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.

(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).