Newport Rock Baths, as they were called then, were officially opened in February 1926. The Sydney Morning Herald of 1st Feb of that year reported on the carnival to mark their opening to the public. The article says that the pool is 37 feet long, but must have been an error, since the races on the day were all 37 yards or 75 yards and the pool is now supposed to be 50m long, though 37yards is only 33m and looking at the pool, that makes more sense.

The same article also says that the ocean pool at Newport was the seventh to be built in what was then Warringah Shire, following Harbord (now Freshwater), Dee Why, Collaroy, Mona Vale, Avalon and Palm Beach.

On the morning of my visit, I got up at around 04:30AM to travel about an hour and 10 mins from my home to the beach. I arrived about 45 mins before sunrise, but colour was already appearing in the eastern sky with a nice layer of high cloud starting to get lit from the as yet unrisen sun.

Adjusting for the rapidly changing light conditions, I brought the aperture down to f/13 for this sequence. The 5 exposures I used for this image ranged between 1/10s to 1/4s at f/13 ISO100.

Dotted along the coastline and harbour’s edge, they are a spectacular place to swim and many are more than 100 years old.

This collection brings together 4 years of early mornings getting to the locations pre-dawn to capture these unique spaces in their best light. The moods of the pools change with weather, season and time of day and this collection attempts to capture them in their many moods.