Tag Archives: ocean pools

Pittwater Life Magazine – Feature February 2018

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Thanks to website reader Kathryn Butler for alerting me to the February 2018 edition of Pittwater Life magazine, which had a fantastic feature article on all the northern beaches rock pools and the people who swim in them. The article covers an amazing 10 pages, with some wonderful shots of all the ocean pools and some great stories on the people who swim there. Here's a link to the online digital version of Pittwater Life. Read more [...]

Forster Ocean Baths – Forster, NSW 2428

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Forster is named after a 19th century NSW Premier. My experience in the pool Forster Ocean Baths are an absolute delight. If you're heading north, as I am on this quest to swim in all the NSW outdoor swimming enclosures, make the most of Forster because there aren't many more genuine ocean pools between here and the Queensland border. Forster Baths must have been all the more amazing when they were first built, when they had tea gardens, a dance hall and, of all things, a casino, attached Read more [...]

The Blue Pool – Bermagui, NSW 2546

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Some say 'Bermagui' comes from an Aboriginal word meaning canoe with paddles. My experience in the pool Bermagui’s Blue Pool is every bit as special as everyone told me it would be. It sits out on the rock face, way further south than most of the other NSW ocean pools, and although it was more green than blue, it was a pure delight on a warm December morning. I took a bit of a gamble on the weather because when I left my own home 3 hours and more north of Bermagui, it was grey and Read more [...]

The Pool Community

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This Ocean Pools NSW website has so far been all about mapping the pools as I swim in them. By my reckoning, I still have over 30 ocean pools, harbour baths and other protected swimming enclosures to do before I finish that part of my quest. My idea with this new blog is to broaden the scope of the website to include anything new happening around the pools, whether it be events people let me know about, exhibitions, works of art or other projects I hear of. One of the things I love about Read more [...]

Bondi Icebergs – Bondi, NSW 2026

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Named after the winter swimming club which began here in 1929. My experience in the pool You need to pick your time well if you want a quiet swim at Bondi Icebergs, with maybe a lane to yourself. According to the manager on duty as I left, the best time for that is between 8am and 9am on Monday or Wednesday. It certainly wasn't quiet on a warm Friday morning in March, with lots of lane swimmers ploughing up and down by 9.15, when I arrived. But it's not just the 50m pool that fills Read more [...]

Wylie’s Baths – Coogee, NSW 2034

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The oldest surviving communal sea baths in Australia My experience in the pool They'd closed Wylie's Baths the day before I came in February 2016. Strong surf from the remnants of Cyclone Winston was battering the east coast of NSW, making swimming dangerous, even in ocean pools like this one. Winds had dropped by the time I turned up and the pool was open (thankfully, because I'd come a long way for this swim), but lifeguards were on hand to make sure visitors didn't go anywhere near Read more [...]

ABC Open catches up with Ocean Pools NSW

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A journalist from the ABC Open channel joined me the other day at Coledale Rock Pool. ABC Open bills itself as for "real stories made by real people from all around Australia". I think the idea is to connect with local communities across the country, often with citizens' journalism, but in this case with a pro reporter catching up with someone like me, who is tapping into local communities via their swimming pools and coffee shops. The result of a very pleasant morning at my favourite Illawarra Read more [...]

Ulladulla Sea Pool – Ulladulla, NSW 2539

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Aboriginal word meaning ‘safe harbour’ My experience in the pool It took me three visits to Ulladulla to actually get into the water in the sea pool. The pool only opens from November to April (and it’s closed for a weekly clean on Tuesdays so beware of that too). We didn’t read the small print well enough when we first dropped by in September, and trusted to local knowledge, following the advice of a gent who advised us to come back after the long October weekend (he must have Read more [...]