Bondi Junction Tram Early 1950's

[@rhondalynch6478]

My grandfather was a Tram driver and I remember going on a Tram with my mother when I was only four years old. My grandmother lived in Roland Ave, just up from the tunnel at Bondi. After the Trams stopped operating, we used to walk through the tunnel as a short cut to the beach. I knew that there were no more Trams, but walking through the tunnel, I imagined a Tram coming and I would be so glad to see the end of the tunnel. My paternal grandfather worked on the Trams also but tragically was knocked down and killed by a Tram in Broadway, leaving his wife and four children, including my Dad. They did it extremely tough after that.

[@doubledee9675]

Sad about your grandfather and for the family he left behind. But it's the little details that you give beyond those that really bring the days back - thanks

[@brigadello]

It's probably one of Sydney's greatest tragedies losing it's reliable, extensive, world class tram network. Bring it back!

[@mews56]

Signed it www.communityrun.org/petitions/light-rail-for-oxford-street-sydney ?

[@alexanderip1003]

Yeah bring it back for a Net zero emission travel method

[@ChopperV-8807]

The NIMBYs don't want it, despite wanting Waverley council to do something to ease road congestion. They need to be willing to draw a compromise

[@sawbird]

Thanks for this. Always wondered how they worked at Bondi. Amazing to see the North Bondi terminus so long ago - I used to live there

[@Karpour]

Thanks for posting this, I enjoy seeing how places looked like long before I was born :)

[@hardXcoreminecraft]

awesome footage, cheers Gezza

[@Gezza1967]

Cheers👍

[@yianniathanasopoulos]

The biggest mistake the NSW government ever made removing the trams! I would love to see trans roll all around Sydney as they used to. Might remove some of the traffic issues we currently face

[@aaronlynch7480]

I really love the music in this video.

[@tompchromedome]

Me too, I hired this "shooting through" as a video cassette from a video ezy about 23 years ago and gave it a bashing as I barely remember the trams but the eastern suburbs was very familiar to me having been born in Bondi in 1953 and living there until 1965. The music gives me a very nostalgic vibe

[@MMTB616]

Looking at the motor vehicles and hearing references to the closing days indicates the film was taken in the late 1950s.

[@Gezza1967]

cheers clt1951, glad you enjoyed the footage.

[@philshields6934]

Great camera work.

[@steveheywood9428]

I would suggest this was from the early 1960s just before closure...there was a 1958/9 Holden in a couple of the frames.

[@michaelmallal9101]

Lisbon still has nice old trams.

[@leokimvideo]

We need these trams back, not the crap overseas built ones that are all cracked and out of service for 18 months

[@aussiegaigin]

Would be filmed in the early 1960s, just prior to closing of the Bondi and Bronte lines. The Bronte terminus has already been converted to allow use by buses, and the North Bondi terminus is being filled in.

[@kostadean2839]

Getting rid of this beautiful scenic tram network and bringing back the currently messed up trams through george st Cbd is just a big fuck up

[@richardbuttrose5268]

They all seem to be A LOT older than we are told.

[@AustNRail]

At current wasteful installation cost of $270 666 667 per kilometre for the Sydney light rail would give the state government the excuse why they could not bring them back or any railways like the Northern Rivers Casio to Murwillumbah line, which they systematically created the narrative that it was not worth keeping by first, reducing services, closing stations and when people could not rely on the train and found alternative means they, the NSW state government closed the line.

[@briankable3966]

Wonderful Film. Thanks for posting. Who created this?

[@Olbucko]

The Sydney Tramway Museum, available on a 3 hour DVD, "Shooting Through"

[@SW1Q1]

1:48 1.54 I remember those little huts atop poles with retractable ladders running to them. . I had a tree that I climed in my street and I thought that those bus monitoring offices/boxes were play-things for adults, whom I was scared of.

[@sushiwafanboydabber9849]

poo

[@jamesfrench7299]

Very good sample. Good to see there were wankers back then like the undertaking Holden. The future eh? Been to the Loftus museum once in the 1990s and rode one of the modern ones and was blown away how well it performed. They destroyed them at only 10 years old when they closed the system. It was a crime against humanity.

[@briankable3966]

I have written a song to accompany footage. Please let me know of this is ok??? Bondi Tram

[@georgeprokopenko3044]

Good.

[@aussiegaigin]

Bellevue Hill

[@ChristosGreek]

Sydney probably allowed their infrastructure to deteriorate too much, to the point where they were too expensive to run & patronage was failing. Whether this was done intentionally or inadvertently (or both), who knows.

[@lookslikethis]

Anyone have any thoughts on the reason Sydney lost its trams, but Melbourne resisted the push from the foolish but arrogant modernisers?

[@scottmckellar1157]

lookslikethis If you come to the Melbourne tram museum they might have the answer.

[@maxischew514]

In Melbourne the combination of the strong unions, new infrastructure and rolling stock and city layout was a major player in the trams surviving the 1950s.

[@petersmith6423]

I'm sure the oil companies had something to do with it, Buses are thirsty...........

[@RangaTurk]

With no Cross-City Tunnel, the CBD streets were just too congested. From La Perouse to Kingsford Five Ways roundabout area it is no surprise that they lasted until February 1961 due to the right of way down the centre of Anzac Parade, but once that disappears north of there you've got congestion problems on Flinders and Oxford Streets further up. They ran to Ryde during a sizeable portion of the 1950s via the Glebe Island Bridge, Old Iron Cove Bridge and Old Gladesville Bridge but can you imagine that with so many Victoria Road commuters from North Rocks, Baulkham Hills and Kellyville in the 1980s and 1990s future during the pre-M2 motorway era? It would be funny to see Sydney Trams in the 1970s in the Blue and White Phillip Shirley era PTC livery anyway with a white L7 logo on the sides. The wooden toast-rack trams would have been long gone by then anyway. The Rockdale and Enfield lines had the best chance of survival up until the early 1980s due to the motor traffic reason due to the lack of it where these lines ran, their isolated nature from the rest of the central system and where these lines were located. It was only the economics of patronage that stood in their way.

[@hqlion]

Trams are useless in Sydney. My dad was around then. And trust me he loves old stuff and has always hated modern anything. Buses are just so much better.

[@belchy94]

They get rid of trams to now bring them back

[@Smokin4CHRIST]

Bugger all cars then.............

[@CoraBezemer]

Sydney surfing here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/e4vbZnp8fq9pjZo

[@thomashninan6708]

How stupid of them to remove the trams 😡

[@hqlion]

My dad who is still around, who likes old stuff, trains and trams has said the trams in Sydney and Bondi were bloody useless. The roads are too narrow, they are slow, cost of upkeep of its infrastructure is high and in the way. Cars and buses are much better around Sydney. Anyway great to see a new generation of mindless “I know better” fools causing areas to die with the ripping up of roads and installation once again of expensive trams.