Fairlight: The rock pool with a million-dollar view down the harbour

Most of the peninsula’s ocean beaches have rock pools, and some of the longer beaches have one at each end, but there’s also one rock pool in an enclosed local waterway – at Fairlight in North Harbour.

Fairlight Beach in the early 1900s, before any pools were built. Picture Northern Beaches Library

Most of the peninsula’s ocean beaches have rock pools, and some of the longer beaches have one at each end, but there’s also one rock pool in an enclosed local waterway – at Fairlight in North Harbour.

All the other swimming pools in enclosed local waterways – North Harbour, Middle Harbour and Pittwater – are referred to as tidal pools or enclosures, in which swimmers and sharks are separated by steel bars or mesh.

The only other rock pool in Port Jackson is the MacCallum Pool at Cremorne.

But Fairlight’s first rock pool was comprised not of solid rock and concrete but of large loose stones piled up to form a wall that separated bathers from sharks, while the rear “wall” of the pool was the small sandy beach.

Fairlight Beach and rock pool. Picture Manly Daily

Manly Council first began discussing a rock pool at Fairlight in 1919 but by 1922 talk had turned to building a tidal pool instead, urged on by the Manly Citizens Association, which told the council that it would contribute half of the expected cost of £300 it thought necessary to enclose an area fronting the beach at Fairlight with loose rocks and by blasting rocks at either end of the beach.

In August 1922, Manly Council sought tenders to build a swimming enclosure at Fairlight, which by then was estimated to cost more than £550, but no tenders were received.

The council sought tenders again in February 1923 and this time a tender was received from a Mr J. C. Trotter for £725 – well above the £450 that the council’s engineer had estimated the work would cost.

Fairlight rock pool. Picture Manly Daily

Instead, the council asked local builder P. E. Olsen construct the pool, although the cost of it is unknown, and it sought and obtained a lease from the Sydney Harbour Trust Commissioners of an area of 525 square metres.

The pool was constructed using large stones loosely piled on top of each other to form a wall that stretched from the small rock platforms east and west of the small beach at Fairlight.

Unfortunately no photos of the pool are known to exist.

The pool was finished by November 1923 but Manly Council was immediately forced to prevent the Metropolitan Water, Sewerage and Drainage Board installing a sewage overflow pipe across the beach that would have emptied its contents into the new pool.

When the Board’s engineer inspected the site, he reported that it was no wonder the council was opposed to the plan, which was quickly shelved.

Fairlight Beach and rock pool. Picture Manly Daily

Less than a year after the pool was built, the council decided it wasn’t large enough.

The council’s engineer said the enclosure could be enlarged at a cost of £100 by building a new wall of loosely-piled stones further out than the existing wall but the newly-formed Fairlight Improvement Association believed the money would be better spent building a new pool on the rock shelf at the eastern end of the beach – this time of rock and concrete.

The Association said it would be prepared to contribute to the cost of building a rock pool, so the council applied to the Sydney Harbour Trust Commissioners for a lease of 875 square metres and instructed the council’s engineer to prepare plans for the new pool.

Fairlight rock pool in the 1970s. Picture Northern Beaches Library

In September 1925, tenders were sought for the construction of the new pool and the following month the tender from Messrs Schofield and Brown of £690 was accepted, with the Fairlight Improvement Association agreeing to pay any amount in excess of £600, although it was hoped that local residents would also contribute to the cost.

Work on the new pool began in November 1925 but progress was slower than the council hoped, which the builders said was due to circumstances over which they had no control.

The Fairlight Improvement Association was even keener than the council to see the work completed and by early February 1926 it began planning the official opening of the new pool on Saturday, April 10, only for the opening to be repeatedly delayed.

Fairlight rock pool. Picture Manly Daily

Written into the contract with Messrs Schofield and Brown was a penalty clause that would have seen the contractors penalised £2 a day that the work was behind schedule, although neither the council’s engineer and the Fairlight Improvement Association wanted them penalised.

The new pool was finished in October 1926 – almost a year after construction began – and the official opening wasn’t held until April 9, 1927 – almost a year to the day after the Fairlight Improvement Association’s hoped-for opening day.

In fact, April 9, 1927, was a big day for swimming pools in Manly – the pool at Little Manly was also officially opened that day.

The tidal pool at Little Manly enclosed 929 square metres by a shark-proof fence made of timber piles driven into the bed of the harbour.

Fairlight Beach and rock pool. Picture Manly Daily

At Fairlight, the old pool that was made of loosely-piled stones was left in place and the council retained its lease over the area occupied by the old pool, so there were two pools at Fairlight for a while, although the original pool eventually fell into disrepair until it was no longer shark-proof.

As is often the case, no sooner had the new pool been built than there were calls for it to be enlarged by widening it by 7.6m on the eastern side.

The pool had been built some distance from the cliff on that side, so there was room to widen it.

Fairlight rock pool. Picture Manly Daily

In 1929, the Fairlight Improvement Association urged Manly Council to spend £1000 on improvements in the suburb, including the enlargement of the Fairlight rock pool and the construction of a footpath across the rocks to the pool.

In the meantime, the Fairlight Improvement Association contributed £30 of the £80 cost of building a concrete retaining wall at the back of the beach.

What was also sought by users of the beach and the pool at Fairlight were toilets but they were a long time coming.

In 1947, further calls were made for toilets to be erected near the Fairlight pool but it would be another 14 years before those calls were answered.

Fairlight Beach and rock pool. Picture Manly Daily

In the years following the end of after World War II, shortages of money, materials and manpower prevented toilets or other facilities being built near the Fairlight pool but in the 1950s it was the opposition of local residents that prevented them being built.

The outlet through which water drains from the pool is near the south-western corner of the pool while the intake channel is near the south-eastern corner.

Fresh seawater is drawn into the pool using a pump that is concealed in the cliff face on the eastern side of the pool.

Fairlight rock pool. Picture Manly Daily

In 1949 a wide concrete concourse was laid between the eastern side of the pool and the cliff face for the benefit of bathers and sunbakers.

In 1954 the Maritime Services Board, the successor to the Sydney Harbour Trust, asked Manly Council to remove the remnants of the first pool at Fairlight that by now comprised only loose rocks scattered on the harbour bed.

Throughout the late 1950s, Manly Council planned to erect facilities near the Fairlight pool that would have included toilets, dressing rooms and a kiosk but locals were strongly opposed to it and in the end the council erected a small toilet block in 1961.

Since then, first Manly Council and then Northern Beaches Council have continued to maintain the pool.