WHY IT'S CALLED BONDI

"Bondi" is undoubtedly an aboriginal name, bestowed (it is thought) by a local aboriginal tribe.
It is generally translated as "the sound of breaking water" or "the noise of water breaking on rocks".

Certainly anyone first coming upon Bondi in all but its most tranquil moods would think up some such name, for it describes its most distinctive feature perfectly (one can perhaps even imagine the name attempting to convey the sound of the waves themselves, booming as they broke on the beach).
However, as a local history records, it might have a less-idyllic origin.

For in the archives of the Australian Museum in Sydney is an entry that records that Bondi means "a place where a fight with nullas took place". (A nulla is an aboriginal club, or hitting weapon.)

Whatever the truth, the first recorded spelling of the name is "Boondi" in 1788 (the year of the arrival of the First Fleet). Other spellings and pronunciations include:

1809 "Bundi"
1811 "Bundye"
1819 "Boondye"
1827 "Bondi Bay"
1832 "Bondi"
1852 "Bondi Estate"

So since 1827 the accepted spelling has been "Bondi" (not with a "short" i, but a long one, aye. (Locals actually pronounce it Bon-di, almost as two syllables, with the emphasis on the final i.)

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