B for

B for Bondi Beach

Probably one of our most famous icons would have to be Bondi Beach. It is world famous and one of the first places overseas and domestic tourists will most likely visit.
Bondi is a beautiful beach, golden sand, saphire blue water, close to shops and transport and has been known to host up to 40,000 people on a hot summer's day. That's a lot of people.
Oh, and over 2500 people are rescued each year.

Bondi has been a public beach since 1882 when the local Council decided that the public was to have unobstructed access.Before that the beach was only accessable to the Settlers who owned the surrounding land.

The beach's history includes the infamous 1907 Sydney bathing costume protests to oppose dress standards for beachgoers, the escorting of an American actress (Jean Parker) off the beach because her bikini was deemed to be too skimpy, the legendary lifesavers recently made famous in the show Bondi Rescue, the 'backpackers express' one of the most deadly rips in the country (or so the narrator of Bondi Rescue says), the city to surf fun run, the infamous Bondi Beach New Year's Eve Backpackers Party and the Bondi Iceburgs – a group of insane people who fill a rockpool with ice in the middle of winter and submerge themselves so their testicals retreat up into their stomachs.
Bondi Beach is a reflection our lifestyle with the lazy Sunday cafe hops, the world class restaurants, surf, the relaxed atmosphere and every tourist in Sydney either sitting on the sand or crowding up the water.

Personally, I would rather get root canal than go to Bondi for a swim, it is crowded and it can be dangerous to swim there if you are not familiar with our beaches .  
Sydney is flanked by many other beautiful beaches, most of them much more pleasant and much less crowded. If you are ever in Sydney, go to Bondi and have the obligitory photo taken then head either north or south to the better beaches.
(spoken like a true southern Sydneyite who would rather swim in peace not in soup)

Bondi Beach on a quiet day (Image courtesy of federico stevanin / FreeDigitalPhotos.net)

and Blue bottles 
are not bottles made of blue glass, they are as iconic to an Australian summer as a BBQ. Otherwise known to the world as the Portugese man of war, these creatures herald their arrival on an easterly breeze with the screams of pain of unsuspecting swimmers. A summer swim in Australia is not complete until you are swimming, on a beautiful, hot, sunny day in the ocean only to suddenly feel an intense burning pain on a limb (hopefully) or your torso (not good) or on your face and neck (really really bad) and look down and see that brilliant blue stinger wrapped around the bit that is stinging. Hot water is very helpful to remove the sting and to eleviate the pain but hot water isn't abundant out beyond the breakers.
If the sting is a major or multiple one then the venom travels to the glands under the arms & in the groin causing excruciating pain, oh, and you go into shock. No one dies but boy you think & feel like you are going to.

You have to get to shore asap, use the self control of a dieter in a cheese cake factory not to roll in the sand screaming like a baby and get up to either a freshwater shower or hope like hell that someone has a thermos of hot water. Having been there myself I can tell you that the option of scalding yourself with boiling water pales into insignificance in comparison to a blue bottle sting.

Many a bbq has been enhanced by a bad Blue Bottle encounter story. If you have been stung on the torso or face or by a stinger longer than a meter, your cred is high. And if you got out of the water unassisted carrying a major sting … well you are the undisputed king (or Queen). 

One of my Uncles is undisputed royalty when it comes to stings of significance.  He got stung one day on a beach on the south coast of our state. The beach was unpatrolled but crowded, my uncle was out a fair way in a big surf.  He ducked under a wave then felt the blue bottle wrap around his body. He managed to catch a wave in to shore, ran from the water already going into shock and clutching at his groin. He had the presence of mind to snatch a cup of tea right out of a lady's hand and pour it all over his chest.  He almost got a black eye as well as the woman's husband didnt understand his prediciment at first.  Luckily he noticed the bright blue stinger all over my uncle's chest and grabbed the thermos and tipped the rest of their supply of highly sugared white tea over the stingers on his belly and side.  Although we all knew he was in terrible pain the memory of him attacking a lady and pouring tea all over himself still makes us laugh and my Uncle swears that the sugar and milk took the sting out.  

photo courtesy of Norm Miles, Merry Beach 2001