Search results for: “baths”

  • Ocean Baths and Swimming Pools

    Ocean Baths and Swimming Pools

    I love the part in the “Life of Pi” movie where the hero explains how he came to be called ‘Pi” from the French word for swimming pool (piscine). Swimming pools have always been an obsession with me too: from the rough ones built into the Clarence River bank at South Grafton when I was…

  • Swimming Pools and Happenings in Coogee

    Swimming Pools and Happenings in Coogee

    The Mardi Gras festival for the Gay and Lesbian community (LGBTQ) occurred as usual in March, within stricter guidelines than in the past, because of Covid. Randwick Council showed great initiative in promoting a rainbow coloured walkway on the steps at Coogee Beach. It brightens up the area and makes a statement about supporting stigmatised…

  • Moree and Insistent Voices

    Moree and Insistent Voices

    Moree, with a population of about 8,000, is situated in the north-west of NSW on the Mehi River and at the junction of the Gwydir and Newell Highways. It is famous for its Artesian Spa waters, which were discovered accidentally in 1895 when a bore was sunk in search of irrigation waters. Instead, mineral water…

  • John Cade and Australia’s Greatest Mental Health Story

    John Cade and Australia’s Greatest Mental Health Story

    John Cade wrote in 1979: “Depressive illness is the most painful illness known to man, equalling or exceeding even the most exquisite physical agony. The patient is inconsolably despairing, often guilt-ridden, having committed, they imagine, unforgiveable sins — completely immersed in the internal world of misery and utter loneliness. There is no pleasure in living,…

  • 5 things about Coogee

    5 things about Coogee

    We live at the northern end of the beach in Coogee. This was once the “poor cousin” side of Coogee Bay, with dilapidated buildings and a rusting dome on top of the Coogee Palace. It’s now a favorite place to dip and swim for young and old alike. At high tide on these early summer…

  • A Guest Post by Ian Wells

    A Happy Childhood … by the beach Memories of Freedom and Security As a kid, I lived in a treasured place and time. It was the forties and fifties in Brighton-le-Sands. Life was simpler then. Kids could—and did—play outside all day. The crime rate was lower, we were happy with simple things, and only came…

  • Lambs in Spring

    Lambs in Spring

    Lambs in Spring The humid scorching heat of the sub-tropical climate engulfed us; the sun’s rays tore at our skin with ruthless intensity and sent us kids scurrying towards water, even if it was only to the hose in the back or front yard. Sometimes Mum would pile us into the jeep and head for…

  • Water Memories

    Water Memories

    My very first water experience is in my mother’s womb. I’m safe, secure, warm. I swim, mermaid-like, do somersaults and swallow the magic fluid. I imagine that I’ll never leave this watery place. At Waterview the humid scorching air engulfs us; the heat, ruthless, tears at our skin and sends us kids scurrying towards water.…