Fostering ongoing use, study & celebration of ocean pools worldwide
The Pool is a 2-part documentary which will screen on the ABC on 22 and 29 September at 7.40pm.
The Pool includes an interview with our Chairperson, Marie-Louise McDermott, filmed at Sydney’s Wylies Baths.
Marie-Louise doesn’t know which episode will include her interview about ocean pools, but is sure each part of The Pool will be geat viewing!
After considering our judges’ reports on the range of entries
submitted for our 2018 Pat Skinner Award for writing about ocean
pools, our Committee agreed to immediately institute a separate
Research Award.
Prize-money for our 2018 Research Award was
provided by our major sponsor, Diverse Productions
(https://diverseproductions.biz/).
Prize-money of $500 (equal to the maximum prize-money
ever awarded to one individual for any of our
awards) for our new 2018 Research Award was
awarded to Valentin Rey for Piscines de marée six
essais, his six ground-breaking essays on the
aesthetics and architecture of the ocean pools of the
Azores and Madeira Islands. Valentin’s research on
Portugal’s Atlantic islands was undertaken as part of
his postgraduate architectural studies at a Swiss
University, the EPFL (École polytechnique fédérale
de Lausanne – see https://www.ep:.ch/en/home/)
and written in French.
Valentin described his 160-page document as ‘a
theoretical approach on architecture. It seeks to reveal
the qualities of ocean pools in terms of materiality,
resistance, time and as a constructed object strongly
related to the site where it is built.’
Kim Mettam was awarded an Honourable
Mention in our inaugural Research Award for
Explosive History behind Mettam’s Pool, his entry for
the 2018 Pat Skinner Award for writing about ocean
pools.
His account of the development of Perth’s Mettams
Pool written ‘with support from all of Frank Mettam’s
grandchildren’ had been published as a one-page
article in the Weekend West Australian of October
29-30, 2016. Kim’s entry stated ‘This beach was
largely wall to wall reef until the early 1930’s. Out of
this Grandfather created a natural swimming and
snorkelling pool and a sandy shoreline. It took over
35 years of hard work but to the family it was a
labour of love for their community’.
Our writing judges decided not to award any prize-money
for the 2018 Pat Skinner Award for writing
about ocean pools. They did however award two
Honourable Mentions.
– our member, Caroline Josephs (yes, the same
Caroline Josephs awarded prize- money for our
2018 members-only Shirley Ellis Art Award) for
Memory — Palm Beach Ocean Pool, her memoir
of the time ‘in 1947 at four and three quarter years
of age I learned to float in Palm Beach Ocean
Pool. This bodily experience began a lifetime of
love of ocean pools. I am now 75 years’, and
– Jane Downing for her story Hurly-Burly,
‘a piece of short fiction remembering the
Burleigh Heads ocean pool’ that once existed on
Queensland’s Gold Coast.
Judges of the 2018 inaugural Shirley Ellis Award for artwork entered by members of All into Ocean Pools Inc have awarded:
Congratulations to our winners!
Today All into Ocean Pools Inc emailed the winners of our 2018 Sheridan Evans Award for artwork relating to ocean pools. The AU$800 prize-money was divided evenly between 4 prize-money winners – 3 from Australia and one from Portugal. Our judges awarded AU$200 to:
– Newcastle Bogey Hole by Paul Hollins (we are waiting for permission to display this image of the Bogey Hole at Newcastle, Australia),
– Before the Sun by Brydie Piaf (an image of the Merewether Ocean Baths) in Newcastle, Australia,
– High tide by Rosie Steggles (an image of Sydney’s North Curl Curl Rockpool), and
– Golden Edge by Carlos Resende (an image of the pool at Azenhas do Mar in Portugal).
Our judges awarded Honourable Mentions to:
– Sunrise Swimmer by Rosie Steggles (another image of Sydney’s North Curl Curl Pool), and
– Pool by Carlos Resende (another image of the pool at Azenhas do Mar in Portugal).
Our judges awarded Special Commendations to Rosie Steggles and Graham Gall, who each submitted 5 fine images of ocean pools.
All into Ocean Pools Inc congratulates all our award winners and thanks all of the award entrants and our judges (Julianne Collingridge and Barbara Smith) for their participation in the 2018 Sheridan Evans Award for artwork relating to ocean pools.
The ABC’s audience-led project Curious Sydney was recently asked to find out:
Sue Daniel, digital producer for ABC NSW News, contacted our Chairperson, Marie-Louise McDermott, for help in addressing those questions and invited her to be take part in an ABC Radio Sydney broadcast segment about Sydney’s ocean pools.
Here are the links to that ABC story:
See the feature article in the June 2018 issue of our monthly newsletter Ocean Pool News for more information about ‘Who built the ocean pools around Sydney?’