Swimming Through Time in Parramatta
From the mid-1880s onwards, the people of Parramatta enjoyed the Parramatta Park area as a place for leisure and recreation, including picnics, fishing, sporting activities and swimming.
A water hole in the northern portion of the park became increasingly popular for picnics and bathing, despite severe Victorian-era restrictions on public decency and swimming. Other bathing spots included ‘Jacksons’ swimming hole for older boys, with younger boys and girls relegated to a space behind the Parramatta Girls Industrial School.
In 1905, the Parramatta Park Trust allowed the local swimming club to build a small dressing shed at the northern water hole, this area became known as Little Coogee. Bathing was required to take place between 8pm and 6am, with swimmers covered from neck to knee. All swimming activities were banned on Sundays after outcry from the local churches. Most residents ignored these rules and continued to swim at Little Coogee at all hours. By 1912, separate enclosures for men and women had been constructed, with a metal rope in place in the centre of the river and lifebuoys in the deeper areas. Several fireplaces were installed on the riverbank for swimmers to boil a billy tea.
A lifesaving demonstration was held at Little Coogee by the Coogee Lifesaving Club in March 1912, and in 1914 the swimming hole hosted a fundraiser for the 1916 Olympics.
In 1888 Parramatta Council opened the newly built Baths and Market Building, on the riverbank at Church Street, near Lennox Bridge. Offering hot and cold baths with water sourced from the river and a reservoir. The Baths were known as the Centennial or Municipal Baths, they closed in the 1930s.
By 1930, Lake Parramatta, became another unique and beautiful swimming spot. Originally known as Hunts Creek Reserve, the lake came about from the construction of a dam in 1881 that supplied fresh water to Parramatta.
During the 1930s six Olympic sized in-ground swimming pools had been built in Sydney, complete with grandstands, clearly designed for competitive swimming and training rather than just cooling off on a hot day.
Following the Second World War several factors combined to increase demand for inground public pools in Sydney. In 1944 learning to swim became compulsory for primary school children in New South Wales
And so, in 1959 the Parramatta War Memorial Swimming Centre was opened, replacing the river as the place for swimming. The word ‘memorial’ featured in the name of the Centre in recognition of those who lost their lives in the Second World War.
Source (part): Heritage Report 2004. Hubert Architects In conjunction with Anne-Maree Whitaker & Siobhan Lavelle Revised January 19, 2004