South Curl Curl is a beach north of Manly in the Northern Beaches area of Sydney. In this area, a string of ocean pools stretch from Palm Beach to Manly. See them all on the NSW Ocean Baths website. Most (not all, and not South Curl Curl) were built or expanded during the 1930s as projects to employ people during the Great Depression. Sydney is blessed with rocky headlands with rock platforms at the end of the crescent shaped beaches, and the pools are generally located on these rock platforms. I am pretty sure they would never happen nowadays - there would be much uproar and protest at changing the natural rock platforms.
I love that these pools are free, and not fenced, are fully publicly accessible. Long may that remain! One of the last bastions of the "common good" in our bean-counting, user-pays world. (OK, I know Warringah rate payers pay...but that's a great use of local taxes - the rest of us help by supporting local businesses like cafes and shops. ..)
For more photos see my Swimming Blog.
I had never heard of this string of ocean pools until I started reading Sydney blogs. What a great idea, especially since they came from Make-Work Projects during the Depression.
ReplyDeleteThese ocean pools fascinated me when I was visiting Manly. What a clever idea, not to mention the fact that sometimes I'd see a few fish swimming in there along with the swimmers!
ReplyDeleteAaaaaaah just what I need to feel homesick (can I say OZ-sick?)
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