Beach sights in Sydney
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Tamarama Beach
Surrounded by high cliffs, Tamarama has a deep tongue of sand with just 80m of shoreline. Diminutive, yes, but ever-present rips make Tamarama the most dangerous patrolled beach in New South Wales; it’s often closed to swimmers. When it earned its nickname ‘Glamarama’ in the ’80s, Tamarama was probably Sydney’s gayest beach. Reflecting increasing acceptance, the gay guys have migrated en masse to North Bondi, leaving the huge waves here to the surfers. It’s hard to picture now, but between 1887 and 1911 a roller coaster looped out over the water as part of an amusement park.
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B
Bronte Beach
A winning family-orientated beach hemmed in by sandstone cliffs and a grassy park, Bronte lays claims to the title of the oldest surf life-saving club in the world (1903). Contrary to popular belief, the beach is named after Lord Nelson, who doubled as the Duke of Bronte (a place in Sicily), and not the famous literary sorority. There’s a kiosk and a changing room attached to the surf club, and outdoor seating near the coin-op barbecues. Parking is hellish.
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Cronulla
Cronulla is a beachy surf suburb south of Botany Bay, it’s looong surf beach stretching beyond the dunes to the Botany Bay refineries. It’s an edgy place, with dingy fish-and-chip shops, insomnious teens and a ragged sense of impending ‘something’, which in 2005 erupted into racial violence. The ’70s cult novel Puberty Blues captured the local teen scene.
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Coogee Ocean Pools
If you’ve got kids, shark-paranoia, or surf isn’t your thing, Sydney’s blessed with a string of 40 man-made ocean pools up and down the coast, most of them free. At Coogee Beach’s northern end below Dolphin Point, Giles Baths is what’s known as a ‘bogey hole’ – a semiformal rock pool open to the surging surf. At the beach’s southern end, Ross Jones Memorial Pool has sand-castle-like concrete turrets. Up against the cliffs further south is McIvers Baths. Screened from passers-by, it’s been a popular women-only pool since 1876. Further south still, Wylies Baths is for serious lap swimmers. Closer to Maroubra, Mahon Pool is an idyllic rock pool where the …
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D
Coogee Beach
Bondi without the glitz and the posers, Coogee (locals pronounce the double o as in the word ‘took’) has a deep sweep of sand, historic ocean baths and plenty of green space for barbecues and frisbee hurling. Offshore, compromising the surf here a little, is the craggy, wave-battered Wedding Cake Island, immortalised in Midnight Oil’s 1980 surf-guitar instrumental of the same name. Between world wars, Coogee had an English-style pier, with a 1400-seat theatre and a 600-seat ballroom…until the surf took it.
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E
Clovelly Beach
It might seem odd, but this concrete-edged ocean channel is a great place to swim, sunbathe and snorkel. It’s safe for the kids, and despite the swell surging into the inlet, underwater visibility is great. A beloved friendly grouper fish lived here for many years until he was speared by a tourist. Bring your goggles, but don’t go killing anything… On the other side of the car park is the entrance to the Gordons Bay Underwater Nature Trail, a 500m underwater chain guiding divers past reefs, sand flats and kelp forests.
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Redleaf Pool
Not really a pool at all (it’s a fenced-off section of Seven Shillings Beach), Redleaf is the closest swim spot to the city – as such, it attracts an urbane collection of inner- eastern locals. A boardwalk runs around the top of the shark net, and two floating pontoons are sought-after posing platforms for those who confuse beaches with catwalks. The pool is popular with families; the beach’s eastern end is colonised by gay lads.
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McIvers Baths
Perched against the cliffs at the southern end of Coogee is the womens only McIvers Baths. Well screened from passers-by, this spot has been popular for women's bathing since before 1876. Its strictly women-only policy has made it popular with an unlikely mixture of nuns, Muslim women and lesbians. Entry is via the honesty/donation system and small children are permitted.
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Bondi Pavilion
More cultural centre than boat shed, the Mediterranean/Georgian-revival Bondi Pavilion (1929; aka ‘The Pav’) offers change rooms, showers, Bondi Openair Cinema, restaurants, exhibitions, and a plethora of courses and live performances.
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Mahon Pool
Coogee Beach, towards Maroubra, Mahon Pool is an idyllic rock pool where the surf crashes over the edges at high tide.
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