Bondi

Tyrell and McCarthy both give “Water breaking over rocks” as the meaning for Bondi, Sydney's famous beachside suburb. 

McCarthy, F.D. New South Wales Aboriginal Place Names and Euphonious Words, with Their Meanings. Sydney: The Australian Museum, 1963.

Tyrrell, James R. Australian Aboriginal Place-Names and Their Meanings. Sydney: Tyrrell's Pty. Ltd., 1933 (reprinted 1944, 1949, 1951, 1953).

They are two of a number of people who compiled and published lists of Aboriginal placenames together with their meanings. For the most part such lists gave no indication of language, precise area, or source for the meaning. Tyrell and McCarthy both give the identical interpretation. Perhaps they are right. But is there anything in the records to suggest otherwise?

First, ‘Bondi’ is a word with the letters -nd- together. It so happens that the greatest student of the Sydney language at the time it was first encountered by Europeans, William Dawes, specifically stated that the somewhat similar consonantal combination -nb- was not permitted in the language, and that it was replaced by -nm-. He also provided a comparative list revealing that -nd- was not used in Sydney either, although it was ‘inland’ (i.e. around, say, Richmond):

Sydney	Inland
Ngyíni	Ngyíndi	thou
Būnüng	Būndüng	knee
Mūnuru	Mūnduru	navel
Manaoùwi	Mandaoùwi	foot

So ‘Bondi’ is anomalous, in featuring -nd-. However, in spite of Dawes’ prescriptions, other -nd-words do occur in the Sydney and Dharug lists, which might give hints to as to Bondi’s meaning. A few examples follow. Note that /o/ is not used in transcriptions for most Aboriginal languages (nor is /e/).

Australian	respelt	English	EngJSM	source
"bundi"	bundayi	"Club, plain"	club	Mathews DG 1901 [:159.2:29] [DG] [NSW] [1901]
"būndā"	bunda	"hawk"	hawk	KAOL Rowley GeoR [:104:25] [DG] [NSW] [1875]
"Bondolock"	bundu-lug	"a Rosehill [parrot?]"	rosella	Bowman: Camden [:18:56] [DG] [NSW] [1835?]
"bunduluk"	bundu-lug	"Rosella parrot"	rosella	Mathews DG 1901 [:159.1:11] [DG] [NSW] [1901]
"būndelūk"	bundi-lug	"parrot (rosella)"	rosella	KAOL Rowley GeoR [:104:27] [DG] [NSW] [1875]
"bunda"	bunda	"Apple tree"	treetype angophora	Mathews DG 1901 [:159.2:9] [DG] [NSW] [1901]
"Bunde- bunda"	bundi bunda	"This native has no less than five names, viz. "Bannelon, Wollewarre, Boinba, Bunde-bunda, Wogé trowey," …”	Bennelong	King in Hunter [:405:5.1] [BB] [NSW] [1792]
"Bondel"	Bandal	"Bondel, a native boy..."	Bandal	Collins 1 [1:147:27] [BB] [NSW] [1798]
"Būnůng"	bunang	"Knee"	knee	Dawes (b) [b:39:2.2] [BB] [NSW] [1791]
"Būndůng"	bundang	"Knee"	knee	Dawes (b) [b:39:2.1] [BB] [NSW] [1791]

Of these, while the ‘birds’ (hawk, rosella), and ‘apple tree’ might have given their name to the locality by being present there, ‘club’ seems less likely. Knees (bunang/bundang) are seen as bending, and the shape of the bay in which Bondi occurs makes ‘bend’ a possible interpretation.

Bondi lies to the southwards, and to the south of Botany Bay are found the nearby southern languages of Dharawal on the coast and Gundungara in the Blue Mountains. Lists for these southern languages confirm the meanings for ‘hawk’, ‘rosella’, ‘apple tree’. They also yield other possibilities for meanings for Bondi, including:

"Bùndil"	bandil	"sun"	sun	Mitchell, T.L.: SQ [:425.1:42] [Gga] [NSW] [1833]
"Bâ-nthoong"	banDung	"is cock of birds, reptiles"	male [of fauna]	Mathews 8006/3/5- Nbk 5 [:99:17] [Dwl] [NSW] []
"bondung"	bandang	"Range (high)"	hill	SofM 18990921 [146: Larmer- Brdwd] [:147:28] [Dga ] [NSW] [1853]
"Bundowrie"	banda-wari	"Tall-high"	lengthy-having	Nathan, Isaac [:1:13] [Dwl] [NSW] [1848]
"Bundāwurri"	banda-wari	"[a tall man hit a dog] tall"	lengthy	Mathews 8006/3/6- Nbk 4 [DWL] [:1:1.1] [Dwl] [NSW] []
"Baun-da-ral"	bandaral	"killer whale, eats tongues"	whale killer	Mathews 8006/3/7/ - CRITERION [:75:20] [Dwl] [NSW] []

None of these seem particularly promising possibilities, except the last; but the word itself (bandaral) is rather too different from ‘Bondi’ to be really attractive.

Returning to the Sydney lists for forms in which ‘d’ in the combination -nd- is omitted as per Dawes’ requirement, we find:

"Pü´nnül"	banal	"The sunshine"	sunshine	Dawes (b) [b:16:19] [BB] [NSW] [1790-91]
"Pan-nā"	bana	"Rain"	rain [flow]	Collins 1 [1:507.1:24.1] [BB] [NSW] [1798]
"bunaah"	buna	"knee"	knee hail	Fulton AONSW [:254:8] [Syd] [NSW] [1801]

Finally in the Sydney lists, Bunnabi/Bunnabee is given as the north head of Botany Bay, as is also Bunnabri (Thornton and others). No meanings are provided for these names, but their form does slightly resemble ‘Bondi’, and the location is not very far away.

A final unlikely possibility is that words for ‘beat’ occur repeatedly in lists on both sides of the Great Dividing Range, in the inland and coastal lists. What is of interest here is that the words are nearly always bu- forms (buma, bunda, bulma, bunga, buwa, and sometimes with /i/ substituted for /a/).

"Bundhira"	bunDi-ra	"They beat [pl]"	beat they-all	MATHEWS R.H. AmPhilPhila 42 1902 Vol xlii MRWI/WWmba [:183:4] [Mrwi] [] [1902]
"panta-li-ya-a"	ba-n-da-li-ya-A	"He hit him."	beat-someone did	Oates [:147:5.116] [Mrwi] [NSW] [1988]
"buma"	buma	"beat"	beat	KAOL Ridley [KML] [:8:5.1] [Kml] [NSW] [1875]
"pa-nga"	ba-nga	"Hit it!"	beat-something	Oates [:184:5.393] [Mrwi] [NSW] [1988]
"Buhn-tahn"	bun-da-n	"Strike"	beat-AFF-now	Tkld Specimens / Dialect [:27:20.2] [Awa] [NSW] [1827]
"bōōmar"	buma	"To strike"	beat	Curr 3 #173 Bray [3:242.2:1] [Bjlg] [Qld] [1887]
"bu-mun-bil-la tea"	bu-manbi-la- diya	"let me smite"	beat-make-permit- IMP! me	Tkld/Frsr Spec Dial (G.) [G:148:2.3] [Awa] [NSW] [1827]
"Bul ´mandhun"	bulma-n-Dan	"He strikes me"	beat he me	Mathews 8006/3/5- Nbk 5 [:158:4] [Dwl] [NSW] []
"Bongar"	bunga	"to beat"	beat	Curr 3 #186 Branch [3:342.2:10] [Bpi] [NSW] [c.1850]

Inland forms are in the top part of the table, coastal forms below.

It could be that Bondi (or bundayi) too has this origin, and refers to beating (of the waves on the rocks).

"Boondi"

bundayi

"noise made by the sea waves breaking on the beach"

SofM 18991221 [210 Thornton- Ptta] [:210.1:5] [Syd] [NSW] [1899]

In conclusion, Bondi might mean the unsubstantiated ‘noise on rocks’ as much as anything else. Or, for an idea based on a reliable source, the name might refer to the curved shape of the bay, as a knee is bent.

Jeremy Steele

5 July 2025