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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
The Illawarra area, south of Sydney is blessed with many beautiful ocean baths. Between Coalcliff in the north to Shellharbour in the south there are around 24 pools built into rock faces by the sea. One of these beauties is the double ocean pool...
On the weekend I immersed myself in the Palm Beach rock pool. Built in the 1920s, the ocean baths are at the southern end of Sydney’s Palm Beach in the area known as Cabbage Tree Boat Harbour and Kiddies Corner. Overlooking the rectangular...
It only costs 20 cents to get into McIver’s Baths, a lovely sea pool nestled in a protected curve of the coast at Coogee. There’s no turnstiles or reception desk at this peaceful place so making a contribution relies on honesty and trust...
