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[…]
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Thank you:-)
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[…]
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On Sunday morning the water gushed into the Werri Beach Rock Pool and spilt over the sides. Near the deep end turquoise waves reared up and splashed white on to the rocks. Two boys stood near the edge and waited to be pushed into the pool. I waded into the pale green water and stared[…]
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Travelling up and down the Pacific Highway over the past three weeks we visited a number of pools. First stop was the ocean baths at Black Head about 235 kilometres north of Sydney. NSW is blessed with 100 ocean baths but there are only five north of Newcastle. There used to be six but I[…]
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Mona Vale on Sydney’s northern beaches was originally known as Bongin Bongin, says John Ogden in his book Saltwater People of the Broken Bays. It was renamed in 1858 after the first farm in the area called ‘Mona’, which means ‘high born’. Ogden suggests the owner of the farm, Scotsman Robert Campbell may have named[…]
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A favourite game among my friends back in the 1970s at Northbridge Baths was to dare each other to dive under the suspended starting blocks and come up the other side. The bottom of the blocks was often covered in moss, so it was bit like venturing into a dark, slightly disorientating world. I was always[…]
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Pushed for time and with the weather cool I wasn’t going to swim in Bermagui’s Blue Pool. But when I saw it from the lookout above, I knew I wouldn’t be able to resist. Diving into the bluey-green pool I felt like I was entering an exotic cave like the Grotto Azzurra (Blue Grotto) on Italy’s Isle of Capri. I have[…]
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There were plenty of surfers in wetsuits in the Werri Beach waves last Sunday but only one swimmer in the ocean pool. The cool, wet weather discouraged most from diving in but as lone swimmer Margaret commented: “It’s warmer in the water than outside.” So after taking a few snaps I joined Margaret in the[…]
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My pleasure - it's great that you can see them on the website. Might be a bit cool at the…
Tomorrow (2 July) is the last chance to catch an exhibition of photos taken at Sydney’s Bronte Pool on show at the Iain Dawson Gallery in Paddington. As the blurb says: “Wayne Fogden’s painting-like photographs capture the quieter moments, in which lone swimmers do their laps or rest on the edge of the pool, pondering[…]
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A story I wrote on some of Australia’s heritage pools entitled ‘Treasured pearls of the past’ is in the travel section of The Weekend Australian, 26-27 March, 2011. The featured pools are Manuka Pool, Canberra, Spring Hill Baths, Brisbane, Tobruk Memorial Baths, Townsville, Wylie’s Baths, Coogee, Newcastle Ocean Baths, Dawn Fraser Baths, Balmain, North Sydney[…]
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Thank you Nicole for your lovely comment. Pools are a bit like art galleries I think, especially if you look…