A New Harbour Swimming Enclosure

Marriniwa Cove at Barangaroo is apparently the first new swimming spot west of the Sydney Harbour Bridge for fifty years. It was officially opened on the 9th January, and is the first of at least two new city swimming spots to be opened, the othet being at Pirrama Park in Pyrmont. With Bayview Park swimming enclosure on the Parramatta River at concord recently reopened, its obvious the water quality is improving west of the bridge. I first swam there one evening a week ago as part of a group night ride. It's not a huge enclosure, but it is deep and long enough for a swim. I returned a couple of days later on a hot Sunday afternoon, and it was very popular indeed. Swimmers, snorkelers and sunbathers. Picnicking families,and a host of kids jumping off the wall just inside the shark net.

The Dawny Reopened

Dawn Fraser Baths have been closed for renovations since I last swam here on 7th April 2019. The renovations were actually completed and signed off in late July, but, of course, we were in lockdown by then. With municipal pools closed by health order, ocean and estuarine beaches were the only swimming spots avaiable (to those people who had a beach within their 5km exercise radius). Ocean baths were excluded from the health order, and it had to be pointed out that the Dawn Fraser Baths was, in that respect, an ocean/ seawater pool too. The health order was amended accordingly. So, in early September, the Dawny reopened, subject to health regulations. A maximum of 26 swimmers at any one time meant that council had to allocate one hour slots to swimmers. All swimmers from the hours slot had to leave the pool before the next group could enter. The hour slots had to be booked online up to three days in advance. I jumped online at one minute after midnight, but couldn't get a slot. It seemed like some sort of mass booking was taking place. Eventually, after a couple of days, I booked an early time. So, off I went, cycling up the Greenway, along the Bay Run and around the Balmain foreshore until I arrived at Elkington Park for the first time in almost two and a half years.

I was there early, so, unable to enter the baths, and, the kiosk being closed, I got take away coffee from Darling Street in my keep cup, and drank it on the point. There was actually a seal in the river, swimming from Cockatoo Island to the baths.

Finally, I was able to enter the baths, and swim with the other twenty-five people. I guessed that many of the swimmers would normally be doing laps at a municipal pool. The majority were in wetsuits and swim caps. Only a couple of us were just in boardies or speedos. The water was pretty cool, and there was no chance of a warm shower with changing rooms closed. Still I'd spent the winter lockdown months swimming in Botany Bay (Kyeemagh being the only spot within my 5km radius),and that had been noticeably colder.

The Basin

How many years have I been meaning to go to The Basin?  Over thirty is the answer. Finally I found the time for the 90 minutes bus ride from the city to Palm Beach,  then the ferry ride across Pittwater.
The Basin is a camping and day use picnic area in Ku-rin-gai Chase National Park. There are grassy and wooded areas on the shores of Pittwater and an inland lagoon. There are swamp wallabies and goannas everywhere.

You can swim right off the sandy beach into Pittwater and over the seagrass meadows, but I was more interested in swimming in the netted lagoon so that I could finally add it to this blog. The net is across the narrow inlet to the lagoon. Strangely, there is a sign warning swimmers that the wire net is only there to prevent water craft entering the lagoon, though it seems highly unlikely that a shark could get in.

Could this perhaps be the final length of this long swim around Sydney? I don't know of another tidal rock pool or swimming enclosure, but then I was surprised by the rock pool in Lurline Bay a couple of weeks ago. So, I may yet post again. We'll see.

Wire netting to enclose the swimming area

"Vessel exclusion net only. Swim at own risk"

Beyond the inlet, the lagoon opens out

The final length of my swim?

The Long Swim

Swimming The Sydney Coast (By Rock Pool and Tidal Bath)

In April, 2009, I decided to swim in all the rock pools and tidal baths along the coastline of Sydney. My conceit was that I would adapt the idea behind Roger Deakin's book, "Waterlog", (itself adapted from an idea contained in John Cheever's story, "The Swimmer"), that is to cover a given geographical distance by swimming bodies of water situated along that distance. Essentially, I would swim along the Sydney coastline from South to North (therefore from Port Hacking to Broken Bay), using the ocean pools and saltwater public baths on the beaches, and in the bays and the rivers. My only rule was that I must swim at least one length in the direction of completing the overall swim.

Now seven years later, I have finally completed my swim trek. Strangely, I had essentially finished in April 2011, but the Freshwater ocean pool took me five years to swim (plus I discovered another enclosure at Cockatoo Island).The eighty swimming enclosures along the route are listed below. Seven of these enclosures have been closed completely or have had the shark nets removed. In two of these I was unable to swim at all, but in five I swam the original area without the shark nets. Also one pool is restricted to women and children, so I was unable to swim there. 

Here they are:

Port Hacking

1. Gymea Bay Baths

2. Lilli Pilli Baths

3. Gunnamatta Bay Baths

Cronulla Beaches

4. Oak Park Pool

5. Shelley Beach Pool

6. Cronulla Ocean Pool

7. Cronulla Rock Pool

Botany Bay

8. Kurnell Tidal Baths

The Georges River

9. Como Baths

10. Oatley Bay Baths

11. Jewfish Bay Baths

12. Carss Point Baths

Botany Bay

13. Sandringham Baths

14. Dolls Point Baths 

15. Ramsgate Baths

16. Monterey Baths

17. Brighton-le-Sands Baths

18. Kyeemagh Baths 

Eastern Suburbs Beaches

19. Little Bay Rock Pool

20. Malabar Rock Pool

21. South Maroubra Rockpools

22. Mahons Pool (Maroubra)

Rob Walker Rock Pool

23. Ivo Rowe Rock Pool (South Coogee)

24. Wylies Baths (Coogee)

25. McIvers Baths (Coogee) (women and children only) (did not swim)

26. Ross Jones Pool (Coogee)

27. Giles Baths (Coogee)

28. Clovelly Bay

29. Clovelly Pool

30. Bronte Baths

31. Bronte Bogey Holes

32. Bondi Icebergs Pool

33. Wally Weekes Pool and Children's Paddling Pool (Bondi)

Sydney Harbour (Port Jackson)

34. Watsons Bay Baths

35. Parsley Bay Swimming Enclosure

36. Nielsen Park Swimming Enclosure

37. Redleaf Pool (Double Bay) (since renamed Murray Rose pool)

The Parramatta River

38. Balmain (Dawn Fraser) Baths

39. Cockatoo Island Swimming Enclosure

40. Chiswick Baths

41. Henley Baths (closed) (swam within the original area)

The Lane Cove River

42. Woolwich Baths

43. Tambourine Bay Tidal Pool (closed) (unable to swim)

44. Lucretia Baths (Woodford Bay)

The Parramatta River

45. Greenwich Baths

46. Balls Head Tidal Pool (closed) (swam within the original area)

Sydney Harbour (Port Jackson)

47. McCallum Pool (Cremorne)

48. Clifton Gardens (Chowder Bay)

Sydney Harbour (Middle Harbour)

49. Balmoral Baths

50. Edwards Beach Swimming Enclosure (Balmoral) (shark net removed) (swam within the original area)

51. Northbridge Baths

52. Garrigal National Park Swimming Enclosure

53. Guerney Crescent Baths (Pickering Point)

54. Sangrado Baths (closed) (swam within the original area)

55. Clontarf Pool

Sydney Harbour (North Harbour)

56. Forty Baskets Beach Pool

57. Fairlight Beach Pool

58. Manly Cove Swimming Enclosure

59. Little Manly Cove Pool

Northern Beaches

60. Fairy Bower Rock Pool (Manly)

61. Queenscliff Pool

62. Freshwater Pool 

63. Curl Curl Pool

64. North Curl Curl Rock Pool

65. Dee Why Rock Pool

66. Collaroy Rock Pool

67. North Narrabeen Rock Pool

68. Mona Vale Rock Pool

69. Newport Rock Pool

70. Bilgola Rock Pool

71. Avalon Rock Pool

72. Whale Beach Rock Pool

73. Palm Beach Rock Pool

Pittwater

74. Paradise Beach (Avalon) Baths

75. Taylors Point Baths

76. Salt Pan Cove Baths (closed) (did not swim)

77. Bayview Wharf Baths

78. Scotland Island Swimming Enclosure

The Basin

The Hawkesbury River

79. Illawong Bay (Kur-ring-gai Chase National Park) (shark net removed) (swam within the original area)

80. Brooklyn Baths