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