Our Guide to the Best Harbour and Ocean Swimming Pools in Sydney. Bondi Icebergs, Sydney, Australia. Copyright © 2022 Terence Carter / Grantourismo. All Rights Reserved.

Our Guide to the Best Harbour and Ocean Swimming Pools in Sydney

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The best harbour and ocean swimming pools in Sydney should be high on your summer to-do list. Australia’s most beautiful city is not only blessed with Australia’s most breathtaking beaches, it also boasts an abundance of alluring ocean pools in gob-smackingly gorgeous settings. Go on, take a splash!

I could have been cheeky and called our guide to the best harbour and ocean swimming pools in Sydney something like Sydney’s Secret Swimming Pools as editors have a tendency to do.

But the truth is that while newcomers to the city might not know about Sydney’s stunning seafront swimming pools, in a city of 5 million people, no matter how secluded they are, Sydney’s bay and beachside pools are hardly hidden secrets.

That the best harbour and ocean swimming pools in Sydney are hugely popular with Sydneysiders is even more reason to experience them, as you’ll be enjoying the experience with locals.

First published 26 November 2012; last updated 26 September 2022

Best Harbour and Ocean Swimming Pools in Sydney

Sydney is blessed with an abundance of alluring waterfront public swimming pools in breathtaking settings. Glassy or sparkling, the colour of their water changes from aquamarine to turquoise to cobalt, depending upon the colour of the sky and the time of day.

Except in wild weather when the waves and rain stir up the sandy sea floor, the water is nearly always crystal clear. Sydney Harbour is surprisingly clean for a busy working port.

Dotted around the perimeter of sprawling Sydney Harbour, you’ll find blue-tiled, chlorinated, Olympic-sized swimming pools built right on the harbour’s edge, natural salt-water enclosures tucked into skinny coves and protruding from slivers of sand, heritage-listed Art Deco bathhouses with timber boardwalks and floating pontoons, and antique wooden structures erected over the water.

If those seductive harbourside pools aren’t enough to entice you into the water, sprinkled along Sydney’s stunning Pacific coastline, bookending creamy crescent-shaped beaches and endless stretches of squeaky soft sand, are ocean pools dramatically carved into rocky ledges, formed from natural sandstone depressions, and flimsily fenced off into wonky rectangular-shaped sea pools by pylons and shark nets.

Situated in bays or protected by cliffs, some ocean swimming pools are tranquil, their waters mostly still, while others are more exposed to the elements, colossal waves breaking over their edges in a big swell.

All are open to the sea, fenced off by wooden palings or nets that do little to keep out fish, jelly-blubbers, and even (ouch) the dreaded bluebottles. For the locals, this is part of their appeal.

Don’t be surprised if you see swimmers doing laps in diving masks, snorkelers treating a swimming pool like the sea, fishermen casting their lines from the poolside, or a child’s hand appearing over the edge of a pool cupping a starfish or seashell collection.

My own childhood memories of growing up in Sydney in the 1970s are awash (sorry) with dips in these harbour and ocean swimming pools. There were paddles in serene Watsons Bay Baths as a toddler, followed by fish and chips, liberally doused in salt and vinegar, and wrapped in butcher’s paper from Doyles.

During school holiday there were swims in salty rock pools a short drive from Sydney on the New South Wales Central Coast at Avoca Beach, and a little further afield, at our regular family holiday spot of Forster-Tuncurry. There, we’d splash around in Forster Ocean Baths when the surf got too rough or Dad and Pop were done fishing for the day.

Sunbathing and swimming in Sydney’s ocean and harbour swimming pools has always been something Sydneysiders have cherished.

The history of Sydney’s harbour and ocean swimming pools dates back to the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, when swimming pools and enclosures were created to offer protection from the relentless pounding surf, watercraft and sharks, in spots where locals had already been splashing about.

Back then they were known as rock baths or ocean baths. The National Trust of Australia (NSW) Survey of Harbourside and Ocean Swimming Pools of the Sydney Metropolitan Area, along with the Dictionary of Sydney entry on ocean baths are fascinating reads.

When I was growing up in the Seventies, Sydney’s swimming pools were an extension of the beach culture that, along with the stereotypical blonde bronzed Aussie, was an integral part of our national identity.

Wander around the Art Gallery of New South Wales, for instance, and you’ll see Sydney’s swimming pool and beach life alluringly illuminated and immortalised in the paintings and prints of an array of Australian artists and photographers, including Tom Roberts, Arthur Streeton and Charles Condor.

Although nobody captured that sun-worshipping water-baby culture quite like the legendary Sydney photographer Max Dupain. Look at his most famous photograph of The Sunbaker shot in 1937.

You can almost feel the warmth of the sun upon the man’s skin, the beads of water that might give him goose-bumps if there’s a breeze, those droplets drying in the heat and in their place tiny sticky smudges of salt forming.

Gaze for a few moments longer and you’ll sense his temptation to rise and return to the water, to run down to its edge and dive deep down into the salty sea to cool off all over again. Magic.

Best Harbour and Ocean Swimming Pools in Sydney

The best harbour and ocean swimming pools in Sydney are as popular as they’ve ever been. For visitors to Sydney that means you need to know where and when to go if you’re keen to have a dip in these historic gems.

Dawn Fraser Baths

One of the best harbour and ocean swimming pools in Sydney, the Dawn Fraser Baths were where we spent much of each summer weekend during the many years we lived in Balmain in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

We’d laze away most of each day soaking up the sunshine and swimming at the atmospheric Dawn Fraser Baths, a short amble from our Birchgrove terrace. A tidal harbourside pool, at low tide a slender beach forms where parents help toddlers build sandcastles.

The timber deck is the prime spot for sunbaking, providing fine views of the wooden bathhouse, built in the early 1880s. Australia’s oldest public pool, it’s registered by the National Trust, which should hint at its old-world charm.

I have fond memories of many long afternoons reading and writing here. Filmmakers back then, Terence and I would while away countless hours scribbling down script ideas. If you only go to one Sydney pool, make it this one and take a notebook or postcards because you will be inspired.

Be warned: the pool closes if water quality is poor, especially after rain, or if there’s a water polo match. Though I don’t recall it closing when filled with jelly blubbers – shame we never made that film.
Adjacent to Elkington Park, Balmain. More info on Dawn Fraser Baths site

Bondi Icebergs

If the Dawn Fraser Baths is Sydney’s most charming harbourside swimming pool, Bondi Icebergs, pictured above, is the city’s most breathtaking beachfront pool.

It’s also the most iconic and deservedly legendary, and is easily one of the best harbour and ocean swimming pools in Sydney.

Not only is it spectacularly located on the sea, surrounded by rocks, at the southern end of Bondi Beach, it also offers stupendous views of Australia’s most famous stretch of sand.

More importantly, this Sydney institution is a winter swimming club, the name ‘the Icebergs’ given to the hardcore swimmers who do laps here every day during the chilly months, no matter the icy temperature or size of the waves that crash over the edge of the pool.

Being an official sporting club means it’s the only licensed swimming pool in Australia and there are few finer places in Sydney to sip a beer on a sunny day than the balcony of the bar or the Icebergs restaurant above.
1 Notts Ave, Bondi Beach. More info: icebergs.com.au

North Sydney Olympic Pool

Another of the best harbour and ocean swimming pools in Sydney, if there’s a single swimming pool that screams Sydney, it’s this serious Olympic sized pool with a location that is unsurpassed beside Luna Park and overlooking Sydney Harbour Bridge.

Backstroking here is certain to bring a smile to your face, especially at sunset or soon after dark when the bridge and the Opera House beyond are stunningly illuminated.

Dating back to 1936, the Art Deco details are worth a closer look, particularly the beautiful decorative plasterwork and brickwork.

But it’s the sporting history of the pool that impresses visiting Aussies: 86 world records were set here by Australian swimming legends such as Lorraine Crapp and Shane Gould.

If you haven’t climbed the Sydney harbour bridge yet, there’s a fitness centre on site that offers absorbing views of the pool, bridge and opera house, as well as a café-restaurant.
4 Alfred St South, Milson’s Point.

Andrew Boy Charlton Pool

A year after I started university I traded weekends and evenings waitressing for a research job at New South Wales parliament house.

When I wasn’t swimming in the pool there during my lunch break, on sunny days I’d get some exercise with a brisk walk through The Domain and the Royal Botanic Gardens down to Mrs Macquarie’s Chair and back.

On the way, I’d enviously take a peak at another stunningly sited harbourside swimming pool, the Boy Charlton Pool, overlooking Woolloomooloo Finger Wharves, wishing I had time to take a dip there instead.

Years later when we moved from East Balmain to Potts Point, Terence would often do laps there after work, which is one of the pools busiest times and best avoided unless you’re a serious swimmer.

This is a great pool to experience if you’re tight on time and staying in the city. Just avoid early morning, lunchtime, and after work, when it gets super crowded.
Mrs Macquarie’s Rd, The Domain. More info: www.abcpool.org

Bronte Baths

Dating back to 1883, this stunningly located swimming pool surrounded by craggy cliffs on the sea’s edge at the southern end of beautiful Bronte Beach is for me Sydney’s quintessential ocean pool.

I have fond memories of Bronte too, including dips in the icy water to cool down after cricket games and picnics in the nearby park with my uncle and his friends.

Bronte Beach, like neighbouring Tamarama Beach (known as ‘Glamarama’ to us back in the day), had a reputation for attracting the ‘beautiful people’ – Sydney celebrities, media personalities, and long-legged models and their muscle-bound boyfriends.

But whenever we hit the beach, we’d mostly see tanned grey-haired retirees doing their daily laps and mothers with newborns doing pram laps along the promenade.

What I like is that you can take a bus directly here from Circular Quay or Oxford Street or drop by for a dip when you do the Bondi to Bronte Coastal Walk.
Bronte Road, Bronte. More info: Waverley Council

Wylies Baths

Originally established in 1907 by long distance swimmer Henry Alexander Wylie, these baths are full of history.

The original rickety wooden structure with old fashioned changing rooms that was precariously perched over the rocks that I remember has since been renovated.

But the baths still ooze charm and are perhaps Sydney’s next most atmospheric after Dawn Fraser Baths.

If the panoramic vistas and pool aren’t enticement enough to visit, the pool is home to a massage centre Massage by the Sea.

You can get a rubdown or have hot rocks placed on your back while you inhale the sea air, and yoga classes are also offered.

It can get packed with families and teens on weekends, so try to head here mid-week. During holidays the crowds can’t be avoided unfortunately.
Neptune St, Coogee, south of Coogee Beach, off the coastal walk. More info: www.wylies.com.au

More of the best harbour and ocean swimming pools in Sydney

They might not be the very best harbour and ocean swimming pools in Sydney but if you’re settling into the city for a while, you might also like to have a wade in these other beach and harbour pools:

Neilsen Park

Little more than a shark-net enclosure on one of the eastern suburbs prettiest beaches, located on Shark Bay (nothing to worry about), backed by a lovely park with a charming old kiosk turned café, and fragrant native bushland. I vaguely remember us swimming here late one sultry summer’s night with uni friends.

Redleaf Pool

Another beaut little eastern suburbs harbour pool that’s also little more than a fenced off section of water on Seven Shillings Beach, Double Bay. Easily accessible by buses running along New South Head Road, this is your next best bet for a memorable swim if you don’t have time to go to Neilsen Park or Boy Charlton is too crowded. Walk along the wooden boardwalk to reach the pontoons.

Balmoral Beach

A beautiful swimming spot, formed by a shark net and boardwalk, on the north side of the harbour, Balmoral oozes vintage charm due to its promenade, leafy park, rotunda, and historic 1920s changing rooms that is now Bathers Pavilion restaurant. It was a favourite stop of ours for fish and chips at the end of a Sunday drive along Sydney’s northern beaches.

Dee Why Rockpools

Off the promenade of this north shore surf beach, shaped from the natural sandstone and wall reinforced with concrete. The two pools are popular with families, so except lots of squealing, giggling and occasional tears. There’s a wading pool for little ones and deeper pool for grown-ups.

Freshwater Beach Baths

Like Bondi, Bronte and Dee Why, this is another oceanfront pool dramatically set into the rocky cliffs. At the northern end of the Beach, the baths date to the 1920s, when it was a women’s only pool. It’s long and large, though fairly shallow.

If you have a car, there are also beautiful rock pools at North Narrabeen, Mona Vale, Newport, Bilgola, Whale Beach, Palm Beach, and Avalon. See the Pittwater Council site for details.

Tips for Making the Most of the Best Harbour and Ocean Swimming Pools in Sydney

  • most pools are open to the public for free or charge a small admission fee.
  • pools get packed with locals on weekends during the warmer months, so go mid-week.
  • year-round the lanes will be taken by regular swimmers doing their daily laps — usually early in the morning from around 7-8.30am and after work after 5pm. Unless you want to do laps and can swim well, avoid these times.
  • the best times to visit if you want to stake out a good sunbathing spot and actually get wet is when most Sydneysiders are at work, generally after 9am and before 3pm, when the kids get out of school and swimming lessons start.
  • you may occasionally have to contend with school sports carnivals or closures due to maintenance, so if you’re only in Sydney for a short time, click through to the websites above to get a number and call ahead.
  • harbourside pools usually have kiosks and dedicated change rooms (some with lockers) while the beachside pools will have public toilets and showers close by and a stylish café or take-away shop across the road.
  • While the harbour pools tend to have operating hours, the ocean pools are open around the clock; just take care if you’re swimming after dark or when the sea is wild.

Further reading

To learn more about the best harbour and ocean swimming pools in Sydney, browse these sites: The Pool Lady is a project documenting one woman’s attempt to swim every public pool in Sydney while the blog Swimming Pool Stories is just a delight to browse. Don’t be surprised if they have you packing your ‘cozzies’ (as we’d call ‘swimming costumes’ as kids) and booking a flight to Sydney.

Are you a Sydneysider or have you swam in the city? What are your picks of the best harbour and ocean swimming pools in Sydney? Let us know in the comments below.

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A travel and food writer who has experienced over 70 countries and written for The Guardian, Australian Gourmet Traveller, Feast, Delicious, National Geographic Traveller, Conde Nast Traveller, Travel+Leisure Southeast Asia, DestinAsian, TIME, CNN, The Independent, The Telegraph, Sunday Times Travel Magazine, AFAR, Wanderlust, International Traveller, Get Lost, Four Seasons Magazine, Fah Thai, Sawasdee, and more, as well as authored more than 40 guidebooks for Lonely Planet, DK, Footprint, Rough Guides, Fodors, Thomas Cook, and AA Guides.

17 thoughts on “Our Guide to the Best Harbour and Ocean Swimming Pools in Sydney”

  1. your blogs is really interesting and very informative. The image of Sydney is like an amazing picture of haven. The harbour and ocean is looking very beautiful. I want to swim in the given swimming pool. Hope I will enjoy lot. thanks for sharing

  2. I always loved the salt water baths at the Entrance on the Central Coast. Brings back some amazing memories. Living in Canada now, they really are so far away. They were brilliant in the summer time. Always surprised how full they were, even when it got a little colder!

  3. I do remember those too. Yes, it’s always great to see that Sydneysiders don’t take these things for granted. We were so pleased to see the beaches and pools, and the Bondi to Bronte walking track, busy with locals when we recently went back – and it was winter too.

  4. Hi Therese – no problem. It was a delight to discover your blog. I have so many wonderful memories of swimming Sydney’s swimming pools and yet it’s something I haven’t done for years, so it was lovely to explore your blog and reminisce. Thanks for dropping by!

  5. Thanks for the link to your new blog, Sarah. Just quickly checked it out – had to leave, made me homesick – but looks lovely! But only 6.8 for Dawn Fraser?! It was our local pool for many years (BTW, I also worked with Dawn for years – that didn’t look like her profile, but definitely a doppelganger!) and generally only got a little murky after rain. However, they used to close it for 3 days after heavy rain when there was a risk of pollution from stormwater drains seeping into the harbour. Thanks for dropping by!

  6. Thanks very much Lara and Terence for the mention of my blog on this story about Sydney’s harbour and ocean pools. Just to let you know I have moved my blog over to WordPress and you can now find it at: http://swimmingpoolstories.com.au/ with a new post today on: ‘Swimming with Peter, the porpoise of Petersham Pool’.

    Happy swimming and travelling, Therese

  7. The Bronte Baths sound incredible! Actually, all of these harborside swimming pools sound awesome. I had never heard of them and loved reading your post to explore all the different pools and what they’re like.

  8. Hi Brooke – they are all very special actually. The harbour/oceanside swimming pools are one of the things that really makes Sydney special – and something I really miss. So many happy summer memories of afternoons at the Dawn Fraser Swimming Pool. Nice.

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