The Memory Pool: Australian stories of summer, sun and swimming

by Therese Spruhan

Overview

Swimming is a central part of most Australian childhoods. We idealise beaches and surf, but for many kids the local pool—whether it’s an ocean, tidal, or a chlorinated pool—is where they pass summer days. Pools are places of imagination, daring, belonging, freedom, friendship and romance. For some they are places of hard-core training. This delightful, nostalgic anthology brings together reflections and recollections about the swimming pools of childhood from a range of Australians of diverse ages and backgrounds, well-known and not-so-famous, including Trent Dalton, Leah Purcell, Shane Gould, Bryan Brown, and Merrick Watts. Evocative, funny, and sometimes bittersweet, almost 30 people remember the pools that shaped their childhoods. Everyone who has ever dived into their local Olympic pool, bush waterhole, or saltwater baths will want to submerge themselves in this beautiful book.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781742236582
Publisher:	UNSW Press
Publication date:	02/01/2020
Pages:	272
Product dimensions:	5.25(w) x 8.25(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Therese Spruhan is a Sydney-based photographer, journalist, freelance writer, and swimmer who blogs about pools and swimming.

Table of Contents

Suburban pools

TRENT DALTON: Sprinting to the Sandgate swimming

pool 3

YUSRA METWALLY: Becoming an Auburn water baby 13

BRYAN BROWN: Bumping into life at Bankstown Baths 21

TESS LEA: Daydreaming underwater at the Parap Pool 26

Bay pools

MICK THOMAS: Everyone was welcome in Geelong 41

TONY DOHERTY: Captured in cool green wonder 47

JOHN MCSWEENEY: Showing off at Brighton Baths 54

THERESE SPRUHAN: Embracing the glorious king tide 61

Sea pools

LIZZIE BUCKMASTER DOVE: Falling in love with the

Blue Pool 77

ASHLEY HAY: Reflections on the water at Austinmer 81

RICHARD CHMIELEWSKI: Diving for catches in Adelaide 86

LINDA KENNEDY: Living it up at the Hollywood Pool 94

Building pools

DAVID BARTLETT: Endless games in the backyard 105

KIM METTAM: Plunging into beauty in Perth 112

LILY SISA: Dreaming big in Lightning Ridge 122

MERV KNOWLES: A bonzer brother at Manuka 133

Historic pools

ELLEN CONNOR: The campaign to save Fitzroy Pool 143

DIANE VUKELIC: Toasting a Swan River icon 152

JO-ANNE LARTER: A water-lover in Launceston 160

DIANE FINGLETON: Escaping to the Spring Hill Baths 166

Champions of the pool

PRIYA COOPER: From Kalamunda to the Paralympics 175

SHANE GOULD: Learning about life at Pymble 182

DANIEL KOWALSKI: From little pools big champions

grow 188

LAURIE LAWRENCE: Smashing records in Townsville 195

Country pools

LEAH PURCELL: Dancing in the water at Murgon 205

JAN CORNALL: Wrestling with boys in Rochester 211

LEE FONTANINI: Growing up at Fonty’s Pool 218

MERRICK WATTS: Disneyland in Broken Hill 225

Editorial Reviews

'A joyful, moving, nostalgic and original take at what it means to be Australian. Dive in!' — Robert Drewe

‘These immersive stories remind us that the swimming pool is not just the place we first learn to sink or swim. It’s a space of respite and renewal, playtime and pilgrimage, limerence and liminality, community and connection. Dive in – go on – I double dare you.’ — Sian Prior

‘Crisscrossing the nation, spanning generations and histories, these stories celebrate the joy and freedom of being a body in water. Read it while beside your favourite beach or pool, or read it and be transported there.’ — Bernadette Brennan

‘These immersive stories remind us that the swimming pool is not just the place we first learn to sink or swim. It’s a space of respite and renewal, playtime and pilgrimage, limerence and liminality, community and connection. Dive in – go on - I double dare you’. — Sian Prior, lap swimmer and author of ‘Shy: a memoir’ (Text Publishing).

‘I didn’t go to church as a kid but that was my church – that was my sacred space – a pilgrimage to Sandgate swimming pool.’ — Trent Dalton

'The Memory Pool is a joyful dive into that paradise of Australian childhood, the local swimming pool. In a series of beautifully recalled stories by well-known Australians, it evokes both the sensory bliss of forgetting self in the sights, smells and feel of the swimming pool, and the communal warmth of sharing long summer days simply hanging about at the pool with family and friends. It’s a book for anyone who remembers the sting of chlorine or salt in eyes, the silky feel of water slipping over limbs, and the feel of hot cement under a wet cossie.' — Patti Miller

'How timely is The Memory Pool, an anthology of recollections about swimming and swimming pools?...There are stories by notable Australians that direct the gaze inward, that use the chlorine, hot concrete, icy poles and chips, and all the paraphernalia of summers past to understand teenage loneliness, the need for refuge, sexual beginnings, early injustices and aspirations. This collection passes the tests it sets for itself.' — Phillip Siggins, The Australian

From the Publisher