Coogee Beach Audio Guide

Coogee Beach: what does the audio guide cover?

1. 01

   Welcome to Coogee Beach

   Welcome to Coogee Beach, on the coast in Sydney's eastern suburbs. It is a wide curve of white sand, crystal-clear water and generous green parks, and it has a reputation for being a little more laid-back than its famous neighbour, Bondi. This guide tells the story of the beach and the seaside neighbourhood around it, from its odd name to its Victorian-era holiday crowds and its ocean pools. Coogee has been a place people come to play for a very long time. Over the next few stops you will meet a name that does not sound like a compliment, a tram line that changed everything, a grand seaside building that has lived several lives, and a story about a shark that still gets told today. So take a moment and look along the sand. The water is in front of you, the parks sit behind, and at the far end of the beach there are rock pools that are among the oldest swimming spots in the city. Everything we cover has left some trace in the place you are standing in now.

2. 02

   A Name That Smells of the Sea

   Let's begin with the name, because it has a surprising meaning. Coogee is said to come from an Aboriginal word, koojah, which means a bad smell, or a stinking place. In 1950 the anthropologist Frederick McCarthy recorded alternative spellings, Kuji and Kudji, with a meaning along the lines of bad generally, or stinking. Before you wrinkle your nose, the explanation is wonderfully down to earth. The area was so called because of the pungent smell of seaweed that regularly washed up on the beach and dried in the sun. On some days, you may still catch a hint of that same seaweed on the shoreline. So a name that sounds unflattering was really a plain observation by people who knew this coast closely. It is a good reminder that place names often record what people noticed first, long before a place became a postcard.

3. 03

   Trams, Picnics and Ocean Pools

   Coogee's days as a seaside resort began in the nineteenth century. After a road was completed through Randwick in the late 1850s, more visitors started arriving. In 1860, Randwick Council created a park at the northern end of the beach, and picnics and cricket matches became regular weekend events. On the sand, shell collecting was all the rage, and fossicking along the shore was seen as a particularly suitable outdoor pastime for ladies. The council also established Sydney's first ocean pool at Coogee in the 1860s, and ocean pools went on to become an enduring feature of many of the city's beaches. Three of Coogee's pools sit at the southern end of the beach. Steps from Grant Reserve lead down to McIver Baths, the last ocean pool in Australia reserved for women and children only. Wylie's Baths has an elevated timber deck, and the Ross Jones Memorial Pool sits beside the surf lifesaving club, bordered by sandcastle-like concrete turrets. Then came the electric tram in 1902, and Coogee's popularity as a seaside resort was guaranteed. The line branched off at Darley Road in Randwick, ran down King Street, then followed Perouse Road, Carr Street and Arden Street to end in a balloon loop in Dolphin Street, right by the beach. By 1905 there were even moonlight excursions. The last tram ran to Coogee in October 1960, when buses had taken over.

4. 04

   The Palace, the Pier and the Shark's Arm

   Coogee's seafront has long attracted showpiece buildings. The Coogee Palace Aquarium, designed by the Sydney-born architect and painter John Smedley, opened on Dolphin Street in 1887, a few years after the first steam trams reached Coogee. In 1924, construction started on an English seaside style amusement pier at the beach. The building with the dome did not have an easy life. In June 1945 a strong storm caused its large dome to collapse. It was later rebuilt and converted into restaurants and bars, and in August 2014 it reopened as the Coogee Pavilion after a renovation worth more than 30 million dollars. Today it houses a fine-dining restaurant, a family-friendly bistro and a rooftop bar, inside the historic former swimming baths and aquarium. The aquarium is also the setting for one of Coogee's most infamous episodes. On Anzac Day in 1935, a shark held there regurgitated a man's tattooed arm. The arm belonged to a missing person, James Smith, who was identified by the tattoo. Because the arm had been cut off, it led to a murder investigation. Nobody was ever convicted. Another local criminal, Reginald Holmes, was found shot in a car near the Sydney Harbour Bridge just hours before the inquest into Smith's death was due to start. A little further along, the Coogee Bay Hotel is a pub with roots in the 1870s, and its building began life as a school. It has had a long and lively reputation ever since.

5. 05

   Before You Head Off

   Coogee has a few more stories hiding in plain sight. In the early days of European settlement the area flourished as a paradise for market gardeners, and by the late nineteenth century wealthy Sydney residents were building large mansions by the sea. Some older dwellings survive. One called Oceanview, built by the Wirth's Circus family, still stands at the corner of Alison Road, Arden Street and Beach Street. There is a small curiosity just north of the beach, too. In January 2003 someone noticed that one of the fence rails at Dolphin Point, seen from a particular angle and distance, resembled a veiled woman. The rail was vandalised within days and later replaced, so the image is gone. Before you move on, look at how the beach, the pools, the parks and the old seafront buildings fit together. Then ask yourself which of them has changed the least since the days of shell collecting and cricket picnics.