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 surf crashes over the edges at high tide.