The baths themselves are lovely to swim in and wisely divided into a lap pool and large, square, do-what-you-want pool. Given the generally older crowd, the latter is usually sedate.
It's advisable, however, to know when they're being cleaned, otherwise you're greeted by this:
Beside the baths on the northern end is a strange little structure, which I presume is a sort of pump-house but almost looks like a downsized nuclear bunker. Cute but sinister:
It's a ridiculous notion, but then I found this online:
On the night of 7 June 1942, a shell from a Japanese submarine shattered against the sea wall just north of the Newcastle Ocean Baths, apparently in an attempt to put a search light there out of action. Within 15 minutes, the submarine fired eight star shells and 26 high explosive shells before breaking off and submerging under fire from Fort Scratchley. No-one was killed.
Goodness!
One disquieting thing about swimming in Newcastle – at the baths or any of the beaches – is the ever-present queue of tankers on the horizon. It's a maritime traffic jam that seemingly has no end.
This was a close as my camera could zoom in (if you click to enlarge the baths photos above and then squint you can just barely see them in the background):
They're presumably all waiting to be filled to the brim with lots of shiny new coal, or perhaps to unload more consignments of "authentic" boomerangs from China – who can say?
On this last visit, I counted 23.
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