The gentlemen of Sydney's eastern ocean pools

During August when I was writing, Into the Deep, a story for the travel section of The Weekend Australian, I spoke to a number of 'chappies' as my Dad would call them, who spend their days in and around Sydney's ocean pools.

At Wylie's Baths I met 80-year-old Reg, who comes to the pool each day but only if the sun is out.

He does about eight to ten laps and then retires to his spot at the north end of the striped timber deck to read. His favourite writer is Tom Sharpe and he doesn't mind a bit of Stephen King. "I've read nearly all Tom Sharpe's," he says. "He's funny and when I sit down and start laughing people wonder what's wrong with me."

A former Bondi Iceberger, Reg shifted to Wylie's when he moved to Coogee 15 years ago. "This is a good one," says Reg. "It's got an old world charm and friendly people and you are quite protected from the wind."

Reg believes his swimming keeps him fit and well and finds Wylie's the perfect place to relax. "You can't let yourself go for too long without doing something," he says, "and there's nothing like salt water to make you feel good."

A few headlands north at Bronte, you can't miss Les and his band of multicultural mates who spend their days swimming, talking and soaking up the sun outside the gents change rooms on the edge of the park.

"I'm Irish, then there's Greek, Russian, Croatian," says 76-year-old Les. "We all get on terribly!"  Les alternates between the baths and the bogey hole but adds he's doesn't swim in the bogey hole unless the beach inspectors are around. "It might look lovely but you never know?"

More of a dipper than a lapper, his mates say he does more laps with his tongue and if they had a dollar for every furphy he told they'd be multi-millionaires.

"If you come here every day you will know everything," says Les, who has been swimming at Bronte for 64 years. "Swim, talk, sun; that's the way to live."

At Bondi Icebergs I introduced myself to Grant, a long-time Iceberger, who'd just spent half an hour doing laps in the 16 C water in the 50-metre pool.

Recently retired, Grant learnt to swim at the pool when he was six and says he likes it because it's where he comes from. He says swimming in the cold water in winter certainly brightens you up and considers people who swim in wet suits are cheating.

"There's nothing better than a winter's day down here when the sun's out," says Grant, who finishes off his visit with a beer in the clubhouse with his mates.

Salt water soothing at McIver's Ladies Baths

On Monday, just before dusk, my friend Margie and I swam at McIver's Ladies Baths.  The sky was grey and drops of rain started to fall as we walked down the stairs of the Coogee rock pool but we weren't deterred and a few minutes later we were in.

"It's beautiful," said Margie after a moment's apprehension about the cool water.

"I can't believe I haven't been here before," she said after completing the first of a few gentle laps.  "It's like having a salt water treatment."

We watched crabs crawl between crevices on the rainbow-coloured rocks and swam along the bottom with schools of little fish. 

"There's a rock in the shape of a heart under here," I said to Marg.

"That's just the romantic in you," she said.

"No, it really looks like a love heart," I said and pulled her under to have a look.

We swam a few more lazy laps and congratulated each other for the great idea of coming to this pool where we felt like we were worlds away from anything 'everyday', and any care we had was temporarily washed away.

For more stories on McIver's Ladies Baths click here and here. 

Ladies-only at lovely McIver's Baths

It only costs 20 cents to get into McIver's Baths, a lovely sea pool nestled in a protected curve of the coast at Coogee. There's no turnstiles or reception desk at this peaceful place so making a contribution relies on honesty and trust.

Reserved for women and children only, no men are allowed at this pool. This custom goes back to the early nineteenth century when the pool was thought to have been a traditional bathing place for Aboriginal women. From the late 1820s white women also bathed there, and since the 1860s it has remained a women-only bathing area. A few times in its history, organisations and individuals have applied to have the baths open to men but each time they were unsuccessful. A key objector to Randwick Council's 1946 proposal was the Mother Superior of the Brigidine Convent at Randwick. She said the nuns at her convent, any country nuns vacationing there and the 100 boarders at the Brigidine school would not be able to visit the baths if they were opened for mixed bathing.

The baths are named after Robert and Rose McIver, who began operating them in 1918 and developed them into the form they are today. With Mina Wylie, Bella O'Keefe and others, Rose McIver established the Randwick and Coogee Ladies Amateur Swimming Club in 1923. In the 1970s and 80s renovation work was completed, and in 1994 the pool was heritage-listed by the National Trust.

Today the pool attracts all types of women but is particularly popular with Muslim women, Pacific Islanders, older women, mothers with babies and young children and lesbians. The day we popped in for a dip the ladies at McIver's were lounging on the steep, grassy slope above the pool, reading, relaxing and enjoying the sun. Others stood in the water and chatted. One goggled and capped woman swam laps up and down the 20-metre sea pool, dodging the less energetic bathers floating and relaxing in the crystal clear water. A group of Samoan women hung on to the pool wall and enjoyed the wash of the waves gushing over their bodies like they were in a spa. My nieces jumped in and swam about, declaring later that McIver's was a very nice, peaceful pool, protected from the wind and big waves. They would come back again even though at nine and 11-years-of-age they weren't so sure about the naked bosoms of some of the patrons, but maybe the spirits of the Aboriginal women who first discovered this bathing beauty would lure them back.

Wild waves at Wylies Baths

Visiting Coogee's Wylies Baths last week with three of my nieces, I was reminded of the 'marine biologist' episode of Seinfeld in which George Costanza proclaimed: "The sea was angry that day, my friends ... like an old man trying to send back soup to a deli."

Swimming in the turbulent waters of the 103-year-old pool was a bit like being in a washing machine. It was exciting and scary standing on the wall dividing the sea from the pool as powerful waves spilled over the top of us. Sometimes we were able to defy the force of nature and hang on to the poles. Other times the strength of the breakers would push us back into the safety of the pool. It wasn't an ideal day for swimming laps in the wild waters of the 55x35 foot pool. But the regulars weren't put off and continued their daily ritual of stroking through the swell.

Outside the water, the atmosphere was much more chilled with sunbakers stretched out on the hot concrete surrounding the baths. Others relaxed on the timber balconies above or found a shady spot under the stairs to read a book.

Henry Alexander Wylie, a champion underwater swimmer, established Wylies Baths in 1907. With the help of his two sons, he cut the pool out of the rock at the southern end of Coogee Bay. It was one of the first baths in Sydney to offer mixed bathing. Near the entrance to the baths is a sculpture of Henry Wylie's daughter, Mina who won a silver medal in swimming at the 1912 Stockholm Olympics. Mina's father and brothers were also good swimmers and were famous for their exhibitions of 'trick and fancy swimming' at Sydney swimming carnivals.

During the 1970s, 80s and early 90s regulars were concerned that a big sea would knock over the baths and its facilities if the council didn't undertake urgent major repairs to the complex. After a long campaign the baths were restored in 1994 and re-opened in 1995. Today they are a heritage-listed local icon. They attract lots of characters who swim and hang out at the pool all year round.