Williamstown Sea Baths (notes)

Williamstown History Sep 16, 2013

At the moment these are just notes. Hopefully I’ll come back later and make them into a proper article.

I went for a walk along Williamstown Beach and right at the end of the stroll, I spotted this in the water opposite Sirens (the West end of Sirens, to be precise):

The round one looked like rock or metal and was cleanly cut with a hole in it, right in the middle. Could it be something to do with the (long-vanished) old Sea Baths?

Here’s a great photo of the Sea Baths. Note they are off-shore:

Source: http://handle.slv.vic.gov.au/10381/24981

According to [1] “Bunbury’s and Lillington’s Baths were replaced by the Williamstown Baths, which were the largest in Port Phillip Bay in 1888. The baths were located half way between Forster and Gardens Streets, with a promenade leading to a bathing structure that had two enclosures in 1892” (emphasis mine)

It then adds “A bandstand was added sometime after 1904” and “Dressing sheds were added in the 1930’s and are now used as Sirens Restaurant … The baths were destroyed in a ferocious storm in 1934, and bathing patterns changed to reflect a more open acceptance of mixed sea bathing … A dressing pavilion, saltwater swimming pool and Lifesaving clubrooms were added around 1935”

Here’s a view using Google Earth as it looks today (with their new 3D buildings showing, nice!)

The (picture) left street -coming at us – is Foster and the right one is Gardens. My attention was drawn to the curved (rock rubble?) structure off shore and near the end of Gardens St. Could it be the foundations of the original baths? Some thoughts:

1) The “curved rock rubble” is not “halfway” between the two streets at all. In fact the sea bed is relatively clear halfway, so I’m wondering if that was a very approximate location given in [1]

2) The round object in my photo is roughly in the middle of the above rock rubble, but right near the shore.

Time for some more research and questions of FB.