Darelle and Sally's Swimming Adventures: Malabar Rock Pool; Mahon Pool, Maroubra, 7 Dec

Sally has been here once before....click here....

We arrived just as high tide was approaching. Sadly, the pool had a fair bit of rubbish in it, and what 

appeared to be algae. It wasn't very enticing, so we declined a swim. We moved on to the beach, which is at the head of Long Bay. Sadly, probably due to storms and heavy rain over the past few days, there was a fair bit of rubbish on the beach, as well as bluebottles. 

So, then we headed over to the pool where the idea for our adventures was born on New Years Day, 2016: Mahon Pool at Maroubra. ...click here. 

High tide started spilling water into the pool. We met a woman who said she had never seen the water level so low. It says that the water level when full is 1.4 m. Today it was lucky to be 40 cm. On my previous post it was full. click here. 

Video of the water coming in 

Last time I was here (April 2009), there were no cafes nearby - had to go up to Anzac Parade. As a decent cafe for a pre-sswim coffee is one of our judging criteria, we are pleased to be able to report that Beach Cafe was really good. We sat outside with a view of the ocean )and the sewerage treatment works at the north end of the beach. 

Malabar beach. The bay is Long Bay. Very pretty view. We saw some divers. Apparently it is also a popular snorkelling site. 

From the beach looking southeast. The rock pool is about half way along.

Paul the paddle boarder told me that Malabar is a great place for paddle-boarding. 

Paul is up and off

We were quiet taken with Fido in the front yard of a house along the way to the pool. 

We wondered just how long it will be before some bright spark out to make a development buck decides that a fancy schmancy marina needs to be built here. 

You have been warned! That's the sewerage treatment works across the bay. An outfall carrying abattoir waste from Homebush was built in 1916. By the 1970s the pool and bay were declared off-limits due to pollution from what was by now a sewerage outfall. In the early 1990s a deep ocean outfall was constructed, emptying 4.2 kms offshore. It's still horrible that Sydney tips its only partially treated sewerage into the ocean.  

There's the pool. 

Local schools requested that the pool be re-opened after Malabar became clean again (monitoring shows that it is), and funds were promised by the Premier, and local MP, Bob Carr. He "cut the ribbon" for reopening in 1997. 

There are both stairs and a ramp in. Three sets of stairs. 

There's a shower by the pool. The nearest toilets (and more showers) are in a modern facility in the park behind the beach. No hand soap! Toilets very clean. 

Hooks in the rock face on which to hang your stuff. 

Back at the beach, we discovered a paddleboard school was about to begin. 

And now.....off to Mahon Pool 

Surely a contender for the Best View Enjoyed By A Toilet Block Award

Top marks for a soap dispenser. And a tiny hand basin! 

Malabar Pool

Probably my last rock pool of this summer. Malabar is a very quiet pool, thoroughly local. No glamour here, no cafes full of "beautiful people", just families enjoying themselves.







































Photos taken 23 January 2009

A rock pool has existed here since the 1890s.

Unfortunatley Malabar has had a bad name since an outfall carrying abattois waste from Homebush was built in 1916. By the 1970s the pool and bay were declared off-limits due to pollution from what was now a sewerage outfall.

In the early 1990s, a deep ocean outfall was constructed, emptying 4.2 kilometres offshore (I still think it's outrageous Sydney tips its sewerage into the ocean at all, even though it is treated to a certain degree - but not fully, but that's another story).

Local schools requested that the pool be re-opened and the local state Member of Parliament and incoming Premier, Bob Carr, promised funds for it. The restored baths were opened in 1997. Monitoring shows that it is now perfectly clean, and it was certainly looking gorgeous the day I went for a swim there.

Each of the ocan baths has a different character. This one was very quiet, and family-oriented. There are no cafes, and none of the glamour of beaches and pools a little further north...I liked it very much.

See more at the NSW Ocean Baths site.