The push for Adelaide’s only seaside tidal swimming pool

MOVE over Bondi — thousands of locals are calling for a seaside tidal swimming pool to be built on Adelaide’s coast.

MOVE over Bondi — Hallett Cove could become home to Adelaide’s only dedicated seaside swimming pool.

More than 3000 people have backed a push to build the tidal pool south of the Boatshed Cafe, in a bid to allow beachgoers somewhere safe to swim at the rocky cove.

The push was started by Josh Harkness, who recently moved back to Adelaide from Sydney, where he regularly used the sea pools along the coast.

He said Hallett Cove was “a shark haven”, and a pool would give locals somewhere safe to swim without worrying about attacks, or awkwardly negotiating dozens of rocks in the water.

“It’s built into the environment and as the tide comes in, it fills the pool with water and as it goes out, the water stays in the structure, creating an area for people to swim safely,” the Hallett Cove man said.

Among Australia’s sea pools drawing loads of regular swimmers is the famous home of the Icebergs swimming club at Bondi Beach.

Bondi Beach Icebergs pool in Sydney, NSW.

Mr Harkness, 28, was pleased that within a month of starting his online petition, more than 3000 people had backed the idea.

‘I didn’t realise it would go off so quickly,” the hotel manager said.

“Adelaide needs sea pools — they only one we have in SA is at Edithburgh.”

The Edithburgh tidal pool at low tide.

The campaigner plans to meet with Bright state Liberal MP David Speirs once he’s gathered extra signatures on his petition, and has also contacted the State Government about the idea.

Marion deputy mayor Janet Byram supported a move to investigate the project, after seeing how popular seapools were when she too, lived in Sydny.

“It’s always been something that’s in my mind,” Cr Byram said.

“The sea pools in Sydney are fantastic — they’re well used and they’re a really good community thing.”

Cr Byram said a pool might inadvertently address locals’ desire to see sand return to the beach, allowing them to swim in their local cove instead of having to drive further away.

“Instead of spending a lot of money bringing sand onto our beaches, why can’t we look at a sea pool as an alternative?” she said.

However, Marion Council had other priorities to focus on first, such as new international-standard bike track at O’Halloran Hill, and a $20 million upgrade of Mitchell Park Sports and Community Centre.

Cr Byram was unsure how much a sea pool would cost, and doubted Sydney councils could shed any light on the matter, because “a lot have been there 100 years”. Edithburgh’s tidal pool, too, was built around the 1930s.

Carol Bound, a co-owner of the Boatshed Cafe, said many of her customers had been talking about the idea and were keen to see it come to fruition.

“It will bring extra people to the area for sure, because people can’t swim at the moment,” Ms Bound said.

“My only concern would be carparking because there’s not a lot here.”

Neither Bright MP David Speirs, who will run for the Liberal party in the new seat of Black, nor Labor candidate Randall Wilson, responded before presstime.

Greens candidate Dami Barnes said the idea should be investigated, although there were important environmental considerations.

“Any environmental impact assessment would need to take into account the impacts on local biodiversity as well as the natural processes by which sand moves along the coastline.”

There used to be an open-air salt-water pool at Henley Beach in the 1970s.

Sign the petition HERE.