Ocean rock pools are an integral part of the character and experience of living on the Northern Beaches.
Their existence is a testimony to the resourcefulness of earlier residents and visitors. In most cases, it was agitation and physical hard work by members of the public that led to their initial creation.
A good example is the pool at Dee Why. The original one dates back to 1900, a natural tidal pool on the rocks, south of today’s pool. It was referred to as the ‘Ladies’ and Children’s Pool’. But with the coming of the tram from Manly in 1912, and the associated residential subdivisions, the desire for a more substantial and safer one grew.
A surf club was formed in 1913 and by 1914 its members were pressing the fledgling Warringah Shire Council. Council granted the club £30 to allow the “enlarging of a hole in the rocks to make a public bath”.
Club members quickly hacked out a pool. It measured about 20 by 20 feet (six by six metres) and was three feet (one metre) deep. The location was the same as today’s pool.
Over the next 60 years, the original pool was modified and added to. It was extended to 33 metres in length in 1919, and in the early 1930s – using unemployment relief workers – Council extended it to full Olympic size and added a substantial children’s pool at its northern end.
This latter addition was never a success. It quickly deteriorated, and in 1973 the children’s wading pool that we see today was built in its place.
