9 December 1929 - "Huge crowd of surfers on Coogee Beach at night", Sydney, New South Wales, Australia (restored version)

IMAGE INFO

- This rare, historic image was taken after a day of extreme heat in Sydney, when officials opened the entrances at the Coogee Beach shark-proof enclosure south of the Coogee Ocean Pier for night bathing under floodlights (the night lighting had been in operation since 16th November, when the shark-proof enclosure was first officially opened).

- The cost of entry was only 1d per person (whereas the Pier cost 3d per Adult + 3d per Child)

- The photographer's viewpoint is looking south-east from an elevated position atop the roof of one of the Coogee Pier's structures.

- Q: "What happens if you need to leave your friend(s) in the middle of the crowd to go to the loos"? Good luck on finding your way back safely! :o0 (see following news reports).

- The Labor Daily newspaper dated Tuesday 10 December 1929 (page 1) reports luridly that "NIGHT BATHING - Thousands of people stormed the entrance to Coogee shark-net enclosure last night. Approximately 20,000 people were on the beach, while something like 50,000 were in and about the sands, promenades, pier & so forth. As early as 9 o'clock carloads of people, their costumes still dry, left the place" and "Such a crowd was not anticipated, and trouble was not long in coming. Eastern Suburbs Ambulance had three waggons working all night ... there were collapses due to people being overcome in the crush; collisions in the congested waters, and people hit by cars in the jumbled traffic". Officially, it seems the number of actual entrants to the enclosed area of Coogee Beach was "11,225" (a record figure), or "nearly 12,000" - those figures being reported in numerous other newspapers of 10th December. The Evening News went so far as to report "...the crowd in the vicinity [of Coogee Beach] was estimated at 100,000. About 3,000 cars were parked near the beach"....Yikes, that's insane!! :oO Similar numbers became a regular occurrence on hot nights, so it is no wonder petitions started to flood in to Council from many angry local residents concerned at the mayhem all these "blow-ins" from other suburbs were causing!

- Note the "shark-proof" net supporting cables in the foreground, with all the night paddlers/bathers splashing around in the shore break. Unfotunately, it was discovered over time that the so-called "shark-proof" net was not that "shark-proof" at all, with undetected big deep holes in the shore sand banks caused by rips & storms, often leaving gaps in the defenses big enough for any hungry predator to pass through with ease!

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SOURCE INFO

- 1 x glass photo-negative from the Hood Collection.

- Photographer Sam Hood (1872-1953)

- The original was digitized by the State Library of New South Wales

- The digitized original is available from the SLNSW online collection "Hood Collection" here:

digital.sl.nsw.gov.au/delivery/DeliveryManagerServlet?dps...

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CREDITS

- Sam Hood (photographer)

- State Library of New South Wales for their valuable work in digitizing, archiving & making available online this rare historical content.

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COPYRIGHT STATUS

- Per SLNSW advice:

Out of copyright: created before 1955

- Regarding my own work in creating this unique cropped, restored & duo-toned version from the digitized original, I have applied "Attribution-Share Alike".

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PROCESS INFO

- I downloaded a copy of the digitized original (very faded & overexposed).

- Latest version re-processed using AI enlargement & enhancement software.

Done