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Thursday, February 19, 2026 | Digital Edition | Crossword & Sudoku

‘Ghoulish reminder’: Bondi footbridge may be demolished

Local government councillors will decide the Bondi footbridge’s fate at an extraordinary meeting. (Dan Himbrechts/AAP PHOTOS)

By Kat Wong and Tom Wark in Sydney

A footbridge two gunmen used in the Bondi Beach terror attack serves as a “ghoulish reminder” of the mass shooting, with calls for it to be torn down.

Waverley councillors are set to determine the immediate future of the north pedestrian footbridge where the gunmen killed 15 people at a Hanukkah celebration on December 14, as well as its sister bridge at the south end of the beach.

Some residents want the bridge to stay, but a local council report has found the hundred-year-old structure is coming to the end of its life.

NSW Premier Chris Minns said victims and families should have the final say on the bridge, but believed it would be better if it was knocked down.

“I’d just hate it to be a ghoulish reminder or even exploited by reprehensible people in the future,” he told reporters in Sydney on Wednesday, exactly one month after the attack.

“We can’t allow one of the most beautiful places on earth to be remembered forever only as a place of horrible terrorism, because it’s so much more than that.

“Australians have been able to reclaim Bondi Beach as a place of hope and light in what was an absolutely horrible crime, and they’ve been able to do it in a short space of time.”

Waverley Mayor Will Nemesh will take the first step to replace the footbridges at an extraordinary general council meeting on Thursday night.

His motion calls for a report to be prepared outlining the cost, timetable and approvals required to replace or restore the ageing structures.

Any changes will only occur after consultation with the Jewish community and other local residents, Waverley Council says.

Cr Nemesh’s motion highlights a 2024 report that found the bridges were reaching the end of their useful life.

Australian Associated Press

Australian Associated Press

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