Wylie's Baths

The early history of the baths remains shrouded in sea mists. Find out more about the history of the baths and the famous family behind this iconic swimming pool.

The area below the high-water mark at this location has been leased for baths since at least 1902. The area above the high-water mark has been Crown reserve for public baths since this time as well. What we do know from the archives is the history of our beloved Wylie's Baths and the making of an Australian Olympic legend.

From 1902-1907, Henry Alexander Wylie, was granted a lease of the coast to the south of Coogee Beach. Onto a large natural rock pool, he commenced construction of a concrete sea wall to create a rectangular tidal pool 50 yards long, with a valve in the eastern wall to allow for cleaning at low tide. On the western side of the pool, he built a sloping concrete concourse ideal for viewing swimming and for games such as volleyball and quoits. It is testament to his building expertise that much of his construction remains.  By 1907, Henry Wylie had built an elevated timber deck structure about 25 feet above pool level to act as a viewing promenade and accommodate change rooms, The deck was boomerang in shape. The hardwood posts of Turpentine and Blackbutt were laid out on a rectangular grid and simply housed into sockets cut into the rock boulders below. The pool officially opened, 12 December 1907. Wylie also constructed a concrete diving tower on the eastern wall. Slippery dips into the pool were also constructed. Henry Wylie was a builder by trade but was also an underwater swimming champion himself. 

Wylie’s Baths was one of the first venues to allow mixed bathing in Australia. But many of the postcards of the early days still depict crowds of all male swimmers. Night swimming became popular when lighting was installed along the northern wall.

Wilhelmina (Mina) Wylie was associated with the pool up until the 1950s. The baths were her training ground in the lead up to the 1912 Stokholm Olympic Games. Henry Wylie was her coach. This was the first time women were permitted to compete in swimming competition at an Olympic games. Mina won the silver medal after her friend and rival Fanny Durack, who won gold. 

In 1959 Desmond Selby took over the lease of the Baths for an annual rent of $500 (decimal conversion) and it became known as the Sunset Strip from 1959-1974. In 1974, a severe storm partly destroyed the baths. By this time, they were suffering from dry rot, termite damage and lack of maintenance. The baths were closed from 1974-1978. They reopened, in a dilapidated state, under the management of Randwick Municipal Council. After much lobbying by Randwick residents, tenders for the restoration of the Baths were awarded and the work undertaken for a grand reopening in 1995. The architects for the restoration, Allen, Jack and Cottier were awarded the Francis Greenway Medal for their restoration work on the Baths. The Wylie’s Baths Trust was established in 1996 to administer the baths. Long distance local champion swimmer, Des Renford MBE, also trained at the pool. The Baths are classified by the National Trust and are listed on the NSW Heritage Office, State Heritage Inventory.

In 2001, local artist Eileen Slarke installed a life size bronze statue of Mina Wylie as a permanent reminder of the Bath's most acclaimed Olympic athlete.

As one of the architects working on the restoration of the baths remarked,

"Descending the steps from Neptune Street is like entering into another world; an anachronistic, slightly bizarre, slightly exotic sort of place cut off from the rest of the world. Few places in Sydney are capable of evoking the sort of emotional response in people that Wylie's does - a sense of attachment and community identity." (Christopher Marks)

Anyone who has descended these same steps knows this to be true!