High-speed features of the packed lagoon slowed by time, silt and public attitudes

THESE days the only speedboats you will see on Narrabeen Lagoon are scale models but 60 years ago full-sized speedboats were a familiar sight.

The Dolphin Water Ski Club at Narrabeen Lagoon in the mid-to late 1950s

THESE days the only speedboats you will see on Narrabeen Lagoon are scale models but 60 years ago full-sized speedboats were a familiar sight there and the skiers even had their own clubhouse.

Dolphin Water Ski Club is believed to have been started in the early 1950s.

The clubhouse at Middle Creek Reserve was not built until 1954, by which time the club had about 30 members.

It was a non-profit organisation and much of the work building the clubhouse was done by members.

Middle Creek Reserve in 2015

The club, affiliated with the NSW Water Skiing Association, appears to have obtained a licence to operate on the lagoon from the Maritime Services Board, although it was not without its opponents. Some residents of Elanora Heights and some councillors on Warringah Council were opposed to the club and complained about the noise of the speedboats’ powerful engines.

Others complained that the speedboats represented a danger to other users of the lagoon, including swimmers, rowers and sailors.

But the club raised money for various organisations, such as Torch Bearers for Legacy in 1960, by staging water skiing exhibitions.

Throughout the 1960s the council tried to limit the number of speedboats and eventually succeeded in convincing the Maritime Services Board to introduce a speed limit of 8 knots, which effectively killed the sport on the lagoon.

In recent years the council has spent a lot of money upgrading Middle Creek Reserve as part of the Narrabeen Lagoon Multi-Use Trail.