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You are here: Home / Archives for Ghost ocean pools

Burleigh Rock Pool, Qld, Australia

June 17, 2017 by

From the early-1950s to the late-1980s, there was an Olympic-size ocean pool at Burleigh on Queensland’s Gold Coast.

The Burleigh Rock Pool

Historical Notes

1935- 1952

Proposals and discussions about creating a swimming pool on Burleigh’s foreshore to give locals and holidaymakers a safe swimming area.

1953

Gold Coast personality, Jack Evans (then the lessee of the Burleigh dressing pavilion) builds Burleigh’s first swimming pool on the foreshore next to an outdoor skating rink. The pool is 50m long.

1954

A cyclone destroys the outdoor skating rink on the Burleigh foreshore, but does not destroy the pool.

Formation of a swimming club based at the pool

1987-88

The Burleigh Rock Pool was replaced by a  swimming centre within “The Beach House” complex.

2010

A 1970s aerial view of this pool and a brief outline of its history appears on page 26 of the Burleigh Heads Heritage & Character Study prepared for the Gold Coast City Council by Environmental Resources Management Australia and the Office of City Architect and Heritage, Gold Coast City Council.

 

Filed Under: Australia's ocean pools, Ghost ocean pools, Queensland

Bunbury Back Beach pool (ghost), Bunbury, WA, Australia

February 6, 2016 by

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The sand-filled remains of a public saltwater pool  are visible just south of Bunbury’s Rocky Point.

Historical notes

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Australia's ocean pools, Ghost ocean pools, Western Australia

Snapper Rocks Sea Baths (ghost of the original Jack Evans Pet Porpoise Pool), Qld, Australia

January 14, 2016 by

Memorial plaque

(Image from Author’s own collection)

As this plaque in the car park at Coolangatta’s Snapper Rocks says:

“Snapper Rocks Sea Baths, one of the Gold Coast’s first tourist attractions, was built on this site in 1956 by Mr Jack Evans. They were originally built as swimming baths until Jack decided to incorporate a special shark pool for public viewing. From the great response this received he surmised that dolphins would also prove popular.  He obtained 2 bottle-nose dolphins and thus began the renowned Jack Evans Pet Porpoise Show.

Jack Evans was a pioneer and a man who played a vital role in establishing our City’s tourist industry.”

The Jack Evans Pet Porpoise Pool eventually moved a little further south from Snapper Rocks in Queensland to Tweed Heads in New South Wales.

It is rare and refreshing to find a memorial plaque commemorating an ocean pool that became a ghost.

2016

On 25 November, Have you seen the old Gold Coast posted Ian Rogers’ 1965 view of the now demolished Snapper Rocks pool complex on Facebook. People commenting on that image mentioned:
• the complex expanded to include four ocean pools,
• learning to swim there,
• swimming with newly caught dolphins held in these pools before their transfer to the Jack Evan Porpoise Pool’s new home at Tweed Heads,
• doing lifesaving exams at these pools,
• relatives, who were regular swimmers at these pools,
• the Tweeds Heads public school using these pools for swimming lessons, and
• the Tweed River High School holding swimming carnivals at these pools.

See also:

Duke, J., & Cameron, T. Jack Evans’ Pet Porpoise Pool Tweed Heads. Queensland: The Wilke Group.
(Story and captions by Jan Duke assisted by Toni Cameron with photographs by Ray Duke).

Filed Under: Australia's ocean pools, Ghost ocean pools, Queensland

Umina Beach (ghost pool), NSW, Australia

January 13, 2016 by

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(Image taken in December 2001).

Umina Beach on the NSW Central Coast has a ghost ocean pool. It seems this pool was in use into the 1980s, when it was deemed unsafe and had its walls knocked down.

All into Ocean Pools Inc would like to know more about this Australian pool. Please contact All into Ocean Pools Inc if you can offer more information about this pool.

 

Filed Under: 3. Central Coast, Australia's ocean pools, Ghost ocean pools, New South Wales

Australia’s ocean pools – Summary in clockwise sequence

December 29, 2015 by

This listing of usable pools and ghost pools goes clockwise around Australia’s coast beginning with Queensland’s ocean pools. Images of some of these pools are also available in our Flickr Collection about Australia’s Ocean Pools,

Note: All into Ocean Pools Inc does not regard any stinger enclosures or other slatted or netted swimming and bathing enclosures as ocean pools and does not regard any  seawater pools in sheltered waters such as Sydney Harbour as ocean pools. See our definition of an ocean pool for further details.

Please contact All into Ocean Pools Inc if you:

  • have information on other Australian ocean pools that should be added to this list, or
  • can provide more information about one or more of the pools on this list.

 

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Australia's ocean pools, Ghost ocean pools, Useable ocean pools

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