Ocean Baths
from Newcastle to Gerringong.
Bronte Baths (1926), via NFSA
As of September 2019, we've now visited all We've now visited - of the - ocean baths along this stretch (-). Average rating was is (our favourite is Bronte Baths). Hover over dots below for aerial photos.
* thanks to this piece in The Guardian, i realised we'd missed 2, plus Port Kembla pool has opened up again (it was closed due to sand last year...)
- Pool
- Visited pool
- Not Free
- Has (or is) a kids pool
- His/10
- Hers/10
Newcastle
Gerringong
** There was some debate about what actually makes an ocean bath. Originally it had to free , salt-water, and enclosed on all sides, but the 'enclosed on all sides bit' excluded Coogee's Giles Baths (a solid 7), so we dropped that part, and same with the 'free' bit, 'cos although we were ok with excludeding Bondi Icebergs, that would also mean excluding Wylie's Baths, which we were not ok with. And natural rock pools don't count, there needs to be some human intervention (though we didn't include Avoca rock pool). Below you can see all baths overlaid. The big one is Merewether, the size of a whopping 6.4 Olympic swimming pools...