The City of Sydney is hosting a summer Open Day providing free access to 6 pools around the city including the Andrew (Boy) Charlton Pool and Ian Thorpe Aquatic Centre. In addition, there are plenty of other recreational activities and in-centre events planned for the day so be sure to mark it on your calendar!
Whether we’re trying to shake off a stressful day or just enjoy the simple joy of water, there’s something intrinsically comforting about swimming. Michael Easton, a Sydneysider, has swum laps in so many suburban pools he can’t single out a favourite but says “there’s something about the feeling of being submerged in water”. “I think maybe it goes back to when we were in utero,” he jokes. “It’s one of the first things we learn in life.”
Australia has more ocean pools than any other city, and Sydney’s are the most famous — a legacy from the city’s pioneering swimmers who wanted to practice in safe places away from strong waves. “Sydney’s big collection of ocean pools is unique,” explains Marie-Louise McDermott, an academic who has written on the subject. “Most cities only have one or two.”
The city’s oldest public pool is the Woolloomooloo Bay Pool, built in 1894 and named for champion long-distance swimmer Andrew Boy Charlton. Originally, patrons paid five shillings a year for membership badges to be sewn onto their bathing suits, and the money went towards maintenance. Today, the pool is free for all to swim in and features a sunbathing pontoon, al fresco cafe, changing rooms, and toilets.
Another city favourite is MacCallum Pool in North Sydney, designed by philanthropist Hugh MacCallum and opened in 1920. It’s the smallest of the harbor-side pools and is often packed with swimmers, snorkelers, and families. The pool resembles a billabong and filters its waters not with chemicals but by plants. Today, the pool offers swimming lessons and a variety of other community activities such as diving competitions and an annual movie night.
There are also a number of private pools across the city, with their own charms and symbolism. Tsiolkas argues that they are underused, forlorn spaces that evoke the migrant experience, while Flannery cites their use as a marker of wealth and status.
But it’s not just the pools themselves that give them their magic, it’s the way they are used. At Mount Druitt, for example, the pool’s community of asylum seekers gather weekly to swim and let their stresses dissolve in the water. The pool also holds an annual ‘Dive In’ every summer where they watch a movie on the big screen, and in winter they drain the pool and fill it with fresh water and trout for swimming and fishing. It’s the ingenuity of Sydney’s pools that make them so special.