When our grandfather, Joseph Tapley, arrived at Bondi in 1905, he named the farm for the famous beach in Sydney, Australia. Why? Well, he had just retired from a successful stage career in England, Australia and New Zealand in comic opera. And his arrival at Bondi pre-dates the construction of the dam at Baysville.
Lake of Bays has controlled water levels, because we are part of the water system that feeds into the hydro plant at Bracebridge. All this lovely water begins in the Algonquin Park watershed, flowing to us through Tea Lake and the Oxtongue River before heading south and west and eventually pouring into Georgian Bay.
That dam raised the Lake of Bays about five feet. That's a lot of water to lift. What that water covered was the sandy stretch along the front of Bondi that reminded Joseph of Bondi Beach. We still have sandy beaches, but not quite as wide as they were 'back then.'
This fall, the water levels in the lake are very low. As a result, we've got beaches... stretching in all directions. these pictures were taken from the Main dock, looking along the lakefront.
Over the Thanksgiving weekend, the warm weather drew folks outdoors. Some settled for playing in the sandpile, or just soaking up some sun with a cold drink. For others, the shallow water enticed a lot of people to hop into that lake one more time before they have to admit that summer is over.
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