Critical Mass

Throughout the nineteenth century, the Cooks River was popular with swimmers; Sydney Long's painting, By Tranquil Waters, 1894, records the scene at its junction with Wolli Creek. Newspaper correspondents frequently complained about the impossibility of taking ladies down to the river because 'from Starkey's Corner (Hurlstone Park) to Tempe there could be counted 30 to 40 men and boys openly bathing in a perfectly nude state, some standing on projecting rocks without the slightest show of concealment'. The archival photo from above was the Steel Park River Patrol Life Savers Club. By this time there were a more balanced collection of bathers including Annette Kellerman, who used to swim at undercliffe. Standing here across the rover is the site of the former river life savers club.