Residents and surf clubs enthusiastically took up the idea of staging a Royal Command Surf Carnival on Bondi Beach for The Queen’s first homecoming in 1954. The event is the subject of an historical feature by Waverley Council Local Studies Librarian, Kimberly O’Sullivan Steward, "The Day Bondi Went Royal". This piece is in the August 2009 issue of The Beast, a monthly magazine for Sydney’s “beaches and bays of the East.”
The young Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh were greeted by crowds estimated at more than 40,000 on the beach and another 60,000 on other vantage points.
The Queen and Duke seemed excited by the Carnival and stayed longer than planned. Subsequently, the road alongside the beach known as Marine Drive was renamed in honour of The Queen and is now known as Queen Elizabeth Drive.
