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Yellow Bluff

March 10, 2016 BY

Yellow Bluff is at the corner of the bay and is so named for the imposing yellow cliffs that form the corner of the bay and the Front Beach.
On top of the yellow cliffs is the beautifully named Elephant Walk, an open space area functioning as a common.
A visit from the circus in the summer months was a long held ritual in old Torquay and it caused great excitement.
The first notes about the circus coming said they were camped at the north end of town near to Taylor Park but as more houses were built they moved over to the foreshore area and the name Elephant Walk dropped in the lingo as it was where the elephants were taken to exercise.
In the 70s and 80s, it was often used by visitors as a picnic spot and on some summer days it was crowded by large groups of newly arrived immigrant Australians.
Mostly these new Australians were Italian and Greeks who would arrive with tables and chairs and huge boxes of food while playing their own music. They would have the most wonderful day eating singing, dancing, playing bocce and watching the children swim, it was rare to see the adults in the water at that time.
Locals enjoyed this cultural change to beachgoing that made a conventional Aussie day at the beach look very boring as they continued to practice their homeland traditions in their adopted home.
Many locals would go down and sit and watch them dancing as evening came.
Still today this area is a popular picnic spot with large family groups of visitors arriving in the holidays, although the food and languages are

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