MacMasters Beach Rock Pool
Sited at the southern end of MacMasters Beach, this shallow formed rock pool has rails, rather than the classic pool chains. Almost twinned with the Copacabana pool to the north, even though the two communities are distinct.
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Historical notes 1890s The southernmost surf beach on the Central Coast had been named MacMasters Beach, after a Scottish family that settled at a 600-acre property in the area in 1855.
1920 MacMasters Beach was still comparatively remote. It had one holiday home until the MacMaster property was subdivided.
1928 There was a new direct Sydney-Newcastle main road. All trains north from Sydney stopped at Gosford and coastal steamers continued to land passengers and cargo at Gosford. By then MacMasters Beach had a park reserve and was rated as a ‘splendid site for picnicking’ or ‘erection of bungalows’, but ‘the recommended bathing place’ was in the lake, close to one part of the beach.
1946 The MacMasters Beach Surf club formed.
1959 Gosford Council operated a camping ground on the ocean front at MacMasters Beach.
1963 Largely at the instigation of George Waring, president of the Progress Association, residents built a pool at the southern end of the beach, so surf club members could teach children to swim.
1960 to 1980 Over the years, the popular pool was repaired in ‘patchwork’ fashion.
1981 The pool was rebuilt and deepened by Council.
1988 Gosford Council assessed the MacMasters Beach rock pool as having moderate usage, a sheltered position and being suitable for young children to paddle around. It recommended retaining the pool, but providing signs stating the depth of the pool.
1991 After the pool began to leak badly, the community began writing to Council and agitating to have the deterioration of the pool addressed. As President of the MacMasters Beach Progress Association, George Waring’s daughter, Barbara Willis, was active in the campaign.
1993 MacMasters Beach was very much a residential and holiday-home area. It had few tourist facilities and its beach and pool were used mainly by locals and holiday-makers from Sydney.
2002 Gosford Council deepened the MacMasters Beach rock pool so lap swimmers no longer scraped their fingers on the bottom.
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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
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