BIKINI WARS A Waverley Library Local History Fact Sheet - Waverley Council
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WAVERLEY COUNCIL
BIKINI
WARS
A Waverley Library
Local History Fact Sheet
Although two piece swimsuits of keeping the costume in
have been around since position.
Ancient Rome (mosaics While it is impossible to say
depicted found in the Villa who was the first to wear the
Romana del Casale showed risqué bathing suit to Bondi
women wearing bandeau tops Beach, there has been a history
and shorts to compete in of arrests of women who dared
sports), the bikini as we to breach the 1935 ordinance
recognise it is commonly on swimming costumes.
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 suits 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 waist, and have subsequent fight against ‘public
shoulder straps or other means indecency’.
WAVERLEY COUNCIL
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 1960s, 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 dress 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 fashion police. actress, was fined £3 at
Paddington Court of Petty
Sessions for wearing an
offensive swimming costume
on Bondi Beach.
WAVERLEY COUNCIL
BIKINI
ARRESTS
Images from top:
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
navel’; 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 The Daily Telegraph
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 Speedos) 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. Published by Waverley Library from sources
in the Local History Collection, 2020
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