Stage Number: MBSH.03.01.76
Group: Southern
Local Study Area: West End-South Brisbane-North Wolloongabba
Epoch: Early 20th Century
Street Address: Corner of Jane Street and Riverside Drive, West End
Latitude & Longitude: -27.47697222,153.00480556
Time Link: 1921
Map Link: 1923
Image Time Point: 1923
Davies Park Baths was a land-based pool on the riverfront off the end of Jane Street, West End. It was initially filled with water pumped from the river, which continued until the 1940s when town water replaced the increasingly polluted river water. It was the first 50-yard-long pool in Brisbane, and was 11 yards wide. It also had a sloping base, unusual for the time, creating a deep and a shallow end. More daringly, it was also the first mixed-sex swimming baths in Brisbane, as pools had been segregated until this time, with either separate times or pools for males and females. The pool was closed in 1967, the same year that the nearby Musgrave Park Pool was opened.
Brisbane Courier, 12 December 1921; Secret Brisbane, ‘Brisbane’s love affair with swimming’, (www.secretbrisbane.com.au/home/2017/6/29/brisbanes-love-affair-with-swimming), sighted 21 July 2017.
Bathers at the Davies Park Baths. Undated. John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland. Record number: 60753.
QSA. QSA Series ID 2058 Moreton District Maps – A Series. 6 miles to the inch. Moreton District. 6 miles to the inch. Survey Office, Brisbane.. 634900
