Sunday 14 December 2008

Dawn Fraser Baths, Elkington Park, Balmain

The oldest swimming pool and swimming club in Australia, now named after Australian swimming legend and long -term Balmain resident, Dawn Fraser. 

Fraser grew up in Balmain, learned to swim here and was spotted by coach Harry Gallagher here at age 13. A Heritage Building, it is on the National Trust and on the Register of the National Estate. It is a salt water tidal pool on Sydney Harbour. It was built in the early 1880s. The first water polo match in Australia was played here about 1888. There's a great set of photos on flickr - here. The ones below are mine.

 

2 comments:

freefalling said...

i like your swimming blog.
i have a pair of gills, too.

Unknown said...

What a wonderful Blog. I LIVE swimming esp POOLS. We have a few good ones here near where I live on the North Coast NSW and my great uncles are said to have dynamited Mahon Pool Maroubra originally. Thank you for these images. Yrs. L.