At the time John F Kennedy was president and Chubby Checker was dancing the Twist, a small suburban community in Sydney was enjoying its local pool. It was where kids splashed and swam, where parents drank beer on sunny afternoons, and where members of the Sidney swimming team trained for competitions. It’s the kind of outdoor facility that many Australian cities have lost, a victim of economic pressure and political folly, but which some are fighting to revive.
It’s a tussle that’s been playing out across the city since the pandemic and, in many cases, has become election campaign fodder for local politicians. In Blakehurst, the pool has become a wedge issue in a council race that’s expected to be tight. Those who support the reopening of the Dawn Fraser Baths are pitted against those who want to see it razed and replaced with green space.
The story of Sydney pools is a tale about the changing nature of public life in Australia, one that has implications beyond its own community. As the city’s iconic swim spots face uncertain futures, we take a look at how they came to be and why their place in the country’s culture is being challenged.
Ocean pools
Just about every Sydney beach has a pool, built to protect swimmers from cold air and big seas. Serene at low tide, choppy when the waves roll in, these man-made, public seawater pools are a uniquely Australian phenomenon.
Sydney is home to the most ocean pools of any city in the world, with 35 in total, more than twice as many as Cape Town, the next closest. They are considered environmentally friendly, and a great way to keep fit year-round.
The pools have been at the centre of a fierce debate between Mayor Clover Moore and the councillors who oppose her. Baker, who was elected to a seat at the same time as Moore in 2018, says it’s not “the bread and butter of local government” to spend $60m on vanity projects. She has voted against the project 23 times, called for an investigation by the ombudsman and lobbied for it to be scrapped.
The debate also raises wider questions about the future of suburban pools in Australia, as communities fight to maintain them while local governments try to cut costs. While some are calling for the pools to be privatised, others, like Erin Sheldon of Sidney, want to keep them as public spaces. She runs the Sydney Stingrays swim team and coaches the juniors, and doesn’t want to imagine a world without outdoor municipal pools. She has started a hashtag #saveourpool to raise awareness. Her plight is a reminder that Australia’s burgeoning population is putting more strain on local infrastructure, which could be further eroded by the political push for cost-cutting measures. This is part two of KMAland’s series on Sydney pools, Sink or Swim. You can read the first article here. The Morning Edition newsletter is a round-up of the day’s most important and interesting news, stories and analysis.
