2 months ago
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Ocean pools are NSW’s greatest asset. If you’re from here, you may not realise they’re an anomaly for the rest of Australia. More than 100 dot the NSW coastline, allowing us to bathe in beautiful saltwater without getting dunked (or, worse, bitten by a shark). Carved out of the Hawkesbury sandstone that artfully hugs its curves is the grand dame of them all, Bronte.
I have so many treasured memories tied to this body of water. I go there to catch up with people I love, to celebrate, to mark a moment, to begin again. “Meet me at Bronte ocean pool?” Who could say no to that? There is so much life in it every day.
I’ll never forget a morning when a heatwave drove us to Bronte at dawn and I watched the sun rise over the ocean and make the water in the pool slick like liquid metal. The blazing heat reached out from behind the morning clouds, shimmering across the surface.
“Meet me at Bronte ocean pool?” Who could say no to that? asks Zan Rowe, “There is so much life in it every day.”Credit: Zan Rowe
At that time of day it’s all locals, many of them in their senior years, and they look as though they’ve found the tonic to everlasting life. A friend was visiting from Melbourne that time and we floated in the water, not quite believing our luck to be alive in that moment, in this place.
The chain gang: Swimmers at dawn at Bronte pool.Credit: Zan Rowe
One time I wandered down as the tides raged at dusk, braving the laundry churn in the drink and running into mates attempting the same. Laughing and joking around, we let the waves sway us side to side before our mettle was tested and we pulled ourselves up and out. Bronte makes me feel like a kid again.
Rowe with friends at Bronte pool.Credit:
There’s that wonderful path that loops its edge, separating the wild waves from us in the bath where the pool’s edge meets the ocean. I’m not as brave (or foolish) as the teenage boys who hold on to the chain rail, waiting for waves to throw them in as they scream with glee, and then scramble back up to the edge to get sloshed in all over again. I’m in an ocean pool for a reason. Bronte keeps me safe.
I love the meditative gaze of the colosseum seats, looking down to that brilliant blue to see pool lines painted, and watch the lap swimmers, smile at the kids paddling, the friends chatting, and the crab explorers in the far corner.
Down there I look up to that glorious sandstone, its swirling light-yellow golden-brown forever taking my breath away. How is it real?
There is so much life in Bronte pool. I remember a friend jumping off the edge into the bogey hole on a particularly rough day, whooping with glee. He was trying to impress a girlfriend of mine and I immediately felt like we were all teenagers again.
And Bronte is where I go on the first day of every year, waking after hosting a big New Year’s Eve concert at the Sydney Opera House and jumping in that pool, to start the year right. The way I hope to continue it, with grace and gratitude.
The ABC’s New Year broadcast hosts Zan Rowe, Charlie Pickering and Concetta Caristo. Rowe’s first day of business for the new year is a swim at Bronte.Credit: ABC
It was Bronte where I had my first kiss with the boy I’d move to Sydney for. I remember the sounds of the waves, my eyes crinkled at the sun’s glare as a new chapter began. And it was the place I went for a dawn dip right after another asked me to marry him. Start again.
We moved back to my hometown of Melbourne together but we always come back to Bronte. I become a tourist in my old town, booking rentals nearby so I can wake with the locals and swim first thing. Dream of living right by it. Hear it, see it, smell it, be in Bronte. Forever enthralled by her endless gifts.
Zan Rowe is a radio and television presenter and host of the Take 5 podcast and ABC TV show.
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