Bondi Lagoon’s Tragic Legacy

By Kimberly O'Sullivan on October 6, 2011 in Other

In the 1840s an estate known as the Bondi Estate covered a vast area of the present day Bondi Beach, Bondi Park and the streets from the beach back to O’Brien Street.

Francis O’Brien (1816-1896) was the owner of the Bondi Estate during a significant time in its history. He married three times and had thirteen children, many of them growing up at the Estate’s family house, ‘The Homestead’. The Homestead itself had extensive flower and vegetable gardens and as a thriving farm it employed a number of local men.

The Bondi Estate was indeed idyllic. The land around The Homestead was scattered with paperbarks, swamp she-oaks and large-leafed coastal tea trees, some over 30 feet high, their dense foliage providing welcome shade from the summer sun.

The property’s many fresh water lagoons (as mentioned in last month’s Local History article in The Beast) were covered with water lilies, their beautiful flowers floating on the water’s surface. A lagoon covering almost two acres was located near The Homestead and it was described as lying “like a great mirror [reflecting] the trees and banks, and in places it was covered with water lilies.”

Francis O’Brien’s youngest children often played at the lagoon near their home. One particular game involved using a big wooden box as a make-believe boat.

On Saturday, April 18, 1896, Francis O’Brien’s third wife and mother to his six youngest children, Amelia, had invited her brother to dine at The Homestead.

With the light almost gone from the April autumn sky, Dorothy and Amy slipped away from the house, presumably bored with the goings on at the adult dinner party, and headed to the lagoon unsupervised to continue their adventures in their ‘boat’.

Back at The Homestead their elder brother, 15 year-old Kirk, heard his young sisters screaming. He and his uncle ran to the lagoon where they saw the box ‘boat’ floating on top of the water, but ominously there was no sign of the girls.

A frantic search of the lagoon ensued and sadly the girls’ bodies were found soon after.

Efforts were made to resuscitate the girls and a police officer and two doctors were summoned, but it was too late. Eleven year-old Dorothy and 8 year-old Amy had drowned.

Their elderly father, aged 80 at the time of their deaths, died four months later from a heart attack. The O’Brien family believes shock from the sudden loss of his two young daughters hastened his own end.

If you would like to find out more about the colourful history of the Eastern Beaches area you can call Waverley Council Local Studies Librarian Kimberly O’Sullivan on 9386 7744 or you can send her an email at kimberlyo@waverley.nsw.gov.au.