Wednesday 29 January 2014

Bexley pool : time for another update


We've been following the fate of Bexley pool for some time, as its future has been under somewhat of a cloud. (see below for links to previous blogs telling the back story) 

The good news is that Rockdale Council has given the green light for its redevelopment. 

There will be an open day at the pool on Saturday 8 February 2014. You can view the design drawings and speak to the architects and the Council project team. 

The plan is for the centre to have:

  • a new outdoor pool with seating and shade structure The pool will be heated to 26 deg C. The outdoor pool will cater for swimming and water polo and a recorders room for race meetings and school swimming carnivals
  • Indoor leisure pool (children's play pool). This will be heated to 30 deg C and includes a toddlers pool, beach entry, bubble seat and waterslide.
  • Indoor 8 lane 25 metre lap pool heated to 28 deg C
  • Indoor program pool (warm water exercise/learn to swim/hydrotherapy) heated to 31 deg C
  • Children's Club / Creche
  • Community space
  • Gymnasium and fitness area
  • Kiosk
  • Change rooms and amenities
  • administrative rooms
  • Plant room
  • Car parking for about 175 cars
Here's pictures from the Council website showing the latest plans.











Here's previous blogs which provide the back story

25 September 2012: It's a resort! But what about the future?

15 December 2011: Bexley pool update

2 December 2011: Bexley pool proposal for re-development

22 February 2011: The fight to save Bexley pool (article from The Leader)

10 December 2010: Bexley pool battle (article from The Leader)

The Rockdale Council website is worth having a look at for information about the plans and progress.
























Saturday 25 January 2014

McIvers Ladies Baths, Coogee

Of all the magnificent ocean pools in Sydney, this is my favourite. They are located under a cliff, on a rock platform.

The baths have magnificent oceans views and are relatively well screened from the surrounding area. The baths were built in 1886, but according to the National Trust it has been a popular swimming spot for women since before 1876.

The pool site may have been a traditional bathing place for Aboriginal women. 

This pool (entrance donation 20 cents) is popular with nuns, Muslim women, lesbians, and elderly women (well women of all ages, really). In 1995, after court challenge, it was granted an exemption under the Anti-Discrimination Act to continue operating for women, because of its particular importance for diverse groups.

It's relaxed, there is great sunbathing on the grass and rocks, and best of all the pool itself is great to swim in.

I've blogged McIvers before: here on 25 September 2006 and on 25 December 2011.

Now I add pics from 8 January 2012 and 4 April 2013 - contrasting days!

For more about the history of McIvers, see below.

8 January 2012






4 April 2013





From the NSW Ocean Baths site

1860s
This women-only bathing area has been in continuous use since the 1860s.

1876
Randwick Council received complaints about men wilfully lingering near the women's baths, even though these baths were not operated by the Council.

1886
The baths were apparently more formally constructed with women's changing rooms, which made greater usage of the baths possible.

1901
Randwick Council's lease of the baths site expired and the NSW Minister for Lands called tenders for improvements. The Minister believed that the charges required by Council from private operators were too high and he was unwilling to extend the Council lease on the pool. Entry charges to the baths were a penny, with a further penny for hire of a towel and costume. After Council argued that it had spent 300 pounds on improvement to the baths, it gained a 10-year extension of their lease at five pounds per annum.

1912
Mina Wylie trained in this pool before swimming her way to a silver medal in the 1912 Olympics, the first Olympics with swimming events for women.

1918
Robert and Rose McIver began operating the Ladies Baths.

1922
The McIver family had created the baths in their present form.

1923
Rose McIver, Mina Wylie, Bella O'Keefe and members of the Mealing and Wickham families began the Randwick and Coogee Ladies Amateur Swimming Club with Robert McIver as chairman. The Randwick Ladies Amateur Swimming Club formed and took over the lease of the baths. Free swimming lessons have been provided at the pool since the 1920s.

1946
Randwick Council decided to apply to the Minister for Lands to have the bath available to the public for mixed bathing. That decision was overturned after objections from:
- the proprietors of neighbouring Wylies Baths, pointing out the potential damage to business at their mixed bathing pool, and
- the Mother Superior of the Brigidine Convent at Randwick, stating that the nuns at her convent, any country nuns vacationing there and the 100 boarders at the Brigidine School would not be able to visit the baths, if they were opened for mixed bathing.

1947
Randwick Council estimates indicated an expected income of 20 pounds from the women's pool. The Coogee-Randwick Ratepayers Association complained to Council that McIvers Baths were an eyesore and a disgrace to the community and urged they be demolished or put in proper repair. In June, Robert McIver explained to the Council Works Committee that  owing to the bad conditions of steps, he had been unable to open the baths the previous season except to school groups. He also said that he could not carry on any longer under the present conditions.

1972
Council was discussing plans to build a solid fence around the pool 'not only for sensible reasons' but also to deter 'perverts and peek-a boos'.

1977
The women's baths were renovated.

1980s
After vandals burned down the Randwick and Coogee Ladies Amateur Swimming Clubhouse, Randwick City Council agreed to rebuild the clubhouse.
The Randwick and Coogee Ladies Amateur Swimming Clubhouse presented a prize to each youngster who learnt to swim (sometimes after only a two-week period) at its free Saturday morning swimming classes. Boys under seven could learn to swim there, but then had to move on to use other pools.

Continued closure of the women's pool deprived Coogee kids of swimming lessons and made races impossible. The pool was leaking badly and only contained water at high tide. Heavy rocks in the pool needed to be removed and minor repairs undertaken. Council said repairs were delayed until sea and tide conditions permitted them to be carried out in working hours.

1990s
When  Randwick Council's lease from Department of Lands expired,  Council requested a five-year renewal of the lease.

1993
Mrs Doris Hyde of the Randwick and Coogee Ladies Amateur Swimming Club commended the pool's lesbian patrons as 'the nicest girls' and the 'ones who'll put the fellows out'.

1994
The National Trust classified this pool and listed it on its heritage register.
The Randwick and Coogee Ladies Amateur Swimming Club learn-to-swim classes now took boys up to age 12. The club raised funds for cancer research at the Prince of Wales hospital, worked closely with the Coogee surf club and Wylies Baths, as well as the Coogee RSL.

A man complained that he had been sitting on the foreshore near the pool, when several women sunbaking at the pool call him a 'deviant', asked him to leave, and threatened to call the police if he didn't. Mrs Doris Hyde of the Randwick and Coogee Ladies Amateur Swimming Club denied the baths were 'a lesbian lair' and said she had never seen anything untoward there.

After a Coogee man, Leon Wolk, complained to the NSW Anti-Discrimination Board that he was barred from the baths on account of his sex, the Anti-Discrimination Board wrote to Randwick Council seeking information about the baths. Randwick City Council stated there had been no complaints abut the baths and that it was prepared to take legal action to keep McIver's ladies baths free of men. The Randwick and Coogee Ladies Amateur Swimming Club claimed it did not have funds to construct change rooms for both sexes, which made it impractical to admit men, except to cheer on their children at swimming carnivals.

The women's pool was traditionally used by older women, women with disabilities, nuns and others who preferred privacy as well as pregnant women and older people with arthritis who enjoyed the pool's private sunbaking area and didn't want to go to the beach, indulge in mixed bathing, or be bothered by men. Thursday was traditionally married ladies day. Girls schools held water safety classes at the baths, which were popular amongst the Islamic community. The club's free lessons had helped Islamic women and children gain confidence in the water and some Islamic women contended that it was the only place their faith permitted them to swim. The medical profession argued that Coogee's women's baths were the only place where women who had suffered disfiguring operations could comfortably bathe.

Despite claiming it was the only safe sea pool in the area during high tides and rough weather, Leon Wolk lost the case.

1995
The NSW  Minister for Local Government, Mr E. Pickering, granted the baths an exemption to an exemption from the NSW Anti-Discrimination Act.

2000
The pool entry fee was 20 cents. Club members paid 50c as a fundraising measure.

2003
Randwick City Council allocated $85,000 for Stage 1 landscaping at the women's pool, thought to be Australia's only sea pool still reserved solely for use by women and children.

2004
The pool closed while landscaping was carried out.
2006
The pool remains popular with a wide varie
ty of women.

Monday 20 January 2014

Kiama - Pheasant Point Baths (Kiama Ladies Baths, Kiama Olympic Pool)

This pool is located on the rock platform at Pheasant Point on the north side of Kiama Harbour. It has had ocean baths since the 1870s. 

For more detailed history, read on after the photos. 
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History from NSW Ocean Baths site

1875
The NSW Lands Department granted a site for public baths on the north side of Kiama harbour in 1875 for an annual rental of one pound.

1877
A Kiama bathing company opened baths consisting of two rock pools surrounded with a concrete edging at Pheasant Point. The charge of tuppence a bath was supposed to pay the keeper of the baths and maintain the pool. Separate specified bathing hours for males and females, created such  'confusion and ill feeling' among Kiama residents, that the baths were soon designated as solely for use by women and children.

1894
The Kiama Progress Association erected a dressing-shed at the Ladies Baths.

1900
A NSW government grant was sought to improve the Ladies Baths.

1904
Ladies, gentlemen and children attended a swimming carnival for girls at the Ladies Baths.

1905
The Illawarra Steam Navigation Company's handbook touted Kiama's separate commodious saltwater baths for ladies and gentlemen as attractions for visitors.

1908
The Ladies Baths (90 feet by 45 feet) had a concrete bottom, were furnished with a suite of more than 20 dressing-rooms and included a large open reception area. There were children's baths alongside the main pool.

1910
The Ladies Baths were damaged by heavy seas.
Kiama Council moved to draw the trustees' attention to the large number of men hovering in the vicinity of the Ladies Baths, when the ladies were 'indulging in a swim'. After a report that two men had thrown stones down to the Baths from the cliffs when ladies were bathing, the Mayor decided to prosecute persons annoying ladies at the Baths.

1923
Kiama's Blow Hole Point Baths and its Pheasant Point Baths were both well patronised.

1924
The Ladies Baths were invaded by male visitors during holidays. While consideration was being given to creating continental baths for Kiama, Council prohibited mixed bathing until the 'proper sheds' existed. Men kept using the Ladies Baths to teach their children to swim and whenever the men's baths at Kiama's Blow Hole Point were unavailable.

1927
Minor improvements were made to the Ladies Baths.

1930
Segregated bathing at Kiama's Ladies Baths was still attractive to visitors, even though continental bathing had been available at set hours at the Blow Hole Point Baths since 1928.

1934
Construction of Olympic-sized continental baths (mixed bathing) baths at Pheasant Point began as an unemployment relief project, halted when the funds ran out, then resumed with NSW government funding as part of an overall program of town improvement works. Fill from the baths was used to enlarge the playing area on School Flat near the Kiama Infants School. Over the holiday season, the surf club's beach inspectors supervised the incomplete Olympic baths which had been equipped with temporary conveniences and dressing-sheds.

1935
The Olympic Baths (110 yards long and 40 yards wide) had cost over 2,000 pounds in emergency relief work.

1936
Work on the Olympic Baths was at a standstill. Railway Touring Club members patronised the Olympic Baths during their visit to Kiama.

1937
The diving hole at the Olympic Baths was nearly complete.

1938
The concreted part of the divided Olympic Baths already held 400,000 gallons of water. The Olympic Baths were so popular with sunbakers that bike-riding near the Olympic Baths was prohibited to prevent disturbing sunbakers.

1940
Dressing sheds were added to the Olympic Baths, then Kiama's premier swimming venue. The full vision for Kiama's Olympic Baths was never realised.

1958
Kiama's swimming club wearied of the difficulties of staging competitions at the Pheasant Pool Olympic pool. Pumps shifted water 'from the pool at the far end into the pool at the near end' to provide enough water for the annual Kiama District Swimming Club carnival.

Mid-1970s
Kiama Council demolished the walls of the Pheasant Point Ladies Baths.

1980s
Kiama Council filled in one of the Pheasant Point pools.
In 1982, the Kiama Amateur Swimming Club was still swimming at the Olympic pool pending completion of a 25-metre indoor pool under construction in the Terralong Sports Complex. With the opening of Kiama's inland aquatic centre in the 1980s, the Olympic baths ceased to be Kiama's main competition and training venue. Like the Blowhole Baths, the Pheasant Point Baths once more became primarily a recreational facility and social centre.

2004
The pool offers wheelchair access.

Wollongong Continental Baths and Men's Baths

I was at a work-event in February 2010, and had the opportunity to start the day at the Wollongong Continental Baths. They were called "continental" because they allowed mixed-gender bathing "continental" style.

For those interested, after the photos is some lengthy historical information from the NSW Ocean Baths site.















Just outside the Continental Baths, is the older rock pool, known originally as the Men's Baths.

This pool was Wollongong's main men's swimming place, competition pool and learn-to-swim pool from the 1870s until 1926.  To address female demands for access to quality swimming venues, Wollongong Council not only permitted female swimming star Annette Kellerman to perform at a carnival at these baths in 1902, but also permitted women's clubs, girls schools and girl guides to use the pool at set times. With the opening of the Continental Baths in 1926, the Men's Baths ceased to be Wollongong's premier swimming venue. From NSW Ocean Baths



History of the Continental Baths

1923
Wollongong's men and women could bathe together at the surf beach but were required to used separate rock baths. There was growing demand for a swimming pool that offered mixed or 'continental' bathing.

A public meeting decided to construct continental baths as an amenity for  Wollongong's  men, women and children and as a visitor attraction.

1924
Volunteer work began to construct the new Wollongong Central Baths. The Illawarra Mercury printed the names of the all-male volunteer workers and thanked the two women who served afternoon tea to the volunteers. Total cost of the new baths was estimated as no more than 1,000 pounds with cost of the retaining wall estimated as 450 pounds. Council was contributing half the cost and using stone from the excavation to improve local roads. The community was raising the other half of the funding required. The local public school contributed 67 pounds.

1926
At the opening of the Continental Baths in March, Wollongong's Mayor, N. M. Smith, read a message from Father Neptune urging the people of Wollongong to 'assist their Council in keeping the baths clean and a thing of beauty'. The Mayor refuted rumours about the baths' cleanliness and congratulated the Wollongong Swimming Club on its re-appearance. The program for the opening of the Continental Baths organised by the Wollongong Swimming Club included a 50-yard ladies race, novelty competitions such as the 50-yard Scout Handicap and musical buoys. A member of the Spit Baths Swimming club set a record in the 50-yard freestyle and backstroke events. The Wollongong town band played.

Council had taken over the project and completed the baths at a total cost to Council of 3,000 pounds for the pool (excluding the pavilion). The Illawarra Mercury considered the baths 'likely to be one of Wollongong's main assets' and 'amongst the best in the State', once the dressing-sheds were completed. Funds for the baths came from a large sum borrowed by Council for town improvements.

1928
Mr T. C. Goodsir, who had selected the site for the Continental Baths, was appointed as the engineer for Wollongong Council.

A carnival in aid of the Town Band Instrument Appeal was held at the Continental Baths for the opening of the pavilion designed by the town engineer. The program included races, diving displays and a 'catch the ducks' event with live ducks. The town band played.

By then the dressing-sheds at the baths had cost 4,500 pounds. The mayor considered them one of the most progressive moves in the town. He urged the 4,000 people at the opening to protect the baths from vandalism. Minor work such as improvements to the stairs and painting of signs on the walls was carried out after the opening.

Complaints of petty theft in the ladies sheds at the Continental Baths led to calls for the appointment of lady inspectors.

Council decided to allow the caretaker at the baths to sleep on the premises in two rooms in the north end of the first floor of the pavilion and to take over the kiosk. The Horne brothers, who leased the kiosk at the Continental Baths, improved the approaches to the dressing-shed by adding a retaining wall and a ramp.

A woman from the Sydney suburb of Ryde visiting the Continental Baths fell down its slimy steps, broke her arm and was taken by ambulance to a doctor and then to a private hospital.

The Wollongong Amateur Swimming Club opened the 1928 summer swimming season with a carnival at the Continental Baths. attracting a fair attendance and participation from Sydney's Mosman Club. The club followed up with further sets of races at the Continental Baths.

By late 1928, over a hundred boys from Wollongong High were attending the baths regularly, including beginners being instructed in the 'art of swimming'. The girls annual swimming carnival was a marked success. Several girls had obtained the bronze lifesaving medallions and two girls gained silver Royal Life Saving Society medallions.

1929
The NSW Education Department's Christmas vacation swimming classes held at the Continental Baths in January attracted 180 girls and boys aged 9 years or more from both public and private schools. Wollongong was the only NSW seaside town to have the swimming schools, which were usually  confined to inland towns with swimming facilities.

On hot nights, large numbers of people lounged on the cliff above the pool seeking relief from the heat. The Continental Baths were 'a mass of bobbing heads and splashing arm and legs', so crowded that it was almost impossible to walk round the side or on the space in front of the dressing shed.  The Illawarra Mercury suggested that Wollongong Council should clear the bottom of the pool and make it more even.

A large crown watched the Wollongong Amateur Swimming Club's afternoon carnival at the Continental Baths in February. Local swimmers competed with swimmers from Bulli and Mosman. The Mosman Swimming club's display of water polo was a novelty for most Wollongong residents.

A night carnival staged by the Wollongong Amateur Swimming Club aimed to attract swimmers from all parts of the coast.

The Wollongong High School and Junior Technical School held their annual swimming carnivals at the baths. Swimming was encouraged at the Technical school, and its students gained 131 life saving awards and over 150 of its boys learned to swim between 1927 and 1929. Boys at all schools in the district competed in interschool swimming at the Continental Baths. The annual girls swimming carnival of the Wollongong High School included a beginners race and a six-oar race.

The North Wollongong Surf club assisted the Christian Brothers College to stage its first annual swimming carnival at the Baths.

Balgownie Public School asked to use the baths one afternoon a week and proposed its girls share their swimming session with one other school.

Wollongong Council decided to warn people whose dogs were found at the baths against further offences.

1930
The NSW Education Department's vacation swimming school again catered for boys and girls from public and private schools.  The whole program of ten one-hour classes cost a total of two shillings per child. Olympic swimmer Harold Hardwick, then Superintendent of Swimming Schools for the NSW Education Department, said the Wollongong public school had 345 children older than nine who could not swim.

The carnival of the Wollongong Domestic Science School was praised for offering swimming, diving and novelty events including a balloon race, a six-oar race, a peanut scramble and a rescue race, as well as a display of swimming strokes by the school's swimming instructor.

The 1930 annual district swimming carnival for Girl Guides from Austinmer, Wollongong and Port Kembla included freestyle swimming, breast-stroke races, springboard diving, standing dives, diving for objects, a peanut scramble, a 25-yards swim-in-clothes, a mug-and-whistle race and a dry towel event.

Council allocated 15 pounds for labour to limewash the baths and two pounds and eight shillings for materials.

1934
Wollongong's Domestic Science School and Wollongong Junior Technical School held swimming carnivals at the Baths.

1937
A carnival at the Continental Baths, arranged at short notice to the local swimming club, involved swimmers from Victoria, Western Australia, and Queensland as well as NSW swimmers and was considered a great stimulus to the swimmers of the district. A representative from the Speedo Costume Co attended this carnival.  Olympian Ron Masters cut his finger on the rough bottom of the pool on his first dive and then criticised the pool's poor facilities for diving.

Wollongong Amateur Swimming Club's carnival at the baths included champion swimmers courtesy of the NSW ASA, competitors from Woonona, Mittagong and Goulburn clubs, as well as a display by US Olympian Jack Medica, a springboard diving display and an exhibition of 'surf-o-plane football'. The Wollongong Amateur Swimming Club won the teams relay from the Sydney Visitors and the Wollongong Surf club.

Pressure for improvements to the Wollongong Continental Baths grew after the opening of the Port Kembla Olympic baths. Council officers and members of Council's Parks and Gardens Committee inspected Sydney swimming baths. They concluded that apart from the North Sydney Olympic Pool, Sydney had few baths as fine as the Wollongong Continental Baths. The Sydney pools had entry charges as high as threepence per adult and a penny for children, but strangely 'no ratepayers objected to these charges'. The Sydney pools were also better maintained. The Bondi Baths were emptied and cleaned twice a week, while this process happened no more than once a year in Wollongong.

1938
The sea wall at the Continental Baths needed attention but 'due to the urgency of extensive repairs to the present buildings', Wollongong City Council was 'not in a position at present' to extend the building at the Continental Baths to provide a club room for the Wollongong Amateur Swimming Club. By December 1938, Council was considering the creation of a club room (for which the Wollongong Amateur Swimming Club would pay a small rental), along with the other extensive repairs and upgrades required at the Baths

To hold its members together in winter, the Wollongong Swimming Club formed a Ping Pong Club. The Swimming Club opened its 1938 swimming season with an impromptu water-polo match and planned interclub and intraclub races, novelty events and a challenge water-polo event. A club member had donated a cup for the water polo match. By November, the Club was asking permission to place water polo goals at the Continental Baths at specified times. 

The Port Kembla Amateur Swimming Club and a Sydney swimming club from The Spit competed at the Wollongong Continental Baths.

Wollongong High School continued to use the Continental Baths for its carnival and its swimming classes for boys and girls. The boys were not interested in training for Royal Lifesaving Awards, perhaps because they were more focused on surf lifesaving qualifications. Girls had to content themselves with  Royal Lifesaving awards, since they were not allowed to sit for surf lifesaving qualifications.
1939
The Wollongong Amateur Swimming Club defeated the Port Kembla Amateur Swimming Club in their first water-polo match. Water-polo was acquiring enthusiastic participants and a large number of spectators.

Head injuries to divers raised concerns that the Wollongong Continental Baths were too shallow and should be deepened from 7 feet 6 inches to 11 feet as 'to place a springboard over such shallow water was to woo serious injury'. An 11-year old school boy was taken by ambulance to seek hospital treatment for a lacerated scalp.

By February 11, a lack of water in the Baths due to interference with the valve and the generally poor state of the Baths meant  Wollongong had to postpone its swimming club championships, disappointing the crowd eager to see the water-polo match.

The Wollongong Amateur Swimming Club's annual carnival included teams from the Nowra, Port Kembla, The Spit, Woonona and Austinmer clubs and offered schoolboys events, a ladies event and an exhibition of breast-stroke. As the only amateur club in the municipality, Wollongong Amateur Swimming Club was still seeking to have a clubroom created  at the Continental Baths.

The roof of the flat at the Continental Baths was replaced, but it continued to leak. Complaints about the cleanliness of the dressing-shed indicated a need for more frequent inspections.

Some 300 boys took part in the Christian Brothers College swimming carnival at the Continental Baths.

1940
Though still operating without a club room, the Wollongong Amateur Swimming Club considered itself 'the premier club of the South Coast', based mainly on its success in competition with the Port Kembla Club at the Port Kembla pool.

At the twice-postponed Christian Brothers College carnival, more than 300 boys took part in a program including a 'carry your chum' event, underwater swimming, wading races, a treasure hunt, a ball chase, a rescue race, a cork race and a balloon race as well as freestyle, breast-stroke and backstroke races.

When a visitor from Annandale wrote asking Wollongong Council's intention regarding compensation for injuries sustained by her daughter who walked through hot ashes along the side of the old Mt Pleasant tramway on her way to the Continental Baths, Council regretted the incident, but accepted no responsibility for it as the fire was neither lit by Council's employees, nor sited on Council-controlled land.

1942
A Boy Scouts district swimming carnival with diving events, relays and age races drew a large crowd.

After Australia declared it was at war with Japan, fears of an imminent Japanese invasion of Australia constrained many activities in NSW coastal communities, including school swimming. The Christian Brothers College annual swimming carnival at Wollongong's Continental Baths was delayed as the school had been disrupted by evacuation. The Wollongong High School carnival was held in December, due to a prohibition earlier in the year on outdoor gatherings.
1943
Invasion fears had subsided allowing other concerns to come to the fore. At a Wollongong meeting on National Fitness, Miss Craigie, the headmistress of the Wollongong Home Science School, complained about the lack of facilities at the Wollongong Baths. Her girls had to use the Baths for one half of Friday afternoon,  while boys from the Junior Technical School used them for the other half.
A November P.S.A.A. (Public Schools Athletics Association) district swimming carnival was planned.

1944
Despite advice that 'there could be no good club with the baths available at present', the Wollongong Amateur Swimming Club which had been dormant for some time, reformed. Only nine local swimmers were still affiliated with the NSW Amateur Swimming Association (ASA).

The Wollongong Amateur Swimming Club championship at the Baths included a surf teams relay, where competition by the Bronte, North Steyne, Manly and Queenscliff surf clubs as well as local surf clubs provided the 'best swimming that Wollongong has ever seen'.

Wollongong High had its annual swimming carnival. A government grant funded the NSW Amateur Swimming Association campaign  which provided instruction at the baths and aimed to teach as many people as possible in the State to swim.

1945
The Wollongong Amateur Swimming Club was running boys and girls events at the baths. Its club  championship carnival included underwater swimming and diving. Members were now training over long distances. A club carnival in February included music by the Wollongong Town Band, a breast-stroke race for visiting British servicemen, a demonstration swim by Australian swimming stars and participation by the North Steyne Surf club.

Fourteen schools competed in the primary schools swimming championships at the Baths. The Wollongong Junior Technical School held its swimming carnival.

1948
The Wollongong Swimming Club was complaining that the tidal Continental Baths were unsuitable for club championships, on account of the rough water, oyster shells, barnacles and the non-standard length (50 yards rather than 55 yards).

1955
A storm washed a ship onto the rocks near the Continental Baths.

1959
The Wollongong Whales winter swimming club began after two former members of the South Maroubra Dolphins winter swimming club canvassed local surf clubs to start a winter swimming organisation in the region. The Continental Baths now opened during the winter season.

1962
The Continental Baths remained popular in summer only because 'there just isn't anywhere else to go for still-water swimming'. After years of complaints that the pool was drab and antiquated, and fears that the 1964 country swimming championships might have to be transferred to Nowra, which had a standard pool, the baths got a 20,000 pound facelift. The upgraded Baths complex had a full-length Olympic pool of eight lanes, a smaller pool for beginners and a splashing pool for toddlers. The Mayor Alderman Squires claimed the new pool was both 'a potential life-saver for hundreds of learner swimmers and a breeding ground of Australian champions'.

Late 1960s
A group of women who enjoyed winter swimming met each Monday morning at the Baths.

1978
Wollongong City Council was advised that the buildings at the Continental baths were deteriorating rapidly. Immediately a push began for construction of a new pavilion.

1981
The City Health and Building surveyor said the pavilion's structural defects posed a danger to patrons of the Continental Baths.

1982
The pavilion at the Continental Baths was declared a danger to the public.
There was a relay race at the Baths between the newly formed Illawarra Steelers football team and the Wollongong Whales winter swimming club.

1984
There was a strong public opposition to Council's proposed demolition of the pavilion at the Continental Baths.

1985
After public outcry had forced Council to promise to rebuild the pavilion, the old pavilion was demolished and began construction of a new one begun.
A group known as the Shark Baiters began swimming from a rocky outcrop behind the Continental Baths to North Wollongong each morning.
1986
Council opened the new $510,000 pavilion comprising an amenities building and club rooms designed by Council's Health and Building Department. Wollongong's Lord Mayor Arkell, the President of the Wollongong Amateur Swimming Club, a member of the Wollongong Whales and the pool manager attended the opening. The Wollongong Whales Winter Swimming Club had donated $25,000 and the Wollongong Amateur Swimming Club $10,000 toward the cost of the pavilion. As the original cost estimates had been $330,000, there was controversy when aldermen realised how much the pavilion was going to cost.

1998
Illawarra champion ironmen and ironwomen from both the Kellogg's and Uncle Toby's competitions breakfasted at the Baths with a junior swim squad after a seven- kilometre workout.
Hundreds of people celebrated the Wollongong Whales 40th anniversary with a swim at the Baths and then 14 kegs of beer and 40 kilos of sausages at the North Wollongong Surf Club.

fter a big Saturday night, two younger member of the Wollongong Whales bunked down outside the Baths in sleeping bags at 2am  to make sure they wouldn't miss the Club's registration day.

During the Open Up festival, ABC Illawarra broadcast Mitten Hill, a radio play by Illawarra playwright, Paul Rybak, that featured the Continental Baths.

1999
The NSW Department of Sport and Recreation and the Pines Surfriders School conducted a Surf Awareness day at the Baths.
Graffiti announcing a protest meeting about a proposed 12-storey hotel on Cliff Road appeared in huge letters on walls at the Baths. The Citizens for Coastal Protection group said they could not be responsible for the actions of every person who supported their cause.

2000
Following community demands for improvements at the Baths to benefit both locals and tourists, the Baths  gained new inlet pipes, amenities for people with disabilities and upgrades to both the men's and women's change-rooms. Natural hazards still remained part of the pool experience, as staff cleaning the big pool discovered a blue-ringed octopus nestled quietly in a dark hole in a corner of the pool.

The Wollongong Whales won the annual relay race at the Baths against the St George Illawarra football team and raised $6,000 for the Wollongong Hospital's children's ward. The Shark Baiters continued swimming to North Wollongong each morning from a rocky outcrop behind the Continental Baths.

2001
The biggest winter swimming club in the Illawarra was the 140-member Wollongong Whales club, which continued to raise money for the Wollongong Hospital Children's ward. The Club's annual relay race between the St George Illawarra footballers and the Wollongong Whales was declared a dead heat 'due to dubious tactics from all involved'.

2003
A fabulous pool party 'Diving for Girls' attended by more than 300 people celebrated International Women's Day. The party featured competitive synchronised swimming, belly dancing, Floaties races, a dress-up relay, a fancy dress contest, a women's circus, music, films and prizes for the best decorated flipper. It was a no-budget event run entirely on volunteer and donor power.

The Illawarra Hawks had a recovery swim at the Baths.