Historical Information provided by the Historical Society of the Northern Territory

Darwin Lord Mayor Kon Vatskalis has a vision for a bar and restaurant precinct in the forgotten Lameroo Beach area but once, long ago the beach was home to something Darwin could benefit from again.

Mr Kon Vatskalis was speaking about what could result from the proposed seaside boardwalk running along the cliffs of the Esplanade, connecting the Waterfront to Doctor’s Gully.

The ambitious plan would see the construction of a coastal boardwalk which would be located on the water’s edge and snake along the bottom of the Esplanade’s cliffs, passing through the iconic Lameroo Beach.

It forms part of Darwin Council’s Strategic Projects Prospectus, which contains a series of concept projects aimed at luring developers to invest in Darwin and help revitalise the city’s Central Business District.

For several decades from the early 1920s public baths existed in the sea at Lameroo Beach.

A swimming pool—or ‘public baths’—had been on the agenda of the Darwin Town Council for many years before they finally opened.

In February 1921, Doctor’s Gully was ruled out as a site because of “contamination by town drainage, and if typhoid or cholera existed in the town [it might] decimate the inhabitants.” 

Fort Hill was ruled out because of possible contamination of malaria in the mangroves. That notwithstanding, the resolution of council was to build the baths at Fort Hill, the Northern Standard newspaper reported on April 26, 1921.

Ultimately, the ‘baths’ were built at Lameroo Beach because “bathing in Lameroo beach has already become very popular in advance of the erection of the baths,” the Northern Standard newspaper reported on April 26, 1921.

By September of that year, The Town Clerk estimated that the cost of a wood and wire netting structure would cost £780, the Northern Standard reported on September 8, 1921.

In October 1922, a by-law in a Gazette Notice declared that the baths were proclaimed on May 20, 1921 and April 10, 1922, including that the ‘baths’ would be ‘for the use and benefit of the inhabitants of the town of Darwin’ and placed under the control of the council. 

The eventuality is that the ‘baths’ opened some time in 1923 and cost £1400. Thereafter came the maintenance costs, which proved expensive. The council then had a problem with upkeep and, as usual, the problem of absentee landlords failing to pay their rates.  

It seems that the pool fell into disrepair during World War II when Darwin was taken over by the military, but never repaired from the damage that was inflicted by it.