Marie-Louise McDermott: The Environmental & Cultural History of the NSW Ocean Baths
One distinctive feature of the NSW surfcoast is the set of around 100 ocean baths (public seapools, where waves wash over the edges of the pool) that exists along the 1,100 kilometer coastal strip between Ballina and Eden. Most of these ocean baths are still popular and often used all year-round. Unified environmentally by the intertidal environment of the rocky shore and culturally by the seaside/beach cultures of the NSW surfcoast, the ocean baths are environmentally and culturally distinct from surf beaches, from other tidal pools and from inground and indoor public pools. Exploring the changing support for the development, patronage and conservation of ocean baths casts new light on the changes in the relative values assigned to rocky shores and sandy beaches, on changing expectations of risk and safety in public recreational spaces and their surrounding environment and on the history of coastal tourism and beach cultures. It also highlights regional, gender and age differences in beach and baths cultures.
My thesis looks at the ocean baths as structural measures that addressed the demands for safe seabathing and enabled nineteenth–century British seabathing practices to be adapted to the NSW coast, as sites where nineteenth–century British waterskills, watersports and aquatic spectacles were adapted to address local conditions and demands, and as long-lasting, still-valued complements to the lifesaver-patrolled beaches developed in 20th century NSW. It explores the changing economic, social and aesthetic significance of the ocean baths, the changing assessments of safety and risk at the ocean baths, the environmental and cultural significance of the present reluctance to develop ocean baths at new sites and the tendency to portray ocean baths as somehow 'less modern', 'less Australian' or 'far less significant' than the nearby lifesaver-patrolled beaches, that predated many ocean baths. To promote wider discussion regarding the significance of the set of NSW ocean baths, I have posted photos of NSW ocean baths on Flickr (www.flickr.com/photos/nswoceanbaths) and (thanks to a grant from the NSW Heritage Office) have also been working on a soon-to-be launched website (test version at http://www.nswoceanbaths.info) offering a thematic history of the NSW ocean baths and on the nomination of several more ocean baths for the State Heritage Register.
Ocean baths at Avalon on Sydney's Northern Beaches