A place like no other.
Formally established in 1876, the McIver’s Ladies Baths is the only outdoor ocean swimming venue in continuous use, specifically reserved for women and children (boys up to 13) in the Southern Hemisphere. Our members, and the volunteer Executive Committee of the Randwick & Coogee Ladies Swimming Association Inc. (R&CLSA Inc.) founded in 1922, are committed to ensuring that the Baths remain a safe and welcoming place for women and children to bathe, relax, and learn swimming and water safety skills.
Koojay.
Coogee is a word derived from the Dharug language (“Koojay” or “Koo-jah”), meaning “the smell of seaweed drying.” Seaweed sometimes still washes up on the shores of Coogee Beach, creating a distinctive smell. We acknowledge the traditional owners of the land, the Muru-Ora-Dial people of the Eora Nation.
Dharug is spoken by people of the Eora nation. Within this nation there were many different clan groups, including the Bidjigal and Gadigal people who lived in and around the Coogee area. There are indications that according to the tradition of the local people, the northern end of Coogee beach had been set aside for men's business and the southern end was reserved for women’s business.
Prior to colonisation, this site had long been a bathing area and birthing place for women of the local Aboriginal people. It has sacred significance for many Aboriginal women who return to this place, as well as many others who honour traditional ways.
We pay our respects to the traditional custodians of this land and to Elders past and present.
“Because there's nothing more beautiful than the way the ocean refuses to stop kissing the shoreline, no matter how many times it's sent away.”
The 1800s-early 1900s.
The Baths, then a naturally occurring swimming site, were used by female colonists since the 1830s. Up until this point, women in the colony were restricted in their use of men’s pools in Sydney, being limited to certain days and hours of the day. Due to the popularity of the Baths as a private and sheltered rock pool, the Randwick Council developed the Baths, excavating them to an appropriate depth and encasing the walls in concrete. In 1876, the Baths were officially opened as a private place for women to bathe. When Randwick Council’s lease expired in 1901, entry was a penny, with a further penny for the hire of a towel and costume.
Robert and Rose McIver began operating the Ladies Baths in 1918, and by 1922 the McIver family had developed the Baths into their present form. Rose McIver, together with Bella O’Keefe, Mina Wylie and members of the Mealing and Wickham families, had significant roles in the establishment of the Randwick and Coogee Ladies Amateur Swimming Club. Like Fanny & Mina, Rose was not permitted to swim or train with men at other local swimming venues. The R&CLASC managed the Baths for decades, and fostered the birth of the ‘Thursday Married Ladies Club,’ (now known as the Thursday Ladies), which still meets each Thursday for a swim & lunch at the Baths.
The Baths have a historical association with the rise of competitive swimming in NSW. Women were not encouraged to participate in sport in the early 1900s, nor were they permitted to swim with or compete against men. Fanny Durack and Mina Wylie trained at the McIver’s Ladies Baths to develop their swimming skills, going on to win gold and silver medals at the 1912 Olympic Games (the first games that allowed women to compete in swimming).
1922-2022.
Rose McIver formed the Randwick & Coogee Ladies Amateur Swimming Club in 1922 which managed the Baths until 2017, when the swimming club was dissolved. The Randwick & Coogee Ladies Swimming Association Inc. (R&CLSA Inc.) have managed the facility since 2017. The R&CLASC managed the Baths for decades, and fostered the birth of the ‘Thursday Married Ladies Club,’ (now known as the Thursday Ladies), which still meets each Thursday for a swim and lunch at the Baths. Free swimming lessons for women and children have been provided since the 1920s.
In 1946 Randwick Council applied to the Minister for Lands to have the Baths available to the public for mixed bathing. The application was denied following objections from the proprietors of Wylies Baths (who feared a loss of patrons) and the Mother Superior of the Brigidine Convent at Randwick, stating nuns at her convent, vacationing nuns, and the 100 boarders at the Brigidine School would not be able to visit the Baths if they were opened for mixed bathing.
In 1947, the Coogee-Randwick Ratepayers Association complained that the McIvers Ladies Baths were a disgrace and an eyesore and urged that they be repaired or demolished. Robert McIver begged for help fixing the stairs. In the 70s, a fence was erected around the premises for privacy reasons. The McIver’s Ladies Baths were renovated in 1977. After vandals burned down the Clubhouse in the 1980s, the Council agreed to rebuild it.
Also in the 1980s, the R&CLSAC presented a prize to each child who learnt to swim at its free Saturday morning swimming classes. However, the Club struggled to get needed repairs, the pool leaked badly and the pool had to be closed often.
The pool was listed on the National Trust’s Heritage Register in 1994. The same year, the Baths took legal action at the Anti Discrimination Board of NSW regarding its women and children only policy. The Ladies Baths won the case, arguing it was the only place women of certain religious beliefs or disabilities could comfortably bathe. In 1995, the McIver’s Ladies Baths was granted an exemption under the Anti-Discrimination Act 1977, cementing its purpose as a women’s only area and reflecting the high regard the female community continues to have for this site.
A lease was granted to the R&CLSC Inc. on 31 December 2003 for a period of 14 years, and was up for renewal on 30 December 2017. R&CLSA Inc. was granted a one year sub-licence in December 2017, and annually through to 2022.
2022-present.
The Baths are managed by the Randwick and Coogee Ladies Swimming Association Incorporated (R&CLSA Inc.), under a sub-license with the Randwick City Council for the period 2023 to 2025. The Randwick City Council Bushcare and Volunteers maintains the natural environment surrounding the Baths .
In 2022, Bronwen Morgan and Beth Goldblatt published an article concerning two disputes that occurred between 2020-22 at the Coogee Women’s Pool. One contest concerned the governance of the pool by its then Management Committee related to differing conceptions of the ethos of the pool and the nature of its custodianship. The other concerned the exclusion of trans women from the pool over the definition of ‘women’ allowed access to the facility. The article examines these disputes and the contests they generated in exploring when and how forms of law encourage or undermine relational regulation in the context of community controlled public space.
Read Contested Common Space, Regulation and Inclusion at the Coogee Women’s Pool.
