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Newcastle’s lost map-of-the-world pool

So many myths surround Newcastle’s lost and lamented Young Mariners’ Pool, with its legendary concrete map of the world. Many people believe the lost continents still lie beneath the sand, and that determined digging will reveal them in their former glory. Alas, the fact is that only some fragments of the map sections around the edge of the pool remain to be exposed from time to time.

Most of the concrete map was broken up by Newcastle City Council – apparently in the 1970s – and the pieces were dumped off Nobbys breakwater to supplement the always-eroding wave barrier. The reason was that the pool had suffered some storm-damage, and also that it constantly filled with sand and needed excavation.

The pool in its heyday. The corrugated iron canoes could be rented for a penny or two.

The pool was opened on Saturday, September 25, 1937, by the Lord Mayor, Alderman Fenton, as part of a £160,000 civic-improvement program that included upgrading the road through King Edward Park and installation of tiered concrete seating in the north-east corner of Newcastle Baths. The pool was said to have been the idea of city engineer, L. J. Price, who was inspired by watching the Lord Mayor’s son trying to sail a model boat in a rock pool. A 1937 report in The Newcastle Sun noted that “it was the juvenile yachtsman’s difficulties that gave the engineer the idea of constructing a pool”. “The scheme for embellishing the expanse of water with the countries of the world, thus creating a ‘world in miniature’, around which children will be able to plan cruises for their model yachts, was worked out later.”

Alan Ashman in the canoe pool in 1959.

The geography master at Newcastle Boys’ High School, Edgar Ford, was consultant on the layout of the map, and a Mr Johnson of the city architect’s department took on the project as a personal hobby. “Retired sea captains and seamen who have sailed the seven seas have sat on the slopes above for hours and watched the ‘world’ taking shape below them,” The Sun reported. “When it is complete the pool promises to be one of the big attractions of the beach. Between its outer edge and the sea will be a lagoon in which older children may sail their tin canoes, and above it to the north is being constructed an elevated grassed area on which family parties may watch the children at play.”

The Young Mariners’ Pool was about 20 metres wide, elliptical, and its continents and islands jutted about 20 centimetres above the water. In common with atlases of the time, British Commonwealth countries were coloured red while the rest of the world was painted green.

Opening the Young Mariners Pool the Young Mariners Pool, September 25, 1937.

The second stage of the development, the Canoe Pool, was created by the construction of a large, arc-shaped seawall that extended the elliptical wading pool into a great circle atop the rocky platform. The depth of water in the pool was controlled by sluice gates. Old newspaper clippings suggest the Canoe Pool was being built in 1939 but it does not appear to have been fully completed until 1941 or later, with much debate in council over whether it was worth building at all.

From the start, both pools were subject to being filled up with sand and this was a major headache and expense for the council. In early 1941 the council actually found the pool a handy source of sand for covering garbage dumps, filling parks and top dressing lawns and gardens.

The pool, filled with sand. Circa 1941.


So persistent was the sand problem that it seems the pools were often more or less filled in, but during their heyday in the late 1930s through the 1940s the area remained a paradise for children.

Aerial view of Newcastle in 1949, showing the Young Mariners Pool and the Canoe Pool. Norm Barney collection.


One visitor, later to be famous, was America’s Cup legend Ben Lexcen. Lexcen’s real name was Bob Miller, and as a youngster he indulged his lifelong passion for sailing by mucking about with model boats in the Young Mariners’ Pool. Ben Lexcen nearly had his America’s Cup patron, Alan Bond, talked into paying for a reconstruction of the long-lost world map during the 1980s. Lexcen’s death and Bond’s bankruptcy and descent into ignominy put paid to such talk.

The map of the world was damaged by storms and – apparently in the 1970s – the continents were broken up and dumped off Nobbys breakwater, opposite the searchlight bunker, and could be seen there for some time until they faded and weathered beyond recognition.

The story of the Young Mariners Pool is told in our book, Newcastle, The Missing Years.


Newcastle – The Missing Years, by Greg and Sylvia Ray

$75.00

First published in 2010, Newcastle, the Missing Years presents images reproduced from long-lost negatives depicting life in the Hunter during the Great Depression and World War II.

14 in stock


This Post Has 4 Comments

  1. Christine Gregory

    Loved playing there in the 50’s

  2. Dorin Suciu

    This is terrific! Thank you for putting up these fascinating photos. Such a beautiful spot. Horrified to read today that NCC wants to sell the pool off to developers because council can’t afford the upkeep – there is a picture of one potential design – a shocker (in IMHO).
    Shouldn’t we be preserving our heritage? Must be another way?

  3. Robyn Single

    Fantastic photos Greg, they certainly stir memories in the minds of us oldies, who literally spent every waking summer moment enjoying the many pleasures in, on and around the many wonderful Newcastle Beaches. Thank you so much for sharing… As for the words ‘ Council .. Upkeep .. Preservation and Heritage .. Sadly it would seem ( if you will pardon the pun ) they are now ”Lost In The Sands of Time “.

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