>okay, okay, there are no trams currently in Sydney and yes I did know that
>tramways were installed in many Australian cities apart from Melbourne.  Just
>never heard the expression "off like a Bondi tram".  Perhaps a parochial
>expression?

Adrienne


Adrienne Leith wrote "There are no trams in Sydney????". Just to clarify
>matters, there used to be an extensive network of tramways in Sydney
>with the first electric tram being used in 1879 to carry passengers to
>the International Exhibition at the Garden Palace which used to stand in
>what is now the Royal Botanic Gardens, just across the road from the
>present State Library of NSW.
>The expression "off like a Bondi tram" or "shoot through like a Bondi
>tram" refers, if I remember correctly, to the fact that that tram was
>notorious for not stopping if it were full (which it invariably was as
>there was no train line to Bondi then). The other explanation which I
>have heard is that it refers to the fact that the Bondi tram was the
>last tram to run in Sydney before they stopped them altogether in the
>early 1960s. The sayings are quite commonly used, although perhaps more
>so in Sydney. Adrienne, being in Melbourne where trams do still run, may
>not have been aware that other cities in Australia used to have them
>once too.
>I realise that this is not exactly Museum-L material but since Harry
>keeps on referring to Oz sayings, some others might be interested in
>what they mean.
>Margaret Perkins
>Conservator
>Museum of Victoria
>Melbourne
>Australia

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