Ocean swimming

Can you spot the pair of swimmers were doing laps in the ocean off Coogee. I like to think they were keeping pace with the ship on the horizon!

I was at McIvers ladies pool. You can read more about it here and here and here and here and here.

It's one of my favourite places in Sydney

Coogee

Looking over Wylie's Baths at South Coogee towards the group of rocks called Wedding Cake Island.

Midnight Oil wrote an instrumental song called Wedding Cake Island.

Joy!

Contrast

December 25 and Jan 8 - both good swims under different conditions. McIvers Ladies Pool

This morning at McIvers

conditions were a little different to what I showed yesterday (which was taken on Christmas Day)

aaaaah, summer

McIvers Ladies Baths, Coogee

Previously shown on 21 Dec 2006 and 14 Feb 2009

McIvers Baths is under a cliff face, on a rock platform between Coogee Beach and Wylies Baths. The baths have magnificent oceans views and are relatively well screened from the surrounding area.
The baths were built in 1886, but according to the National Trust it has been a popular swimming spot for women since before 1876.
This pool (entrance donation 20 cents) is popular with nuns, Muslim women, lesbians, and elderly women (well women of all ages, really). In 1995, after a challenge in the courts, it was granted an exemption under the Anti-Discrimination Act to continue operating as women-only, probably the only one of its kind in Australia.

I'm going again tomorrow.

Coogee 7 - Mina Wylie

Sculpture of Mina (Wilhelmina)Wylie, daughter of the founder of Wylie's Baths. Sculptor: Eileen Slarke

Mina Wylie was a woman of firsts. She and friend, Fanny (Sarah Frances) Durack, were the first women to win a silver and gold medal respectively in Olympic swimming, at the 1912 Olympic Games in Stockholm. For the first time at those Olympics, two women's races were held: 100m, and 100m relay. She was also the first woman to receive the Diploma of the Royal Life Saving Society.
In 1971, Mina was inducted into the Swimming Hall of Fame in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
Wylie was born in Coogee in 1890, and died in 1984.

Photo collage left - Top left: Fanny Durack (l) and Mina Wylie (r). Top right: Mina Wylie. Bottom left: Fanny Durack. Bottom right: Fanny Durack (l) and Mina Wylie (r) in Stockholm
After competing against each other in thw 1910-11 swimming season, Mina and Fanny persuaded swimming officials to let them compete in Stockholm. There were 27 competitors. The pool was built in an inlet of Stockholm Harbour. There were no lane ropes. Fanny's time in the 100m final was 1:22.2 and Mina's was 1:25.4.

Coogee 6 - Wedding reception at Wylie's

Wylie's Baths can be hired for weddings. The day I was there they were setting up for one, but swimmers were still able to wander through to the toilets and change rooms until they closed at 5:30pm. Quite a juxtaposition - formal table settings, and swimwear!

Coogee 5 - Reading The News at Wylie's

A great way to relax on a Saturday morning - reading the papers by the sea.

This photo was taken on Saturday 7 February, the day that Victoria suffered the worst bushfires in history. However, when I took this, they were not yet underway, certainly not the night before when the paper was printed. The cartoon shows Prime Minister Kevin Rudd hosing down the fire of the global financial crisis (with his economic stimulus package), and the Leader of the Opposition, Malcolm Turnbull, telling him not to waster water, ie not to spend all the resources at once. A bit ironic.

Coogee 4 - More Wylie's Baths

I love the elevated platform, boardwalk at Wylie's. You can sunbake on the deck, sit under a canopy sipping a latte and eating cake from the cafe, just stare out to sea or on fellow swimmers, even have a massage in that small white tent near the umbrellas.

Any Australian readers catch the first episodes of the drama about 1970s organised drug crime, Underbelly, last week? One scene was a brutal fight, which was filmed from about the spot I took the photo at left.

Coogee 3 - Wylie's Baths

Just a few metres south of the Women's Pool is Wylie's Baths. Last Saturday, when the temperature was soaring, I spent the day at Wylie's. This was the day when the devastating bushfires took hold hundreds of kilometres south, in Victoria. For the next few days, dip your toes in the water, and enjoy the cool, refreshing water with me.
Below: you can see the Women's Pool in the middle distance, and Coogee Beach beyond. The Coogee Beach pool, with which this series began is around the corner tucked in to the southern end of the beach, and so hidden from view.

Wylie's dates from 1907, when it was established by Henry Alexander Wylie, a champion long sistance and underwater swimmer. His daughter, Wilhemina (Mina) and her friend Fanny Durack were the first two women to represent Australia in Olympic swimming. They won a silver and gold medal respectively. We'll see more of Mina in coming days.
The Baths were one of the first mixed gender bathing pools in Australia. In the mid 1970s they were severley damaged by storms and closed for a while. They were reopened in 1978 and renovated in 1994. They are classified as a heritage item by the National Trust.

Coogee 2 - The Women's Pool

The Women's pool, formally known as McIvers Pool, is the sole surviving single-sex pool in NSW, if not Australia. A man took the matter to the Anti Discrimination Board, however the Council was granted an exemption to continue to operate it for women only, given that there are 2 other mixed pools within a few metres.

The pool offers a safe, popular and relatively private bathing spot for Christian and other nuns, Muslim women, lesbians, and those who like to swim in privacy, including women with disabilities and some pregnant women.

The pool has been used by women bathers since the 1860s. Mina Wylie trained in this pool before swimming her way to a silver medal in the 1912 Olympics, the first Olympics with swimming events for women.

PS One eagle-eyed reader noted yesterday that not all my photos have been taken on the days published, because it's been raining the last few days in Sydney. So true. Unfortunately, because I work full-time, my photographic excursions are mainly confined to the weekends. Bring on retirement (or that big lottery win!)

Also, to people expressing concern about the bushfires: they haven't featured on SDP because the worst have been hundreds of kilometres from Sydney...but they have certainly brought a sense of shock to everyone in the country and many overseas)

Coogee - the beach pool

We're heading south again - on to Coogee. This is the Ross Jones Memorial pool at the southern end of Coogee Beach. They were built in 1947 from funds provided by the Commonwealth government to the local council as reparation for wartime damage to the beach. They were dedicated to Roscoe Samuel Jones, who was alderman for Randwick's East Ward from 1934 to 1937 and closely associated with the Coogee Surf Life Saving Club, near which the baths are located.

McIvers Baths - Women Only

McIvers Baths is under a cliff face, on a rock platform between Coogee Beach and Wylies Baths. The baths have magnificent oceans views and are relatively well screened from the surrounding area. (I took the shot from inside.)

The baths were built in 1886, but according to the National Trust it has been a popular swimming spot for women since before 1876.

This pool (entrance donation 20 cents) is popular with nuns, Muslim women, lesbians, and elderly women (well women of all ages, really). In 1995, after a challenge in the courts, it was granted an exemption under the Anti-Discrimination Act to continue operating as women-only.

Lots more photos to be seen here.

Wylie's Baths, Coogee

In the early 1900s, swimming pools were built hewn from rock platforms and below many of the rocky headlands of Sydney beaches around Sydney (and beaches to the north and south of Sydney). They remain popular today, many hosting winter swimming clubs.

Wylie's Baths at Coogee date from 1907 and were restored in 1994-95 (the website linked here has some interesting info and images)

There's some more pictures posted here, including another self-portrait.

The cliff walk between Bondi and Coogee

Winter is a great time for walking in Sydney, and Saturday was perfect - about 21 degrees. I walked part of the coast walk between Bondi and Coogee beaches. It was incredibly hard to choose one photo, but in the end, the texture of the sandstone, the brightness of the boy's board shorts, and the pile of thongs (they're footwear, not underwear!) made this one my favourite.

For some more shots, including a panoramic view of the coastline north of this clifftop perch, click here.