Centenary celebrations of McIver’s Ladies Baths acknowledge Miley family women

March 13, 2023

Karen Sweaney

The McIver's Ladies Baths, located in Sydney’s eastern suburb Coogee, and Australia's only coastal pool to remain strictly the domain of females and children, are celebrating their centenary in 2023. It is a celebration of the Swimming Club and Randwick Council working together with the same intention - that the Baths exist primarily to connect, women, swimming and safety/privacy.

It is said that the site of the McIver’s Ladies Baths was once used as a birthing place for the local Bidjigal and Cadigal women prior to colonisation.

Randwick Council has been involved in the site that is now ‘McIver’s Ladies Baths’ since the sheltered rockpool site was first used for female swimmers, as recorded in the 1830s. Council developed the Baths, excavating them to a safe swimmable depth and encasing the walls in concrete.

Celebrations held on 12th March 2023 at McIver’s Ladies Baths acknowledged the Miley family - one of the families who for four generations swam at the Baths and volunteered their time and skills to nurture the swimming community and ensure the Baths remain open 365 days of the year.

The March event was well timed - falling within Women's History Month - an annual declared month that highlights the contributions of women to events in history and contemporary society. It is celebrated during March in Australia, the United States and the United Kingdom.

The 12th March celebration at the Baths commenced with Mary Goslett, Vice President of Randwick & Coogee Ladies Swimming Association Inc. (R&CLSA Inc) delivering an Acknowledgement of Country.

Jeanette McHugh - the first NSW woman elected to the Australian Parliament, for Phillip electorate also spoke at the event during which she acknowledged the posthumous award of Life Membership to Patricia “Pat” Miley.

Miley family member representative, Margaret Wilkinson, also spoke on behalf of the family who were well represented on the day. Wilkinson acknowledged Pat Miley along with Pat's sisters Betty, Rose and Nancy, and sister-in-law 'Babs' who volunteered for many years to enrich the swimming community at the Baths, by teaching swimming to women and children and/or commiting to the organisaton of the ongoing swimming competitions.

The original Swimming Club ran for decades, providing lessons for non-swimmers and regular races for generations of the local families for whom the Baths were both a sporting and a social venue. The Club raised money (selling toffees and running raffles) to pay for prizes and medals for the children and for the women swimmers, some of whom then competed successfully in Eastern Suburbs Swimming competitions.

The 12th March celebration also included the dedication of a plaque, presented by Jeanette McHugh, installed at ‘The Miley Steps’ as a tribute to the family’s contributions. At one stage there were 27 members of the Miley family who regularly competed in the swimming races on Saturday mornings, and placing all of the family on these steps was a safety measure that enabled everyone to keep an eye on each other.

Some notable background of McIver’s Ladies Baths

In 1876, the Baths were officially opened as a private place for women to bathe and in 1901, entry was a penny, with a further penny for the hire of a towel and costume.

In 1918, Robert and Rose McIver began operating the Ladies Baths and by 1922 the McIver family had developed the Baths into their present form, thus McIver’s Ladies Baths.

In 1923 a group of local women and men came together to form the Randwick and Coogee Ladies Swimming Club to manage the baths and to encourage women to swim - in safety and privacy. The Minutes of the inaugural meeting of the Club have been preserved in handwritten notes which will go on display at the HERSTORY exhibition planned to take place at the Bowen Library during the month of August this year. The Swimming Club at McIver’s predates the Bondi Icebergs Club.

In 1930s, The Married Ladies Club was formed, at first informally as a social get together at the pool and later as an institution, so well-known for its support of women, that it is the subject of several stories in the book ‘The Women’s Pool’, published in 2021 (developed as part of the centenary celebration of McIver’s Ladies Baths). The Thursday Married Ladies Club still meets for lunch on Thursdays in the Club House at the Baths.

1970s, installation of the first privacy walls around the pool

1980s, ongoing swimming lessons and competitions for hundreds of children

1995, The site was granted an exemption under the Anti-Discrimination Act 1977

1997, Baths renovated by the Council

2011, listed on the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 18th November 2011

Colourful history of The Baths:

(i) Mina Wylie, the local Coogee girl whose family ran Wylie’s baths, trained at McIver’s when she was unable to train at the family pool when men were swimming - mixed bathing was not socially acceptable. She won a Silver medal at the Swedish Olympics in 1912 - the first Olympics to allow women swimmers to compete. She was a founding member of the Randwick and Coogee Ladies Swimming Club and taught swimming for there for many years.

(ii) Two significant public challenges to the women-only status of the pool

1946 - an application to have the baths opened for mixed bathing was rejected with the Coogee Brigidine nuns arguing that it would prevent the nuns and boarders at their school from having a safe place to swim.
1995 - A hard fought battle that ended in the Equal Opportunity Tribunal and resulted in a permanent exemption from the NSW Anti-Discrimination Act 1977, allowing the Baths to be reserved for women, girls and boys up to the age of 13.

(iii) In the early years, the Baths were vandalised several times. Each time Randwick Council supported the Club to rebuild and in the 1970s agreed to install the first high privacy wall to keep out the men who ‘loitered’ to see the women in their swimsuits. Randwick Council also built a dedicated sun-bathing area, screened from the public.

(iv) 1977 – Randwick Council rebuilt the clubhouse after it was (suspiciously) burned down.

(v) The ladies who looked after the baths, collected the entry fee and cleaned the change rooms had to deal with plastic bags of dog poo being thrown into the pool, graffiti on the walls, and once, a two piece lounge deposited overnight in the pool.

(vi) The Baths are now sub-licensed to the R&CLSA Inc (Incorporated in 2003) with a current three (3) year licence. The pool, the grounds and the buildings are maintained by Council.

(vii) The renowned and valued natural environment is nurtured by Randwick Council Bushcare and pool volunteers.

(With thanks to Randwick & Coogee Ladies Swimming Association Inc. (R&CLSA Inc) for background information)

Image top. Credt: Karen Sweaney; image above Credit: McIver’s Ladies Baths

About the author

Karen Sweaney

Co-founder and Editor, Australasian Leisure Management

Artist, geoscientist and specialist writer on the leisure industry, Karen Sweaney is Editor and co-founder of Australasian Leisure Management.

Based in Sydney, Australia, her specific areas of interest include the arts, entertainment, the environment, fitness, tourism and wellness.

She has degrees in Fine Arts from the University of Sydney and Geological Oceanography from UNSW.

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