Sawtell Memorial Rock Pool (Rock Pool, Bonville Headland)
Beautifully sited on the south side of the Bonville Headland, this pool offers Sawtell’s residents and visitors protection from the strong permanent rip that runs out past the pool and a safer swimming environment than the deep channels and strong tidal flows that move through the mouth of Bonville Creek. While Australia has many war memorial public pools, it is rare to find an ocean pool dedicated as a war memorial.
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Historical notes 1904 The 102-acre Bonville reserve gazetted for recreational purposes became popular with the people from Dorrigo and the Bellinger areas.
1927 The developing village near the reserve was gazetted as Sawtell. Trustees were appointed to the Sawtell reserve.
1962 Sawtell’s ocean pool on the Bonville Headland was unofficially used for the first time in December by ‘streams of children’.
1963 Sawtell’s ocean pool was dedicated as a war memorial pool.
2000 The Coffs Harbour Local Environmental Plan (LEP) listed the pool as a heritage item.
2000 to present Sawtell’s wonderfully practical war memorial is still a popular pool.
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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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