Before  1820

Natural processes created rock pool and sites for future ocean baths along the NSW coast. Aboriginal people created fishing traps at some of the sites later used for ocean baths.

The NSW coastline had been inhabited and used for fishing and food gathering for thousands of years before Britain claimed possession of New South Wales (which then meant all of Eastern Australia) in 1770 and began a to create a colony by shipping convicts to Sydney in 1788.

Many of the European colonists commented on the swimming, fishing and canoeing skills of the Aboriginal men, women and children. Though most of the European colonists lacked both water skills and water confidence, swimming soon became one of their popular recreations.

Settlement spread  along the coast from the sea. Ports developed on the NSW coast to serve convict settlements, cedar getters and whalers.
 

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