The Royal watchers amongst us may know of the Royal Tour of 1954, the first visit to Australia of a reigning monarch. The tour spanned 58 days from 3rd February 1954 and covered much of Australia.
As part of the tour, a Royal Surf Carnival was held at Bondi shortly after Queen Elizabeth's arrival, on Saturday 6th of February 1954.
Tamarama SLSC was well represented at this carnival in many events, including March Past, Beach Sprint (John Shand, Brian Henry), Single Ski (Don Keech, Ted Gillroy), Surf Boat and more.
It's a time that most of us can hardly imagine, but I have attempted to recreate the atmosphere with some material from the time. I've included on this page links to this content:
Program from the event itself - at a time when programs were printed for carnivals and competitors named for each event.
A link to a news item related to the carnival from National Film and Sound Archive - look out for the Tamarama flag and March Past team in the March Past footage.
Guy