Wylie's Baths
Wylie's Baths , also known as the Sunstrip Pool for years , is a historic and listed swimming pool, a so-called rock pool . The bath is south of Coogee Beach , a suburb of Sydney in New South Wales , Australia .
history
The swimming pool was built in 1907 by Henry Alexander Wylie, a long distance swimmer and scuba diver . This bath and the nearby listed McIver's Baths were the first public swimming pools for women in Australia. It is one of two rock pools in Australia that were built through a private initiative.
Henry Wylie's daughter was Mina Wylie . She and her friend, Fanny Durack , used this swimming pool to prepare for the 1912 Summer Olympics in Oslo . Fanny Durack won the gold medal in the women's 100 meter freestyle swimming . Mina Wylie finished second behind her and won an Olympic silver medal. These medals were the first Australian women won in an Olympic swimming competition. In 1912, women's swimming was an Olympic discipline for the first time.
The swimming pool was one of the first in Australia to be accessible to women and men at the same time. In 1912, Henry Wylie installed a wooden boardwalk above the bath.
In 1959 Desmond Selby took over the swimming pool, who named it Sunstrip Pool . In the mid-1970s, when the swimming pool stood empty, it was damaged as a result of heavy surf . The management of the Randwick Council took over the bath in 1978. This also led to the adoption of the historical name.
In 1994 the bath and the wooden promenade were restored under public pressure and made more comfortable for bathers. In 2000 the bath got a kiosk that also offers food.
The architects who carried out the work received the Greenway Award for Conservation by the Australian Institute of Architects for their careful handling of the historical building fabric .
In 1996 the Wylie's Baths Trust took over the swimming pool. This trust consists of four representatives who are members of four local swimming clubs, three local residents of Coogee and representatives of Randwick City Council .
Monument protection
In 2003, the Wylie's Baths was inscribed on the New South Wales State Monument Protection List for its historical and cultural significance.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Wylies Baths, Sydney, Australia ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , from February 20, 2014, on modernheritage.com.au. Retrieved September 26, 2016
- ↑ Wylie's Bath , 2008, on dictionaryofsydney.org. Retrieved September 25, 2016
Coordinates: 33 ° 55 ′ 32.3 ″ S , 151 ° 15 ′ 33.9 ″ E