Last week, Roy and I began a series of posts about Wollongong's heritage precinct, centred around the old harbour. We looked at the history of the harbour itself, and promised to return to look at other features in future posts. When we were thinking about where to visit this week, it seemed appropriate to stay in the area. Now, the decision was simply what aspect of the heritage precinct to focus on this week. Roy has been very taken with a photograph of his Great, Great Grandmother on the beach and wanted an excuse to show you the picture. Even though, by todays standards, she is overdressed, the note on the back of the photo says she was dressed indecently! He thought looking at the ocean baths at Wollongong would be a perfect opportunity to show off the picture (which you can see at the bottom of the post), so this week we visit several of Wollongongs ocean baths.
Over time, Roy and I have visited many sea-side areas, up and down the coast of New South Wales and have have seen many old ocean baths. We have seen baths which are still in use today, despite being almost 200 years old, and baths which are in ruin after less than a century. Both Roy and I are fascinated by them. Ocean baths were often meticulously created, and for many years were a favourite recreational facility. This hasn't stopped many of them being abandoned and allowed to decay. Many no longer even hold water at low tide! Wollongong, as a large, well established sea-side city has it's fair share of ocean baths. In fact, some of the Wollongong ocean baths are among the oldest in New South Wales. Although Sydney is the oldest town in Australia, ocean baths did not start their life here. Sydney-siders preferred beach enclosures. The first ocean bath was built in Newcastle in the 1820s and was called the Bogey Hole. Roy plans to visit it later this year.
The next ocean baths to appear were the chain baths or Nun's pool in Wollongong which seems to have begun its life as ocean baths in the early 1830s when a rock wall was created to fence a natural depression in the rock and prevent waves washing into the pool. The chain baths were at the base of Flagstaff Hill and used by ladies and later Nuns as a place where they could bathe in privacy and security. Interestingly, a regiment and over 100 convicts were housed on the hill above the baths and a palisade wall had to be built to retain the modesty of the ladies who used the baths! Although the baths are still there, they are harder to get to. The photos of Roy are mostly taken at the Ladies Baths/Children's Baths in Wollongong which was built in 1856. This new pool was created on the south side of Flagstaff Hill and was again used as a private place for women and children to swim. Gentlemen in Wollongong didn't get their own bathing place until the 1870s when Clarkes Hole was built and then enlarged to be the Gentlemen's Baths. A toddlers pool was built alongside the Gentlemen's baths in the 1920s but there is little evidence of it left today - Roy and I are standing on one of its walls in the photo below. If you would like to visit any of the baths, find out their locations and how to get to them by visiting the NSW Ocean Baths website.
You might have noticed that many of the pools were named for either ladies or gentlemen. Today, this might seem very strange, after all, we are used to men and women swimming together in public pools and at the beach. However, when many of the ocean baths were created, bathing in mixed company would not have been acceptable. Men and women bathed apart and it was particularly inappropriate for men to see women swimming. Even being fully dressed and covered appropriately was important at the time when the baths were built and in fact, when neck to knee swimming costumes, which covered the body from 'neck to knee', were introduced they were viewed as immoral!
When Roy's Great, Great Grandmother had this photo taken she says her brother in law wouldn't go near her because, not wearing the coat and skirt which went with the bathing suit, she was indecent! You can read her own description of the photo below. Before 1902 it was even illegal to swim on a public beach during the day.