Tag Archives: salt water

Drummoyne Olympic Pool – Drummoyne, NSW 2047

Known by many as ‘Crummy Drummy’, but I like the place My experience in the pool Ok, staring at Iron Cove Bridge as you do your backstroke laps at Drummoyne Olympic Pool is not quite the same as North Sydney with its Harbour Bridge views, but I liked Drummoyne Pool and didn’t find it at all ‘crummy’. According to the excellent history of the pool I found on the Drummoyne Swimming Club’s website, the name ‘crummy drummy’ dates back at least to 1950, when a 14 year old Read more [...]

Andrew (Boy) Charlton Pool – Woolloomooloo NSW 2011

Named after Australia’s 1924 Paris Olympics gold medal winner, who famously beat a world record-holding Swede as a teenage in pools at this site My experience in the pool I visited here with swimming buddy and fellow writer Therese on the pool’s penultimate day of opening before they closed for the 2015 winter. What makes this pool so special is its setting and its history. You’re right on Woolloomooloo Bay, with naval dockyards opposite and the old Navy shipping sheds in sight Read more [...]

Continental Baths, Wollongong, NSW 2529

Continental Baths, Wollongong The name Wollongong comes from the  local Aboriginal word for ‘seas of the south’ My experience in the pool This is a pool where people work hard. The main pool is organised into four wide lanes, allowing everyone to swim clockwise with a passing channel down the middle. On a cloudy morning in early February, there were about 10 people in the water, all doing freestyle at a fair lick. I joined two others in one ‘lane’ for my 600m swim – a Read more [...]

Port Kembla Olympic Pool – NSW 2505

  Famous now for its steel works, but back in 1770 Red Point near Port Kembla was Captain Cook’s first sighting of the East Coast My experience in the pool My first swim here was on a bright but very breezy day in early February. The wind off the sea was so strong that as I swam eastwards it whipped up small waves which made breathing more difficult (though it also just made me improve my head lift each time I came up for air in freestyle). This is a beautiful 50m pool, marked Read more [...]