Beach holiday in the 1930s

We’re so fortunate to live in Australia, it’s such a beautiful country and pretty good weather, especially when you consider what much of the world has to deal with. Lots of sunny days, and if you grew up here you probably have lots of beach memories – it’s a big part of our lives.

I spent my first nine years in Sydney and my favourite beach was Balmoral– we went to many beaches, but Balmoral didn’t seem like a beach: more like a park with a pretty strip of sand and rockpools at the end. It seemed like we always got a park close by, and there were always lots of kids to play with and if we were lucky, ice creams.

Mum liked to take us to another beach that seemed far away (Dee Why? Chinaman’s?) and necessitated trudging through the sand for miles (or so it seemed to me), carrying the obligatory beach umbrella, esky and lots of bags. It felt like an expedition and there were never ice creams.

After we moved to Perth, I got to enjoy the beaches there: Cottesloe is my favourite and I visit every time I go West, although my relationship with the beach – and sun, and sand – is more complicated that it was when I was a child. I spent my 18th summer doing my best to get a tan and that was it: I don’t have the right skin to tan evenly, or even at all, so since then it’s hats, parasols and daily sunblock for me – now that I’m older, I’m very glad for it because I’ve retained pale and wrinkle-free skin. So far, so good.

The 1930s was the golden era for beachwear and seaside holidays – here are some pics that I can’t resist sharing: everyone is so beautiful, elegant and yet insouciant. Enjoy!


Herbert Matter 1937

Gotthard Schuh 1930

Andreas Feininger 1936

The last three images I found at Livejournal – click here for the link, but be warned there are a couple of tasteful arty nudes.

One comment

  1. Would love to live in Australia, beautiful beaches, beautiful sea. When we have our UK summer though, we do have some beautiful beaches along the East coast – we just have to make the most of them while we actually have a summer. Heh.

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