Famous Swimmers

Recreational swimming was popular in the first decades of European occupation and grew in popularity in the late 19th century with competitions being held.

Fanny Durack

Fanny Durack (1894 - 1956), was Australia’s first female Olympic medallist when she won a gold medal at the Stockholm Olympics in 1912 for the 100-metre event, another Australian Mina Wylie won the silver medal. She swam at a time when women were not allowed to race at meets if male spectators were present. In fact, large signs were displayed outside baths forbidding men to enter when the women were swimming. Fanny was also hampered by the restrictions on the costumes girls could wear at the time. There were a variety of swimsuits used by the swimmers, many reaching down to the mid-thigh while some were sleeveless. Durack wore the heaviest costume of all – a woollen sleeveless garment with a skirt.

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Annette Kellerman

Annette Kellerman (1886 - 1975), a local who was diagnosed with rickets as a child, Annette's legs necessitated the wearing of painful steel braces and at 6, to strengthen her legs, she learned to swim. By 13 her legs were practically normal and by 15 she mastered all the swimming strokes.

She was a champion swimmer, rocking the fitted one piece bathing costume and was even arrested in 1907 for wearing one that reached to just above her knees. Kellerman went on to star in movies and launched a range of one-piece swimsuits. When Annette moved on to Hollywood, where her first movie, 'Neptune's Daughter', grossed $1,000,000. At the height of her popularity, Annette was arrested on a Boston beach for indecency - she was wearing one of her fitted one-piece costumes. The resulting newspaper headlines and outpouring of public indignation were a death-knell for Victorian attitudes towards women's swimwear. She claimed that her greatest success was in helping free female swimmers from the cumbersome Victorian neck-to-knee costume.

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Dawn Fraser

Dawn Fraser, after whom the Elkington Baths were renamed in the 1960s, grew up in Balmain and initially trained at these Baths. Her first lessons from her big brothers at the baths, Dawn's cousin Ray Miranda a swimming coach introduced Dawn to racing and at the age of eight she competed in her first race a 33yard 'tiny tot' championship. By the age of 12, Dawn was competing successfully against senior girls and women, as well as boys. Harry Gallagher, her coach and friend during her teenage years described her as 'an underprivileged, wild, sickly kid in a fairly sleazy dockside neighbourhood in sydney.' Dawn had long periods of truancy before she finally quit school for good at the age of 14. Although her father insisted she learn a trade, dressmaking, which saw her through many difficult times. She suffered badly from asthma and other respiratory troubles as a child and for a time when she was 12 her family believed that she would have to enter a tuberculosis sanatorium.

At 14, Dawn joined the Balmain Ladies Amateur Swimming Club, and was entered in the Western Suburbs Championships, creating a sensation when she defeated Lorraine Crapp, the Sydney schoolgirl swimming marvel.

Dawn Fraser looking onto the Pool

Dawn Fraser and Shelley Taylor-Smith sitting on the cliffs at White Horse Point, showing where she did most of her training as a youngster.

She is one of Australia's most decorated athletes winning Olympic and Commonwealth Games medals and was the first woman to break the minute for the 100 metre freestyle, a record she held for 16 years. Was the first swimmer ever to win the same event in three consecutive Olympic Games. Held 39 world records, 27 individual and 12 team with 8 Olympic medals, 4 gold, 4 silver. 8 Commonwealth Medals, 6 gold and 2 silver.

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“Dawn Fraser was one of the most iconic and most decorated athletes in Australia sport history while demonstrating the larrikin behaviour to match her ability at the same time. Her record in the pool included eight Olympic medals, six British Empire and Commonwealth gold medals and setting 23 individual world records and 12 as part of a team. Dawn's dominance of the100m freestyle was part of her legacy claiming the Olympic title at the 1956 Melbourne, 1960 Rome and 1964 Tokyo Games, the first swimmer to win gold in three successive games of either gender. She was the first woman to break the minute for the 100 m freestyle and held the record for the event for sixteen years. Dawn first started swimming at the age of four at the Balmain Baths in Sydney before competing seriously by the age of eleven. … Dawn signed then and there to train with Gallagher's squad at the Balmain Baths. … [in 1951] she joined the Balmain Ladies Amateur Swimming Club.”


Sport Australia Hall of Fame. (2020b)

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Wally Pont

Three members of the Balmain Swimming Club made the State Diving Squad in 1927/28, Dr. F. Lions, H. Aleen and the champion Wally Pont. Just two years later Wally demonstrated his ability on the NSW Championship in both the Springboard and High Platform Diving Championships and was also selected as Captain of the NSW Troupe. Wally was one of the most versatile competitors to ever represent Balmain. He won titles at Breastroke, Backstroke, Freestyle (100, 220 and 440) and played for NSW in polo in 1931.

Practice Dives

Back dive or somersault from springboard on diving tower at Balmain Baths.


Wally Pont's Accolades

Dive Champion, All rounder Champion of Balmain Club in NSW 1929 - 1931.

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References