Sydney is famous for its harbour bridge and opera house, but the city also has a lesser-known claim to fame. It has more ocean pools (man-made public seawater swimming pools situated on a surf coast so that waves wash over them) than any other city in the world.
But how did they come about and why are they such a part of the local culture? We talked to a few experts and one of Sydney’s most iconic swim spots to find out.
Originally built in 1929, Cabbage Tree Bay Pool is on the promenade linking Manly and Shelly beaches on Australia’s Northern Beaches. It’s easy to reach from the Manly-Cabbage Tree Bay Eco Sculpture Walk and is well signposted. The pool is a roughly triangular shape and sits on the edge of a rocky shore. It’s one of the oldest and smallest ocean pools on the beach, and its shabby appearance is part of its appeal.
In recent years, there’s been a move to restore and preserve these historic pools. The Northern Beaches Council is currently working on a master plan for its seaside pools and will consult with the community about what to do next. Despite this, the pool’s future remains uncertain. It is a source of tension between the Northern Beaches Council and its state-level political masters.
The North Sydney ocean pool is beset by claims of pork-barrelling and a lack of transparency, heritage concerns, and criticism from health organisations. Its budget blew out to more than $100m and the opening date has been pushed back from 2022 to 2023 and now April 2024 – 6.5 years from the time councillors approved the design to its doors opening.
It seems that it’s not just the locals who are bewildered by the project’s missteps – even the federal independent member for North Sydney, Kylea Tink, isn’t buying it. She says the trouble started when the pool picked up a $10 million grant from a fund meant for regional and remote women’s sports. This pre-election windfall shifted the inner-city project into high gear and muddied what would otherwise have been a fairly straightforward renovation of an existing pool, she says.
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