Tamarama, New South Wales
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| Tamarama Sydney, New South Wales |
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 Tamarama Beach |
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| Postcode: | 2026 | ||||||||||||
| Location: | 7 km from Sydney CBD | ||||||||||||
| LGA: | Waverly Council | ||||||||||||
| State District: | Coogee[1] | ||||||||||||
| Federal Division: | Wentworth[2] | ||||||||||||
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Tamarama is a beachside, eastern suburb of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. It is located 7km east of the Sydney central business district, in the Waverley Council local government area. The postcode is 2026.
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[edit] Location
Tamarama has a small but perfectly formed ocean beach located about 1 km south of the world famous Bondi Beach and a couple of hundred metres north of Bronte Beach. The suburb is mostly residential and the beach and adjacent parklands have been popular places for recreation such as swimming, sunbaking and picnics for more than a century.
Since the 1980's it has been affectionately known as Glamarama (or Glamourama) by the locals, as it is a beach where the seriously beautiful or trend setters come to sunbathe and swim or simply try to be seen. However, the better aspects of Tamarama are its pretty landscapes, gully, parks, beach, ocean, quiet surrounds and convenient location nestled between Bondi and Bronte beaches.
Tamarama is easily accessible by public transport and is in the middle of the "Bondi to Bronte Ocean Walk" that is the most popular coastal walking route in Australia. The beach and parkland form part of the exhibition space for "Sculptures By The Sea" that is an annual event in late spring and the most popular outdoor artistic exhibition in Australia.
The beach is home to one of the first surf lifesaving clubs in the world, Tamarama Surf Life Saving Club, that was founded in 1906. The Club proudly boasts an enviable record of not having lost a single life to a mishap in the surf in over 100 years of surf life saving patrols. This is a remarkable achievement given that the under tows or "rips" in the surf zone are regarded as being amongst the most dangerous on the east coast of the Australian continent.
Because of its deep water, small size and easterly aspect, the beach is dangerous for most swimmers even in a moderate ocean swell. A small swell can produce rip currents of up to 2 metres a second (which is about the speed of the current 50m men's world record). When swimming at Tamarama beach the directions of the surf life savers should not be ignored.
[edit] History
Initially known as Dixon Bay by early European settlers, the name was changed to Tamarama in the 1800s.
In 1887 Sydney's first coastal amusement park, and one of the earliest in Australia, opened at Tamarama. Named The Bondi Aquarium its greatest attraction was a plunging roller coaster that dived and twisted over the beach. People flocked to the attraction, not only for the rides, but for vaudeville acts and aquarium creatures, including seals and a tiger shark. On the evening of July 11, 1891, fire destroyed the aquarium and pavilion, but it rose from the ashes in September the same year, and continued to entertain Sydney's populace. The last identified concert at the Aquarium was a fund raiser for the Waverley Benevolent Society in July 1906.
Ownership and mangement changed several times throughout its existence, until the site was finally sold by Mrs Margaret J. Lachaume in 1906 to William Anderson who transformed the amusement park, re-naming it Wonderland City. In 1906 Wonderland City opened and replaced the Bondi Aquarium as the latest attraction at Tamarama. Powered by its own steam plant, the amusement park featured an airship suspended over the bay and an elephant named Alice available for rides on the beach. Frequent battles with local residents over beach access, charges of animal cruelty and an incident with the airship saw a decline in numbers. After a few years of low crowds and poor revenue Wonderland City closed in 1911.
[edit] Tamarama Beach
Tamarama Beach is often referred to as "Glamourama", owing to the alleged abundance of glamorous people who sunbathe, on what must be one of the smallest strips of sand in the state. This small beach is located between two prominent headlands, with a sand filled valley to the back, surrounded by pleasant parkland and picnic areas. Tamarama is an extremely narrow beach and deceptive for its size. Tamarama Surf Club is located on the northern side, perched up on the headland where it overlooks the entire beach.
[edit] Surfing and Swimming
Tamarama holds two further distinctions of merit for the number of swimmer rescues carried out here and the height of the waves.
Take extreme caution when swimming at Tamarama Beach. Inexperienced bathers could be fooled into thinking that it is safe to swim at this small beach, but this is far from the truth. While only 80m long, Tamarama has a great wave climate. As a result, one or two rip currents are always present, making the entire surf zone virtually all rip. Tamarama is considered the most dangerous patrolled beach in New South Wales, with more rescues per thousand bathers than any other of Sydney's beaches. Read more here: [1]
When the swell really rolls in, an offshore rock shelf shapes a stunning 12 to 15 foot wave that draws committed board-riders, photographers and onlookers, taking in the grand spectacle from the cliffs above.
[edit] Big wave tow-in at Tamarama
Following Cyclone Wati, big waves drew in keen board-riders to Tamarama on March 28, 2006. Watch the local guys tow-in to monsters out at Tamarama. Big Tuesday at TAMA
[edit] References
[edit] External links
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- Street map from Street Directory, MSN Maps and Multimap.
- Satellite image from Google Maps, WikiMapia and Terraserver.
| Suburbs and localities within Waverley Council | Eastern Suburbs | Sydney |
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Ben Buckler | Bondi | Bondi Beach | Bondi Junction | Bronte | Charing Cross | Dover Heights | North Bondi | Queens Park | Rose Bay | Tamarama | Waverley |
| List of Sydney suburbs |
