I Was an Original Bondi Mermaid!

Jan's famous form greeted swimmers on the world-renowned tourist beach

- By Leigh Reinhold

Bondi mermaid Jan Carmody is delighted a new sculpture will soon appear on the world-famous Sydney beach, more than 60 years after a mermaid based on her form stood in place at Bondi's north headland.

It was 1960 when Jan, a celebrated local model and Miss Australia Surf 1959, was approached by sculptor Lyall Randolph to pose as one of two "mermaids" he planned to install on Bondi's Big Rock.

The sculptor wanted Jan to pose nude but Jan admits she was "far too shy", even though Randolph went on to create his two mermaids naked from the scales up. "Some people loved our mermaids and others were shocked and outraged," Jan, the thrice-married, now-divorced grandmother-of-four tells Woman's Day. "It was only the start of the '60s, and they were very different times."