Some people move to Bondi. Peter Anderson grew up with it. As a boy in the 1960s he lived on Birriga Road, where Bellevue Hill meets Bondi, long before the beach below became one of the best-known addresses in the world. Today he still swims in its most famous pool, and he has spent more than 40 years helping Eastern Suburbs families buy and sell the homes around it.
Bondi in the 1960s: a down-to-earth beach suburb
In Peter’s childhood, the trams that had carried generations of Sydneysiders to the sand made their last runs in February 1960, and buses took over much the same route the 333 follows today. The Bellevue Hill line had once run along Birriga Road itself, though it closed in 1959. The saying “shot through like a Bondi tram” outlived the trams themselves.
This was a proudly working-class beach suburb. Novelist Peter Corris called it “flat country”, with big blocks of flats, small ones and divided houses. Many were owned by post-war European migrants and rented to New Zealanders and itinerant workers. Art deco blocks with grand names like Cairo Mansions and Venice Flats looked out over Campbell Parade.
For a boy on Birriga Road, the beach was a quick run away, down through the laneways and out onto the sand. At school at Waverley College he threw himself into rugby and swimming, and that love of sport and the water has stayed with him ever since.
The landmarks that grew up alongside him
Bondi Pavilion opened in 1929 with change rooms, Turkish baths, shops and a ballroom. In 1974 the old Palm Court Ballroom became a theatre, and by 1978 the building had become a community arts centre. A careful restoration reopened it in 2022, complete with a gallery, a theatre and the Bondi Story Room.
Bondi Icebergs was founded in 1929 by local lifesavers who wanted to stay fit through winter. The club got its licence and moved out of a tin shed in 1958, began admitting women as members in 1995, and opened its new clubhouse in 2002, with Icebergs Dining Room and Bar on the top floor. For Peter, the Icebergs is personal. Peter Anderson Real Estate proudly sponsors the club, and Peter is an active member. This winter he won his age-group race in the club’s championship races. In 2025 his son Joseph joined too, so the next generation of the family is now swimming there.
Cleaner water, café culture and a premium address
One of the biggest changes in Bondi’s story happened out of sight. The deepwater ocean outfall was commissioned in 1991, and Sydney Water reports that beach water quality improved immediately and substantially. Many locals point to that moment as the start of Bondi’s move upmarket.
Over the 1990s and 2000s, older blocks were renovated and given balconies, and designer boutiques arrived on the strip. By 2006, a local agent quoted in The Sydney Morning Herald estimated that the mix of renters to owner-occupiers had shifted from about 70:30 to almost 50:50.
Culture followed. In 1997 a one-day exhibition called Sculpture by the Sea drew around 25,000 people to the clifftops between Bondi and Tamarama. Today it features more than 100 sculptures and attracts an estimated 500,000 visitors a year. The wider six-kilometre Bondi to Coogee coastal walk has become one of Sydney’s favourite morning rituals.
Four decades in Eastern Suburbs real estate
Peter started selling property in Kings Cross and Darlinghurst in 1983, and in 1990 he opened his own agency in Double Bay. More than 40 years on, he’s the Principal of Peter Anderson Real Estate, a boutique agency covering residential sales, commercial sales and auctioneering, and he’s a licensed real estate agent and an experienced auctioneer.
His two most recent sales show the range of that experience. In August 2026, 12 Todman Avenue, Kensington, known locally as “Kensington Palace”, sold at auction for $12,000,000. Designed by architects Joseland and Gilling around 1926 as the administration building of the old W.D. & H.O. Wills tobacco factory, it has classical columns, arched windows and a distinctive cupola.
Closer to Peter’s childhood beach, he also sold the whole ANZ Bank building at 410–414 Oxford Street, Bondi Junction. It sits in the heart of the Oxford Street Mall on approximately 600 square metres of land. It has rear access via Grosvenor Lane, a lock-up garage for more than 15 cars, and it backs onto the bus and rail interchange.
His wife, Jacinta Anderson, works alongside him in sales and marketing, and past clients have praised the couple for keeping them informed through the whole process.
Why that local history matters for your next move
If you’re thinking about trading the family home for a beautiful apartment near the water, Bondi and its neighbours now offer something the 1960s never could: lock-up-and-leave living, with the coastal walk, the ocean pools and some of Sydney’s best dining right outside the door.
Choosing the right building, floor and outlook is easier with someone who has watched these streets change since childhood.
Let’s talk
Whether you’re curious about what your home might be worth, or you’re ready to start looking for your next chapter by the sea, we’d love a relaxed chat.
Peter Anderson: 0412 281 133, peter@peteranderson.au
Jacinta Anderson: 0414 363 370, jacinta@peteranderson.au
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