Access to toilet/change facilities Actively maintained Disabled Access

Men Women Children

Current Use: Ocean baths/sandpit.
Condition: Good.

1937
The Young Mariner's Pool was completed adjacent to the southern end of the Newcastle Ocean Baths. As the bottom of this new  pool featured a map of the world in pigmented cement, the pool  was considered both 'educational and recreational'. This geographical pool originally intended for 'tinies' had such appeal for bigger children that it became  overcrowded.

1939
A massive 1939 extension on the ocean-side of the existing 'Young Mariner's Pool' created the present-day Canoe Pool. This  'new boat pool for children' with a shelving bottom at the north rocks of Newcastle Beach  and to the side of the Ocean Baths was expected to be 'popular with youngsters in the summer months'.

Early 1940s
The two sides of the pool were still referred to as 'Young Mariner's Pool' and the Canoe Pool.

1950s
Photos show the map of the world at the Canoe Pool. A tourist map for Newcastle shows this pool jammed with small boys in canoes circling the coloured concrete map of the world that once graced this pool.

1960s
Problems with sea lice and dirty water prompted calls for the Canoe Pool to be closed.

1968
The Canoe Pool's map was demolished.

1997
A feasibility study on restoring the map of the world produced estimates that Council considered too expensive.
 

The Awabakal people lived in the Newcastle area.

Early 1800s
A convict settlement was established to serve as a place of secondary punishment for convicts who re-offended in the colony of New South Wales and to create a harbour to ship the district's evident and abundant supplies of coal. Completion of Newcastle's breakwater eliminated the need for convict labour and soldiers. Newcastle was made a free port in 1846.

From 1850 to 1879
Male and female bathers were obliged to use separate areas of Newcastle's beaches or bathe at separate times. Agitation for public sea baths grew. despite the existence of the Bogey Hole.

1880
Public baths were again discussed and Newcastle Borough Council permitted bathing in the ocean behind the Newcastle Hospital at any hour, provided bathers wore 'suitable bathing dress'.

1890s
Newcastle was 'the great emporium of the coal trade in the southern hemisphere and the port of shipment for nearly all the wool grown in the northern and north-western districts' of the colony of New South Wales.

The Corporation of the City of Newcastle was one of 12 in the district, and had only a small income base and was running into debt. Income came from land and lighting rates, property rents, fines in the Police Court, the removal of night soil, licensing of horse-drawn vehicles and charges made at the Corporation Baths, the Bogey Hole and the Ladies Baths (a swimming enclosure on Newcastle Beach).

1897
The Northern Districts Amateur Swimming Association (NDASA) was established.

To be added.

This very distinctive children's pool is one of the few standalone ocean pools created specifically for children's use. The Young Mariner's Pool completed in 1937 adjacent to the southern end of the Newcastle Ocean Baths was further developed in 1939 with an adjacent 'new boat pool for children'. Many people remember this pool once had an art work in the form of a map of the world on the bottom of the pool. The Canoe Pool remains an attractive subject for artists and photographers.

Assessed significance: Worthy of nomination for State heritage listing as a part of a clump of ocean baths (encompassing the site of the Square Hole, Newcastle Ocean Baths, Canoe Pool) sharing the one rock platform.

Current heritage status: Not currently listed as having heritage significance.
 

Related Topics Artworks & artists Children

Studies & References To be added.