Wombarra Baths (Wombarra Rock Pool), NSW
A main pool linked to a wading pool, on a wide rock platform. Photographers have created memorable images of this pool.
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Historical notes 1906 Bulli Shire Council was formed.
1916 The new railway platform a mile south of Scarborough at Brown’s Bridge was named Wombarra.
1937 The Bulli Shire Council engineer thought future enlargement efforts should focus on the more accessible and better-situated Wombarra baths, rather than the Scarborough Baths.
1938 Bulli Shire Council was asked to expedite work on the Wombarra Baths.
1940 The Scarborough-Wombarra surf club complained that the baths at Scarborough and Wombarra were not fit for swimming.
1942 No funds were available to clear a fair amount of seaweed from the Wombarra Baths.
1944 The Scarborough-Wombarra Progress Association tried to identify the people responsible for the unsanitary state of the Wombarra baths and lavatory with a view to taking action against them. The Bulli Shire Clerk estimated the Wombarra Baths needed a new brick dressing-shed with tiles, showers and lavatories amounting to 500 pounds which could be funded through a new Council rate. Bulli Shire agreed to call tenders for the work with approval from the Department of War Organisation as soon as possible.
1945 Work on the Wombarra Baths dressing sheds was postponed until after a water service was provided at the Baths.
1947 The Bulli Shire Council was amalgamated with other Illawarra councils to form the City of Greater Wollongong.
1993 The small car park at the southern end of the beach and picnic catered more for the rock pool at the south end of the beach, than for the beach itself.
2003 After the contentious closure of a stretch of the coast road between Coalcliff and Clifton forced visitors from Sydney to head south on the F6 freeway and descend to the coast via the Bulli Pass.
2005 Completion of the Sea Cliff Bridge re-opened the coast road between Coalcliff and Clifton.
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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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