Meet the music man of Manuka Pool

It's a special place - Manuka Pool - not just because it was the first pool in the nation's capital or that it's art deco in style. It's because of the people connected to it - the people who love and care for this inner-Canberra icon. And the main man who loves and cares for this pool is John Taverner, affectionately known as Tav.

Like his parents before him, Tav is the manager of Manuka Pool. He's not just any manager; he's the heart and soul of this 78-year-old aquatic place. Tav says his pool has a special karma, which he links back to the billabong which flowed through the land on which the pool was built. The local Kooris gathered and bathed at the billabong and Tav believes their spirit lives on today and protects the people at the man-made swimming hole.

And Tav would know. He's spent most of his life there. His parents' Owen and Lesley ran the centre from 1947 to 1999. Growing up his backyard was the pool, and as a little boy was known to ride his tricycle off the diving board into the 30-metre pool. In the garden area near the children's wading pool, Tav has erected a plaque and planted an Arizona pine in honour of his parents' love and dedication in running Manuka Swimming Pool for 50 summers.

These days Tav has put his own style on this 'cool' pool where music is a part of the atmosphere of the place. Years ago when a local boys' school played a lively Cold Chisel number at the opening of their swimming carnival, Tav realised the power music could have to change the mood of the pool.

"The boys went wild, dancing, jumping in the water and throwing bags and hats in," says Tav. "Since then I've been playing music over the PA. If people need calming down on a hot afternoon I'll put something soothing on. Other times I'll change the tune to add some vitality to the place."

With his eclectic taste in music and extensive CD collection, you are bound to hear something new and different at Manuka Pool. The hot summer's afternoon we were there, chilled Mexican music serenaded around the space. As dusk approached, the Cuban sound of the Buena Vista Social Club took over. The next morning lap swimmers stroked to the dulcet tones of Van ''the man'' Morrison.

While music may not have been a feature at Manuka Pool when it was first opened on 26 January 1931, it was certainly a popular place among young people and families, public servants and parliamentarians. Designed by the government's principal architect E H Henderson and built by 'sustenance' or unemployed workers, during its early days the pool was the scene of many romantic beginnings.  Today, locals have a strong affection for the place, especially its regular morning swimmers, "The Coneheads". Like the Aboriginals before them, the ''Coneheads" gather each day at the watery space to bathe, talk and make friends. As 88-year-old ''Conehead" Don says: "When you strike a place as good as this why go anywhere else. It's a hidden treasure!"

The wonder pool of Australasia

After an absence of more than 20 years, I recently returned to North Sydney Olympic Swimming Pool. I spent a lot of time at this pool during my high school years and into my 20s so my visit was a trip down memory lane. While there have been a number of additions in the past decade, including a 25-metre indoor pool, a gym and two restaurants, much of the rest of the complex hasn't changed.

The imposing grandstand where we sat for our school swimming carnivals is still there, as is the art deco plasterwork shells, dolphins, birds and frogs, which adorn the wall closet to the harbour. There's a new entrance to the pool, but the cavernous stairs that used to lead down to the turnstiles remain. The smell of the Ladies Change Rooms transported me back to my school days, and like a flashback in a film, I was surrounded by a room of giggling schoolgirls self-consciously undressing for a swim.

When North Sydney Pool was opened in 1936 it was hailed as 'the wonder pool of Australasia' because of the high standard of its facilities and the sophistication of its modern filtration system. It was built in the Stripped Classical Functionalist style with an emphasis on symmetry and a few touches of art deco. Treated and filtered sea water was pumped from the harbour to fill the pool. At the opening on 4 April, North Sydney Alderman CC Faulkner waxed lyrically about the quality of the water exclaiming:

"Imagine the most perfect sapphire in the world - colossal in dimensions, blue, with a radiance that dazzles yet soothes; that is what the water in the Olympic pool is like."

In the early days of the pool, locals were encouraged to swim in the pool daily for their health's sake as "there is a luxurious warmth about the pool water, a softness that caresses and invigorates, that stimulates and is health-giving."

As well as its distinctive design and spectacular location next to the Sydney Harbour Bridge and Luna Park, North Sydney Pool is famous as being the pool where 86 world records were set. It was the venue for the Third British Empire Games in 1938 and many NSW and Australian Championships. Between 1956 and 1978, the likes of Dawn Fraser, Jon and Isla Konrads, Lorraine Crapp, John Devitt, Shane Gould, Stephen Holland, Jenny Turrall and Michelle Ford set world records in the waters of this Australian icon.