Cronulla Children’s Pool
The Children’s Pool cut out of the rock shelf is the middle of the three ocean baths between North Cronulla Beach and South Cronulla Beach and linked to Cronulla’s other ocean pools by The Esplanade, a popular walking track. Close to a railway station.
Click to find location on AllSwims.au
Do you have a good photo we can use here? Please email us: allswims.au@yahoo.com
Historical notes Clans of the Dharawal people lived around North Cronulla and Cronulla Beach
1827 Surveyor Dixon used the term ‘Cronulla beaches’.
1885 The railway reached Sutherland and the Cronulla area gained popularity as a picnic place.
1888 The Oriental Hotel occupied the site near the present-day North Cronulla Hotel.
1906 Sutherland Shire was proclaimed.
1911 A steam tram linked Sutherland and Cronulla.
1920s Motor cars gave more people readier access to semi-rural Cronulla.
North Cronulla Surf Club began beach patrols in 1925.
1932 Sutherland Shire Council decided to formalise the ocean pools, creating ‘spacious concrete bathing pools swept by breakers from the ocean’ and facilities for visitors close to the Cronulla surfing areas. The first rock pool was a children’s pool with a uniform depth of 18 inches that had been cut out of the rock shelf. The Shire engineer supervised the construction work.
The Minister for Local Government opened the main baths (132 feet long and 60 feet wide) and the neighbouring children’s pool on Eight Hour Day 1932. Sutherland Council and the Cronulla surf club and the Cronulla Fire Brigade co-operated in activities associated with the opening of the Cronulla rock pools.
1939 Cronulla became the only Sydney beach with a railway station.
1960s Cronulla’s low-rise holiday guest-houses were being replaced by high-rise flats.
2003 An assessment of the Shire’s ocean baths was identified as a necessary part of the ongoing management of its coastal assets.
2005 to 2006 Incidents at the beach fuelled the December 2005 riots at Cronulla. Extra Beachsafe police were deployed to Cronulla for the rest of the 2005/6 beach season.
———
Historical data and text adapted from All into Ocean Pools Inc (originally published at allintooceanpoolsinc.org, including research contributed by Marie-Louise McDermott), retrieved via the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine. Used under Creative Commons Attribution guidelines.
Allintooceanpoolsinc.org was a great resource which has been lost to the internet and we have restored the page content to keep it live and available. If you have updates or images related to this please contact us to add them. We also want the original authors to contact us. Thank you
Related articles
More in Rock Pools →
Umina Beach (ghost pool)
South Umina Tidal swimming pool was beautiful with the rock face above it but mostly destroyed in storms 1974.
Wollongong Continental Baths (Wollongong Central Baths)
An updated version of the 1920s continental pool. This pool embodies the changing face of swimming as a skill, a sport and a recreation. This is the most recent of the set of adult-size ocean baths between North Wollongong and South Wollongong surf beaches.
Austinmer Baths (Austinmer Rock Pools), NSW
The double pool near the surf club attracts many regular swimmers who ignore the earlier pool a little to the south. Photographers have created memorable images of this pool, which appeared on early twentieth century postcards and still appears on postcards and greeting cards.