Bondi Pavilion

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  • Bondi Beach
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Time Out says

The Bondi Pavilion started life as the Bondi Municipal Surf Sheds, a series of 1,000 dressing sheds dedicated to the “clean and healthful pastime of surf bathing”. Work on the current Pavilion started in 1928, opening the following year with dining rooms, cabaret, ballroom and the Turkish and Hot Sea Water Baths (which flopped, closing in 1932 with the North Bondi Surf Life Saving Club taking over the space).

For the next few years many businesses came and went before the building was accidentally damaged in military explosions during WWII: in the hopes of preventing Japanese invasion, the underground passages leading to the beach were blasted closed, using more explosives than were required – the blast damaged the Pavilion, the surf club and took out windows all along Campbell Parade.

The building was repaired and held dances through the ’40s, but the glory days were over: by the ’70s the place was barely used, with Councillor David Taylor telling the Sun-Herald in 1975, “I’d like to put a bomb under the Bondi Pavilion and a new start made on a casino.”

Thankfully neither happened: the Bondi Theatre Group converted the former Palm Court Ballroom into a theatre in 1974, starting the venue’s new life as an arts centre, despite a community-defeated attempt by the council to sell the place to commercial concerns in the late ’80s. The building is now safe on the NSW heritage register and is currently an arts and cultural centre, home to the Tamarama Rock Surfers theatre group, a rehearsal and recording studio, and the Bondi Pavilion Gallery.

For more information on the Bondi Beach area, see Bondi Beach.

Details

Address
Queen Elizabeth Dr
Bondi
Sydney
2026
Opening hours:
Office hours: Mon-Fri 9.30am-5.30pm; Sat-Sun 10am-5pmGallery hours: Daily 10am-5pm

What’s on

Bondi Festival 2025

Australia’s most famous beach is welcoming back its big winter festival, this time with the biggest program to date. Running from Friday, July 4 until Sunday, July 20, Bondi Festival 2025 will bring 17 days of world-class music, theatre, comedy, visual arts and interactive performances to the beachside suburb – as well as a huge ice-skating rink and the beloved ‘Bondi Vista Ferris Wheel’. This year’s fest will also see a welcome focus on foodie offerings, with the festival’s ‘Blue Sky Markets’ making their debut at Bondi Park over three big Saturdays, hosting stallholders from across Sydney’s Eastern Suburbs. Festivities will begin with the 2025 Waverley Art Prize winners’ announcement at Bondi Pavilion Art Gallery – a prize that’s now in its 39th year. After the announcement, festival goers can get their giggle on at the opening night Bondi Festival Comedy Gala, which will take over Bondi Pavilion Theatre for two laughter-filled nights. The first Saturday of the fest also sees the return of two fan favourites: the Pavilion Paw Parade, and Sydney’s beloved inclusive art class, Gladdy Drawing Club.  Other highlights from the first week include an incredible showcase of First Nations talent, an on-stage film-making spectacle by POV by re:group, the Sydney premiere of Alternative Facts’ unexpectedly intimate new theatrical experience Sincere Apologies and the Bondi Festival debut of the award-winning comedian and disability advocate, Madeleine Stewart. The second week of the...
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