the north corner has always been called the Kitty's Rip.
00:39:55
Speaker
And the reason it's called the Kitty's Rip is because it's the place you learn about...
00:40:01
Speaker
using a rip to your advantage um so you know kids were thrown in there with their dads or their mums and they just allow the rip to take them out and feed them back on around the back of the sandbank and so you learn how the more benign side of the river yeah back in the day however um and we're talking about back in the 1920s 1930s even beforehand it was known as shark alley
00:40:27
Speaker
Of course, deep water being a rip.
00:40:30
Speaker
There were a lot of fish around back then, lots of big schools of salmon and kingfish and all sorts of other critters.
00:40:37
Speaker
And that was the shark's little stomping ground up there.
00:40:41
Speaker
And we're not talking about grey nurses.
00:40:44
Speaker
We're talking about tigers and bronze whaler sharks.
00:40:49
Speaker
So there was a pastime.
00:40:52
Speaker
There are a number of local fishermen who used to stand on the beach and it was a sport.
00:41:00
Speaker
They would bait sharks and pull them into the beach.
00:41:06
Speaker
with a line, pull them into the beach, prise out their jaws, leave the carcasses rotting on the sand.
00:41:15
Speaker
And this was all out of Shark Alley, most of it done in Shark Alley at North Bondi until the council stepped in and said, that's not hygienic.
00:41:23
Speaker
You at least bury the carcass of the shark.
00:41:26
Speaker
So there were Nosy Bob, going back to Nosy Bob, the colony's hangman,
00:41:33
Speaker
He lived on Brighton Boulevard, North Bondi.
00:41:35
Speaker
He lived a solitary life because of his occupation.
00:41:38
Speaker
But he was one of those guys.
00:41:41
Speaker
He'd bring his horse down.
00:41:43
Speaker
He'd have a rope attached to the saddle.
00:41:46
Speaker
On the end of the rope, there'd be a hook or a gaff.
00:41:50
Speaker
and he'd put a leg of mutton and he'd pull in a shark and then give his horse a slap on the rump and the horse would drag the shark in on the end of the rope and then he'd prise out the jaw and he had his backyard at North Bondi.
00:42:05
Speaker
He kept a beautiful vegetable garden there, but he had all these shark jaws and those were his features.
00:42:11
Speaker
Those were his garden features, all these shark jaws.
00:42:16
Speaker
There's a little known fact.
00:42:18
Speaker
Yeah, wow.
00:42:21
Speaker
It's amazing.
00:42:22
Speaker
I always thought this was going that the guys, so I just got like the rip for the kids with the thing and then the fishermen would goading the sharks into the rip with the kids and I thought, oh my, where's the list of having us?
00:42:36
Speaker
The shark, Ali,
00:42:40
Speaker
There wouldn't be a school ever, I reckon, how many we've been to now, Maxie, over 70, there wouldn't be a school that hasn't had the shark question.
00:42:49
Speaker
Well, good thing.
00:42:52
Speaker
Good to know also the last two fatal shark attacks at Bondi Beach were one month apart in 1929, so a long time ago, and the chances of that happening are very, very, very minor.
00:43:06
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:43:07
Speaker
That's what Maxine, what do you say, Maxine?
00:43:10
Speaker
No, no, the sharks are all right.
00:43:11
Speaker
They won't bother you, but watch the crocs.
00:43:13
Speaker
The crocs, the crocs get you.
00:43:16
Speaker
And rule of thumb, see a school of fish, go the other way.
00:43:20
Speaker
Go the other way.
Alternative Career and Beach Management
00:43:22
Speaker
Don't go near them.
00:43:23
Speaker
Don't think that it's cool and you're going to be swimming amongst the fishes because someone else wants, you know, to do some serious business there.
00:43:31
Speaker
Someone else thinks that as lunch.
00:43:33
Speaker
It's the man in the grey suit.
00:43:34
Speaker
Yes.
00:43:35
Speaker
Stay away from the school of fish.
00:43:37
Speaker
Stay away.
00:43:39
Speaker
Stay away.
00:43:41
Speaker
So if you weren't a life god, am I in the right place now?
00:43:44
Speaker
Yes.
00:43:45
Speaker
I love the way this chat's going.
00:43:48
Speaker
So if you weren't a life god, what do you think you would have been?
00:43:53
Speaker
Um, I did, I, I, I was enrolled at Wollongong Uni, um, in sports science.
00:44:00
Speaker
So I would have gone down that path.
00:44:04
Speaker
I would have been a sports physiologist.
00:44:08
Speaker
I, you know, I still have a love of, um, human movement and, um, you know, in different sports.
00:44:14
Speaker
So that's, I had to think about that.
00:44:16
Speaker
Not, I'm pretty sure that's the path I would have taken.
00:44:20
Speaker
I think what, what,
00:44:23
Speaker
probably put the dampener on that for me was the travel between Wollongong and Sydney and keeping up a career as a lifeguard.
00:44:32
Speaker
Yeah.
00:44:32
Speaker
Yeah, it would have been tough.
00:44:34
Speaker
But, mate, like I said, going for the ranks as a lifeguards, how long did you run the beach for again?
00:44:41
Speaker
Actually manage the beach.
00:44:43
Speaker
Yeah, manage the beach like a top dog.
00:44:49
Speaker
Look, it was only a couple of years, but it was a...
00:44:53
Speaker
really, it was a watershed period for the lifeguards.
00:44:57
Speaker
It was like the great leap forward.
00:45:00
Speaker
We needed to make some serious changes to how we conducted the service.
00:45:06
Speaker
And it was a big challenge for both Bruce Hopkins, Hoppo and I. And we got through that period and, you know,
00:45:14
Speaker
you guys have taken it forward and continue to raise the bar um so yeah it was 2000 to 2002 2003. good stuff mate good stuff incredible and like you say all that work to bring the professionalism to the service to you know be the elite elite life gods that you you all are because there's no
00:45:39
Speaker
no roadmap when you're starting that from nothing before at the, you know, one of the busiest beaches in the world.
00:45:47
Speaker
Yeah.
00:45:48
Speaker
Yeah, exactly right.
00:45:49
Speaker
It's, you know, it's, you would have seen a lot of change over the years, mate.
00:45:54
Speaker
And, you know, the stuff that you've bought, so not just me, but other lifeguards, you know, I truly thank you for all your time, your service and so on.
00:46:03
Speaker
And,
00:46:04
Speaker
And just going on to the last two questions, Loz, what advice would you give to your younger self right now?
00:46:11
Speaker
If you saw your younger self, young Loz in front of him right now, what advice would you give him?
00:46:18
Speaker
I think, and this is what I've found with lifeguarding and, you know, the love of history, is find a passion.
00:46:27
Speaker
It's easy.
00:46:28
Speaker
Something that you love, pursue it.
00:46:32
Speaker
and get better at it because it's going to lead places.
00:46:36
Speaker
And I know both of you will agree with that because you're both good examples of that adage.
00:46:45
Speaker
Find a passion, find something you love to do and pursue
Inspiration and Music
00:46:49
Speaker
it.
00:46:49
Speaker
Yeah.
00:46:50
Speaker
That's great advice, mate.
00:46:52
Speaker
Love it.
00:46:53
Speaker
That's to my younger self.
00:46:55
Speaker
Yeah, I love it.
00:46:57
Speaker
It's so true because, like, you know, I think certainly when I was, some of the attitudes, like, from older generations when I was leaving school, it was,
00:47:07
Speaker
You just get a job.
00:47:08
Speaker
You know, you get a job and you're happy you've got a job and you're grateful for it.
00:47:11
Speaker
And if it's a job for life, all well and good.
00:47:14
Speaker
But that's not necessarily the way it should be because you've got to do something that you love because you work a lot of your life.
00:47:21
Speaker
And if you've got something that you love, you want to get better at it.
00:47:24
Speaker
You want to you've genuinely got an interest of it.
00:47:28
Speaker
So I think, you know, that is as good of advice that you can give.
00:47:33
Speaker
Because if you're doing something you love, you want to learn more about it.
00:47:37
Speaker
It's natural.
00:47:38
Speaker
100%.
00:47:39
Speaker
Yeah.
00:47:42
Speaker
Loz, we've spoken just before we did the podcast.
00:47:45
Speaker
Have you got a song or two that we could add to the playlist that gives you a bit of fire in the belly, that hypes you up, puts a smile on your face, gets you ready for a good day on the sand?
00:47:59
Speaker
Yeah.
00:48:01
Speaker
Russell Morris.
00:48:03
Speaker
Russell Morris.
00:48:04
Speaker
Russell Morris, the real thing.
00:48:06
Speaker
He's an Australian...
00:48:10
Speaker
Artist, love that song.
00:48:13
Speaker
Old school, not so old school, but increasingly becoming old school, Long Road to Ruin by the Foo Fighters.
00:48:21
Speaker
Go the Foo, go the Foo.
00:48:23
Speaker
And I know that Russell Morris is back doing a national tour at the moment, but yeah, that's a classic get fired up song.
00:48:31
Speaker
All right, well, I'm going to play the Russell Morris song, maybe because you mentioned it twice in the last minute, so here we go.
00:48:38
Speaker
Let's get it on, let's have a listen.
00:48:42
Speaker
Come and see the real thing, come and see the real thing, come and see.
00:49:23
Speaker
How good?
00:49:24
Speaker
How good?
00:49:25
Speaker
It gets better.
00:49:26
Speaker
It just gets louder and better.
00:49:31
Speaker
It's just like a fine wine, mate.
00:49:32
Speaker
It just keeps getting better.
00:49:34
Speaker
Like a crescendo.
00:49:35
Speaker
When you're in the car, do you just like turn it up a bit?
00:49:38
Speaker
Yeah, yeah.
00:49:38
Speaker
It's on my list, yeah.
00:49:39
Speaker
It's on my plate.
00:49:41
Speaker
It's like you start off and then you turn up a bit, you turn up a bit, turn up a bit.
00:49:45
Speaker
Yeah.
00:49:46
Speaker
I never get tired of it, Lee.
00:49:47
Speaker
Yeah, exactly.
00:49:48
Speaker
I've got about 400 songs plus on my playlist and never get tired of that one or I keep coming back to it.
00:49:54
Speaker
No, it's good.
00:49:55
Speaker
Music is just the best thing for just like, you know.
00:49:58
Speaker
It's good for the soul.
00:49:59
Speaker
Change your mood.
00:49:59
Speaker
Good for the soul.
00:50:01
Speaker
Absolutely.
00:50:02
Speaker
Absolutely.
00:50:03
Speaker
So, Loz, before we wrap up, mate, it's been a great chat.
00:50:08
Speaker
With this audio book, is there a timeline of when you think it would be either available or finished or obviously it's a work in progress?
00:50:18
Speaker
2024 is my year for really nailing this project.
00:50:23
Speaker
I think it's a good thing.
00:50:26
Speaker
You know, telling the lifeguard history is...
00:50:32
Speaker
It's not bland, it's a good read, but telling it in the context of what was going on in Bondi
00:50:41
Speaker
and the world at the time is an even better read.
00:50:46
Speaker
Because you get to see how it affected social values and attitudes, how the lifeguards, the beach inspectors responded to that.
00:50:58
Speaker
I just think you color it, you've got a much more extensive palette when you
00:51:03
Speaker
involve all those amazing periods of time like you know two world wars um the great depression how you know um all the deprivations of that time
00:51:15
Speaker
And then, you know, that social change at the end of the Second World War was remarkable when you think about going into the 50s and 60s with fashion and music and resistance to authority and, you know, the way that affected the beach inspectors at the time.
00:51:33
Speaker
And these were guys that were well into their careers.
00:51:35
Speaker
They were...
00:51:37
Speaker
20, 30, 40 years into the job and still treating the job like something like the 20s and 30s.
Audiobook and Lifeguard History
00:51:44
Speaker
Suddenly they've gone from heroes to villains.
00:51:47
Speaker
Yeah.
00:51:48
Speaker
You're saying that, mate.
00:51:52
Speaker
With the 20s and 30s and 40s, who was the first lifeguard?
00:51:56
Speaker
So the first lifeguard was a guy called Dennis, nicknamed Dinny, which was Dennis for short in those days.
00:52:04
Speaker
Dennis the Menace.
00:52:05
Speaker
Dennis Brown.
00:52:06
Speaker
Dennis the Menace.
00:52:07
Speaker
Dennis the Menace.
00:52:08
Speaker
He's a broadie boy.
00:52:10
Speaker
There you go.
00:52:10
Speaker
I remember you telling me a story.
00:52:11
Speaker
He was running a boy and that's where he is in the surf club over there and he'd come over and... He had to join Bondi Surf Club because for decades, literally decades, the surf clubs were... They influenced who got the job.
00:52:27
Speaker
You didn't get a job unless you were a member of a surf club and unless you got the tick, the green tick, from whatever surf club it was because Bondi was the first beach where they appointed...
00:52:39
Speaker
a lifeguard in Waverley, then he was required to join Bondi Surf Club.
00:52:45
Speaker
But he stuck around for 10 years and the great Stan McDonald came on a very short time after Dennis, didn't he?
00:52:54
Speaker
And he was, you know, he stood head and shoulders above
00:53:00
Speaker
you know, lifeguards down the years.
00:53:02
Speaker
He was a great man, apparently.
00:53:05
Speaker
Yeah, but it was a brawny boy.
00:53:07
Speaker
He took the honours.
00:53:09
Speaker
Well, there you go.
00:53:10
Speaker
And people wouldn't realise the Bondi and Bronte rivalry, but I'm sure you have the answer.
00:53:17
Speaker
Which come first, Bronte or Bondi Surf Club?
00:53:23
Speaker
Controversial.
00:53:24
Speaker
Yeah, look, it's controversial.
00:53:26
Speaker
You know, look, Bronnie have got a strong case, but what stood against them in the end is the fact it's called primary evidence and it's paperwork, it's minutes of meetings.
00:53:39
Speaker
that Bondi were able to produce and say, we held a meeting at this venue on this date and these are the minutes of those meetings.
00:53:48
Speaker
And that's why North Bondi and Bronnie more so, because they claim to have been founded in 1903.
00:53:56
Speaker
Bondi was founded in February 1907.
00:53:59
Speaker
So Bronnie will stand by that until...
00:54:04
Speaker
It's forever.
00:54:08
Speaker
See, Maxie, that's why our charity board meeting notes are so important.
00:54:12
Speaker
Someone wrote it down and dated it and signed it.
00:54:16
Speaker
Exactly.
00:54:17
Speaker
Exactly.
00:54:18
Speaker
Have you noticed that we finished five, ten minutes ago, but I just keep hitting you with questions because it's so important.
00:54:25
Speaker
Oh, and another thing.
00:54:27
Speaker
That is just like, you know, it's incredible.
00:54:29
Speaker
And, you know, wish you all the luck with getting your audio book.
00:54:34
Speaker
Please keep us posted.
00:54:36
Speaker
We'll be listening.
00:54:38
Speaker
Yeah, for sure.
00:54:38
Speaker
You didn't ask me my funniest moment.
00:54:40
Speaker
Oh, here we go.
00:54:41
Speaker
I'm looking at this.
00:54:43
Speaker
What was your funniest moment over the years, mate?
00:54:50
Speaker
Go for it, Loz.
00:54:51
Speaker
Tell us.
00:54:52
Speaker
Well,
00:54:53
Speaker
We used to play pranks on each other.
00:54:55
Speaker
Nothing new, eh?
00:54:58
Speaker
Nothing new.
00:54:59
Speaker
This was another level.
00:55:01
Speaker
So this guy that I worked with, Al, he used to train in the gym.
00:55:07
Speaker
He loved punching the bag for his workout, speedball, bag, blah, blah, blah.
00:55:12
Speaker
And before he went in, he'd
00:55:13
Speaker
have a blender and he put in whatever he had in there, all these wheat germ and milk and egg and banana, but he let it sit there.
00:55:23
Speaker
So I thought one day that I'd get some blue bottle solution, which was blue colour, and throw that into the mix and hit the
00:55:36
Speaker
And he looked at it.
00:55:37
Speaker
He had no idea, but he did once he smelled it.
00:55:41
Speaker
And he smiled at me, and I wasn't to know that right grin meant bad things were coming my way.
00:55:48
Speaker
Bad things were coming.
00:55:49
Speaker
Let me tell you what he did.
00:55:51
Speaker
He waited.
00:55:52
Speaker
He waited and he waited until I thought it had died down and gone.
00:55:56
Speaker
Anyway, what he had done in the meantime was he waited until we had an influx of blue bottles washed up on the beach.
00:56:03
Speaker
He cut off two long tails, which is where the sting is.
00:56:08
Speaker
For anyone out there that doesn't know, the sting is in the tail of the blue bottle and it's nasty.
00:56:15
Speaker
And he dried them on a coat hanger, on a wire coat hanger.
00:56:18
Speaker
He hung them up, he dried them.
00:56:20
Speaker
Then he threaded the tail through a needle, you know, tied it off.
00:56:25
Speaker
Then he got a pair of my costumes and sewed the blue bottle sting
00:56:35
Speaker
All good.
00:56:36
Speaker
Here we go.
00:56:38
Speaker
I put my costumes on.
00:56:40
Speaker
No problem.
00:56:41
Speaker
I didn't know.
00:56:43
Speaker
So I'm walking down the promenade, hot day, and of course you get a bit sweaty under the arms in the crutch area.
00:56:50
Speaker
The sweat is activating the sting.
00:56:53
Speaker
I'm walking along and I'm scratching my groin.
00:57:01
Speaker
And this went on for two or three days until finally,
00:57:05
Speaker
One of the guys came up to me and said, mate, we can't stand this anymore.
00:57:10
Speaker
It's embarrassing.
00:57:11
Speaker
You're walking along the promenade scratching your groin.
00:57:15
Speaker
Oh, that's the best.
00:57:16
Speaker
People are watching you.
00:57:17
Speaker
Then they told me he'd sew two dried blue bottle stings into my costumes.
00:57:23
Speaker
That's unbelievable, mate.
00:57:25
Speaker
It's so nice.
00:57:25
Speaker
Sorry, you go, Maxie.
00:57:27
Speaker
No, sorry, Lee.
00:57:28
Speaker
You go, go, go.
00:57:29
Speaker
I was going to say, so my question is, did you go, okay, we're quits, or did you also then think you'll keep?
00:57:37
Speaker
You know what, Lee?
00:57:38
Speaker
Any person that is capable of taking a prank to that level is someone to be feared.
00:57:44
Speaker
Yeah, exactly.
00:57:46
Speaker
There's no way.
00:57:48
Speaker
That was it.
00:57:49
Speaker
There's another story there.
00:57:50
Speaker
There's another story that I know of.
00:57:52
Speaker
This one was...
00:57:54
Speaker
You know, it sounds like maybe it wasn't Al, but maybe it was someone else, but the prawn heads.
00:57:59
Speaker
Yeah, the prawn heads.
00:58:00
Speaker
That was... Tell us that one before we wrap it up.
00:58:04
Speaker
Well, I think that might have been Kerr Box.
00:58:06
Speaker
And I think, you know, I played some pretty nasty tricks on Box in his early days.
00:58:12
Speaker
Although I'm going to cut this ex-pro surfer down to size.
00:58:16
Speaker
You know, same thing.
00:58:20
Speaker
He was from Bronnie and those guys grow up on that stuff.
00:58:23
Speaker
You know, they chew pranks up.
00:58:25
Speaker
And what he'd done was the classic, he'd...
00:58:29
Speaker
I think he got into my car, he got the keys to my car and he stuck a bunch of prawn heads somewhere in the car where I could not find it and it reeked.
00:58:43
Speaker
You know, I thought I'd heard of this joke before but I got in the car.
00:58:49
Speaker
I didn't think anyone was capable of it but, yeah, Box took it to another level.
00:58:54
Speaker
And you had to...
00:58:56
Speaker
My memory of this story, you had to sell the car because the stances that bad?
00:59:00
Speaker
I think you're right.
00:59:01
Speaker
I think I got rid of the car.
00:59:02
Speaker
There was no getting it out.
00:59:04
Speaker
It was unbelievable.
00:59:07
Speaker
I think he got under the back of the seat.
00:59:10
Speaker
He got into the boot and got it under the back seat where you couldn't reach it.
00:59:14
Speaker
You had no idea.
00:59:16
Speaker
You know, back in the day, it was in the hub.
00:59:18
Speaker
You'd take off the caps off the wheels, the hubcaps.
00:59:22
Speaker
And you know, that's easy.
00:59:23
Speaker
You just take them out, no
Conclusion and Future Collaboration
00:59:24
Speaker
big deal.
00:59:24
Speaker
But in this, yeah, he went all the way.
00:59:28
Speaker
And it wouldn't surprise me if he collaborated with Al.
00:59:31
Speaker
Best ever.
00:59:32
Speaker
He probably got his advice from Al.
00:59:36
Speaker
So good.
00:59:37
Speaker
Evil.
00:59:37
Speaker
That was evil.
00:59:39
Speaker
Evil.
00:59:40
Speaker
I love it.
00:59:40
Speaker
I love it.
00:59:41
Speaker
I love it.
00:59:43
Speaker
Mate, you know what?
00:59:44
Speaker
I'm just, we had our retread second guest again.
00:59:48
Speaker
We had, you know, Piers, who's a follower that I work with.
00:59:52
Speaker
We had him on again for a second time.
00:59:55
Speaker
And I think, Loz, we'd love to have you on again in the future, a second time.
00:59:59
Speaker
We could talk about the audio book, a little bit more about history and so on.
01:00:03
Speaker
It's been an absolute great chat.
01:00:05
Speaker
I love talking to you guys.
01:00:07
Speaker
You know what?
01:00:09
Speaker
Next time I'm in Bondi, and you've got half an hour, three, I'll shout you a cup of coffee.
01:00:15
Speaker
Can we go for a walk?
01:00:16
Speaker
You're on.
01:00:17
Speaker
Yeah, Lodge.
01:00:18
Speaker
Actually, of all the years I've spent time in the tower and going for walks on the beach, mate, we should do the Bondi Historian walk that you've done.
01:00:27
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, let's do it.
01:00:28
Speaker
Absolutely.
01:00:29
Speaker
I would love that because I like to do the walk and I read some of the signage that's on the walk, you know.
01:00:35
Speaker
Yeah.
01:00:35
Speaker
I'm doing it just as a tourist.
01:00:37
Speaker
Yeah.
01:00:38
Speaker
I'll send you, I just showed Laurie earlier the two photos of my first time that I went to Bondi.
01:00:45
Speaker
So I'll scan those photos and I'll send them to you because I love what you're doing.
01:00:51
Speaker
And I remember, you know, Bondi is iconic for people in the UK.
01:00:56
Speaker
They have a love of Australia, people in America, anyone, they come to Australia, they want to see Bondi Beach.
01:01:02
Speaker
Want to see Bondi Beach.
01:01:03
Speaker
And it is, you know, the first time you see it, it's like seeing, you know, the first time you're going to fly into Sydney, all you want to see is the Opera House and the bridge.
01:01:13
Speaker
Can I give it a plug?
01:01:15
Speaker
Can you let me do a plug?
01:01:16
Speaker
Yeah, go.
01:01:17
Speaker
Well, do you want some quirky stories?
01:01:20
Speaker
Bondi Historian on Instagram or Facebook?
01:01:23
Speaker
Facebook is the full version.
01:01:25
Speaker
Yeah, we will share all of this when we share the podcast.
01:01:29
Speaker
We'll make sure we have all your socials.
01:01:31
Speaker
We'll make sure we share the podcast and we'll give your socials a wrap, mate, because it's a really good thing you're doing.
01:01:37
Speaker
Amazing.
01:01:38
Speaker
Great talk to you guys.
01:01:39
Speaker
It's been an absolute pleasure.
01:01:41
Speaker
I have loved every minute of it.
01:01:42
Speaker
Yeah, it was fun.
01:01:43
Speaker
I enjoyed it.
01:01:44
Speaker
That was fun.
01:01:46
Speaker
I knew you were a legend and now I really know you're a legend, Loz.
01:01:50
Speaker
No, I'm just one of you guys.
01:01:53
Speaker
You're a good man, mate.
01:01:54
Speaker
I will see you later because this is a prerecord, but I'll see you later, Loz.
01:01:59
Speaker
Yeah, I'll only have a couple, but definitely one of those will be with you.
01:02:03
Speaker
Look forward to seeing you, mate.
01:02:04
Speaker
Great talking to both of you.
01:02:06
Speaker
See you guys.
01:02:07
Speaker
Take care, everyone.
01:02:08
Speaker
See you.
01:02:09
Speaker
Bye.