{"id":246782,"date":"2026-01-15T21:54:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-15T21:54:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/246782\/"},"modified":"2026-01-15T21:54:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-15T21:54:09","slug":"locals-oppose-tearing-down-of-bondi-terror-attack-bridge-at-waverley-council-meeting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/246782\/","title":{"rendered":"Locals oppose tearing down of Bondi terror attack bridge at Waverley Council meeting"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Sydney beachside council has refrained from deciding to\u00a0tear down a footbridge used by the Bondi gunmen after hearing from grieving members of the community.<\/p>\n

Waverley Council held an extraordinary meeting last night, one month after two shooters targeted Jewish community members at Bondi Beach, where 15 people were killed and dozens more were hospitalised.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Tributes have been left on the bridge since the attack in December. (ABC News)<\/p>\n

The council voted to help the community heal in two ways: by using memorials to commemorate the victims, and by recognising the people who demonstrated bravery.<\/p>\n

“The council will continue to honour the victims and the survivors of the attack,” Mayor Will Nemesh said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“It will also recognise the heroism of those who put themselves in harm’s way with no concern for their own individual safety or welfare.”<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Councillors at the extraordinary Waverley Council meeting. (Supplied)<\/p>\n

A keen topic of discussion was the pedestrian bridge used by the gunmen as a vantage point in the terror attack, as days earlier NSW Premier Chris Minns suggested it should be torn down to avoid becoming a “ghoulish reminder”<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The council was already considering the future of the heritage-listed bridge as it nears end-of-life and will need to be replaced within “several years”.<\/p>\n

“The replacement of the northern pedestrian bridge may form part of a future discussion of a permanent memorial,” Cr Nemesh said.<\/p>\n

Many oppose NSW premier’s idea<\/p>\n

Before the meeting, 16 speakers publicly addressed the council, most of them from different community groups.<\/p>\n

There was general consensus that there should be a permanent memorial, with multiple people independently citing a menorah as ideal.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A menorah was electrically lit outside the building where the extraordinary meeting was held. (Supplied)<\/p>\n

But the notion of tearing the bridge down had little if any support, while many people argued the bridge should be retained.<\/p>\n

Alison Bevage heard the gunshots from her house.<\/p>\n

“Those bridges are a part of our heritage, they’re our touchstone, what makes Bondi familiar to us,” she said.<\/p>\n

“Please just leave our bridges alone and don’t use them to punish us.”<\/p>\n

The Sydney Jewish Museum’s Sandy Hollis said the location of the shooting had become “a symbol of resilience and unity against acts of terror”.<\/p>\n

“Whether the footbridge remains in its present form or not is not as material as how the victims of the terrorism attack are memorialised,” she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“If we do it correctly, we will encourage our society to confront hatred in all its forms.”<\/p>\n

Local Ben Klein said the location had “not become a place of ghoulishness”.<\/p>\n

“It’s become a place of cohesion. It provides a space to contemplate and to look over where the massacre happened,” he said.<\/p>\n

“There are no graves there.”<\/p>\n

Former Waverley Council mayor and Bondi resident Sally Betts said a bridge was needed.<\/p>\n

\"Ms<\/p>\n

Sally Betts says, “We must never forget.” (Supplied)<\/p>\n

\u00a0“I know people are concerned that it will remind people [of the tragedy], but I think that’s good,” she said.<\/p>\n

“We must never forget.”<\/p>\n

The council unanimously passed a motion to begin exploring options for a permanent memorial, but it acknowledged the process would be slow.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, it is working on short-term solutions.<\/p>\n

An existing artwork of a giant menorah has been moved to Archer Park to act as a temporary memorial.<\/p>\n

The council also voted to replace some of the panels of the Bondi Beach Sea Wall with commemorative artworks for the next 12 months.<\/p>\n

‘The Key to the City’<\/p>\n

The council is looking to recognise the people who met the horrors of the attack with bravery.<\/p>\n

It plans to award “The Key to the City” to survivors Ahmed Al Ahmed, Gefen Bitton and Leibel Lazaroff.<\/p>\n

They will also receive a lifetime Waverley Council Beach Pass.<\/p>\n

Bondi Beach terror attack site future unclear<\/a><\/p>\n

The Bondi Beach footbridge that some locals want removed following last month’s terror attack was already going to need replacement for structural reasons, it can be revealed.<\/p>\n

Fallen heroes could also be recognised in the Prime Minister’s Special Honours List.<\/p>\n

The council will nominate Boris and Sofia Gurman, and Reuven Morrison, in the hope they receive posthumous commendations.<\/p>\n

The meeting’s attendees heard a detailed account of the attack from one of the registered public speakers.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“Lifesavers are trained to think to the side and to run to those in need. This is exactly what they did,” Liz Webb said, speaking on behalf of Bondi Surf Life Club.<\/p>\n

“The horror of the shooting lasted for 10 minutes.<\/p>\n

“With every minute since then has been an overwhelming coming together of help, love and support from and within our community.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Sydney beachside council has refrained from deciding to\u00a0tear down a footbridge used by the Bondi gunmen after…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":246783,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[30365,124103,124106,246,124109,124107,61,60,33859,112462,18374,124108,82,8553,124104,124105],"class_list":{"0":"post-246782","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-bondi","9":"tag-bondi-beach-bridge","10":"tag-bondi-bridge-meeting","11":"tag-environment","12":"tag-extraordinary-meeting","13":"tag-footbridge","14":"tag-ie","15":"tag-ireland","16":"tag-mayor","17":"tag-memorial","18":"tag-mural","19":"tag-pedestrian-bridge","20":"tag-science","21":"tag-terror-attack","22":"tag-terrorist-attack","23":"tag-waverley-council"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246782","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=246782"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246782\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/246783"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=246782"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=246782"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=246782"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}