Health issues & a therapeutic environment

By the nineteenth century, seaside holidays, sea air and sea bathing were considered to promote good health and serve as an antidote to consumption, stress and other illness. These assumptions underpinned the development of coastal communities striving to develop themselves as 'watering places' emulating the famous English resort of Brighton. Particularly in the summer months, people of means sought alternatives to the congested and unsanitary cities they viewed as threats to adult and child health. Tuberculosis and infectious diseases were all too common and little effective treatment was available.

As Sydney gained more overcrowded areas with substandard housing, an unclean inadequate water supply and little or no sanitation, the clean air, clean water and interesting landscapes along the coast became 'the usual resort of invalids' and other seekers of health and pleasure.

Provided the ocean waters remained clean, ocean baths offered healthy recreation in an environment safe from sharks and strong currents. From newspaper articles of the 1840s onwards, it is clear that the ocean baths were catering for bathers in search of play and sensual pleasures and the 'luxury of a sea bath' rather than for people solemnly pursuing therapeutic regimes. The hot saltwater baths at the Bronte Baths and Giles Baths in Sydney's Eastern suburbs were considered both therapeutic and fashionable in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. In the twentieth century. the surf beaches became key sites for tourism and recreation

Given that most Australians live in suburban environments within an hour's drive of the coast, it is not surprising that so many grow up with a profound attachment to sea and sand. Happy experiences of the sea may relate to childhood play, sex and romance or simply  to the peace induced by focusing on the movement of the waves. A recent survey found that most Australians were far more likely to experience a sense of peace and wellbeing by the sea, than in church or when praying. The  otherworldliness of the powerful sea is a counterpoint  to a confined and regulated suburban existence, a relief and a refuge amid a world increasingly alienated from the natural rhythms of the tides and the winds. Simply being in the buoyant seawater brings a sense of blissful liberation. Besides, no-one floating in the sea can be expected to attend to the demands of clocks, emails and mobile phones.

While other Australians may not be sea people to the same extent as indigenous coastal communities, those who regularly surf, sail, fish, dive, beachcomb or swim along the coast do become attuned to the movements of the wind, the tides and the swell. These people develop an understanding and an appreciation of the ocean in all its moods and a sense of being in harmony with the natural world and the cycles of life. They feel a part of the wavescape and the overall world of the sea

Regular pool patrons value the pool's relationship to the sea and sky and the contact with natural rhythms of the waves. Swimming in live water is a different experience to the familiar filtered chlorinated public baths or even the up-to-date aquatic centres offering artificial waves. At the beach or the ocean baths, the domestic and the oceanic can co-exist and enrich each other. Speaking about The Entrance Ocean Baths in 2002, local MP Bob McBride said he would 'challenge anyone to do a number of laps in the early hours of the morning and then shower off looking out over the ocean as the sun rises on the horizon and not to be moved and exhilarated by emotions and feeling of wellbeing that then last throughout the day. This combined with the ability to greet people and share warmth and laughter is something almost uniquely associated with this beautiful facility.'

Stormy conditions can be therapeutic in a different sense. On stormy days, Sydney people are drawn to the headlands where they can witness the power of the sea. Their own eyes and their newspaper images show them storms changing the waters of an ocean baths into cappuccino froth or something resembling a snow field. In nineteenth century terms, these people are communing with the sublime, enjoying the sensation of delight and awe mingled with terror.

 

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