2013 | Swimming Pool Stories

A multicultural morning at the Granville Pool

Dec 17 2013

It was the tiles that drew me to Granville Pool; 1930s hexagonal-shaped with a border in red and chequerboard blue and white. Bruce discovered them when he swam there after work, and a few days later I was heading west along Parramatta Road to Sydney’s fourth oldest Olympic pool after Enfield, North Sydney and Bankstown (RIP). As I[…]

Nov 19 2013

Last Sunday I got a different perspective on the Dawny Swim watching it from Cockatoo Island. In 2011 and 2012 I took part in the 2.4 km swim from Balmain’s Dawn Fraser Baths and around Cockatoo, and I was going to enter again this year. But when I was deliberating about whether my head was in the[…]

Oct 28 2013

Petersham marked the re-opening of the Fanny Durack Aquatic Centre yesterday with a big pool party. The celebrations started with a traditional smoking ceremony from indigenous elder Aunty Jenny, who led a trail of kids in cossies around the centre’s new 25-metre pool, toddler’s pool and water play area. Aunty Jenny’s ‘welcome to country’ was followed[…]

Oct 17 2013

As a birthday present to myself last week I went for a swim at McIver’s Ladies’ Baths. I had visited the Coogee pool a few times before but this was the first time I was diving in. Mid-week, McIver’s is a peaceful spot where breaststroke is the preferred style or a leisurely backstroke. A few also don caps[…]

Oct 03 2013

Last night I was part of an evening of ocean swimming yarns held at the Woolloomooloo Bay Hotel. It was a great night of story-telling loosely based around the theme of ‘my first time’ with no two stories the same. We heard about facing fears and making it out past the waves at Bondi, the art[…]

Sep 09 2013

Looking at an exhibition of contemporary textiles at the Sturt Gallery in Mittagong recently made me think of lines and stripes at pools. Called Parallels, artist Barbara Rogers explored the “diversity and language of the stripe; the simplest of all patterns…” Some of her silk textiles reminded me of particular pools especially ones she created in shades of green and blue. When[…]

Jul 09 2013

I felt like I’d like walked into an outdoor art gallery when we visited the refurbished Prince Alfred Park Pool in Surry Hills last Sunday. As the Lord Mayor of Sydney Clover Moore said at the opening in May this year, “It’s quite simply an architectural masterpiece.” Designed by architects’ Rachel Neeson and her late husband Nicholas Murcutt,[…]

Jul 01 2013

The beauty of ocean pools is that they change each day according to the weather and the patterns of the sea. Last week huge waves lined up outside Mahon Pool and crashed over the chains. Sometimes there was so much water the pool disappeared completely from view. It was mesmerising watching the rise and fall[…]

Apr 29 2013

On Anzac Day there was a soft Autumn light over Leichhardt Park Aquatic Centre. The late afternoon sun glistened and sparkled in the blue water of the 50-metre pool. When I started taking photos, a lifeguard asked me what was so interesting in the pool. “There’s all these beautiful reflections,” I said. Oh,” he said, sounding unconvinced of[…]

Feb 20 2013

White, black, turquoise, red, mousey pink, mustard, dark grey, mint and pale blue. That’s what greets me when I walk into the Ruth Everuss Aquatic Centre at Auburn. Colours, patterns and shapes abound at this 1959-model pool. Above the water and below. On the grandstand full of peeling paint. On the tables, umbrellas, seats and chairs.[…]

Archive - 2013

A multicultural morning at the Granville Pool

A new perspective on the Dawny Swim

Locals party at opening of new Petersham Pool

Birthday swim at Coogee’s McIver’s Ladies’ Baths

A night of spinning swimming yarns

Meditating on lines and stripes at the pool

The art and design of Prince Alfred Park Pool

The magical moods of Maroubra’s Mahon Pool

Anzac Day tranquility at Leichhardt Pool

Retro magic at Auburn’s Ruth Everuss Aquatic Centre