1919 to 1929

The 1919 influenza epidemic restricted the 'Welcome Home' celebrations for servicemen and service nurses returning to Australia after the end of World War I. Over 100,000  servicemen returned home wounded mentally or physically from their war service. Of the 300,000 Australians who had served in the war, around 60,000 had died in the war.

Almost every Australian city, town and village erected a war memorial honouring their citizens who had served and died in the war. These memorials provided a focus for the grief of families who could not travel overseas to visit the graves of friends and family killed in the war.

In this environment, it is not surprising that health and fitness were valued and suntans came to be seen as a sign  of good health.

The 1920s saw an enormous interest in beaches. New ocean baths were constructed and developed to cater to the growing number of holiday makers. The lifesaving movement boomed.

Greater access to motor cars and improved roads made travel easier and increased the popularity of camping holidays.

Mixed bathing was normal practice at the ocean baths on Sydney's northern beaches, at Cronulla and at an increasing number of other ocean baths.

Demands by tourists and residents for mixed bathing at ocean baths led communities which had created segregated ocean baths to consider new baths or arrangements for continental or mixed bathing.

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