The Bathers
Photography by Lee Illfield and Edwina Richards
This is an exhibition exploring ‘magical memory’ and a collective homage to a place overflowing with personal stories, not exactly as they are but as they live inside us. Half remembered and wholly felt - staged and reimagined through the lens of two unique Novacastrian photographers. Newcastle Ocean Bath history, but as you’ve never seen it before.
DURATION
Drop-in exhibition
ACCESSIBILITY
Newcastle Ocean Baths is wheelchair accessible and has wheelchair accessible amenities.
ARTISTS & COLLABORATORS
Commissioned by New Annual Festival, photographed by Lee Illfield and Edwina Richards, produced in merry collaboration with Janie Gibson and Ang Collins of Whale Chorus Theatre.
SOCIAL MEDIA
https://www.instagram.com/edwinajillrichards/
https://www.instagram.com/livecreativlee/
THE HISTORIES
Interviews conducted by Ang Collins and Janie Gibson. Transcripts prepared by Janie Gibson.Alma Parkes
Alma Parkes (aged 98) ran swimming lessons at the Newcastle Ocean Baths, volunteering for the Police Youth Club for 60 years before wrapping up at age 94. “Volunteering, you get more back than you ever put into it, because it just comes naturally.”
“Volunteering, you get so much from volunteering… I've always been involved with something or other, mostly with the Police Boys. You meet so many people and families when you do a lot of volunteering and it makes your life a lot more interesting.
I think one of the most important things I remember about it was a young lad from Adamstown who lived with his elderly grandparents. He had a wheelchair and had never stood. So the friend heard of how there were quite a few people with problems, physical problems, who were getting benefit from walking at the Ocean Baths. So we told his family, and they got somebody, a friend, to take him in. And he went in there. And by the end of the first season, he was walking up and down the catwalk. We took him home one Saturday morning to his grandparents' place. And one of his friends walked him to the front door, and then we all stood back and he's standing. Now, when I think about it, I think we could have given his poor grandparents a heart attack because he's standing unassisted… that makes me feel teary because they had never seen him standing unassisted. It was incredible. And of course, we just got involved. We just joined in, and it just never stopped.
I was chief judge and timekeeper, and I kept all the times and things and wrote it all up of a Saturday afternoon after we came home from swimming while it was still fresh in your mind.
It was a lovely swimming club. Everybody got involved with it. And there was no cost. It was all volunteers.
It was costing about $5 to get into Lambton Pool. Whereas the Ocean Baths, everything's free. And they ran their kiosk—they would sell a full cocktail, a frankfurt with tomato sauce and mustard, or they chopped them in halves and put them on a paddle pop because not everybody could afford them. So they got a half a one. You know, it was so friendly and all made so that everybody got a bit of fun out of it.
Volunteering, you get more back than you ever put into it, because it just comes naturally.
Ennia Jones, Splash of Colour Swimming
“I just noticed that I'm literally the only person of colour in the pool. Like, where is everybody?”
I've always wanted to do a triathlon. So I was training for my triathlon and, I mean I came here (to Australia) and I could swim anyway, so I didn't learn to swim here. I learned to swim back in Zimbabwe, where I’m from. I was quite regimented about it—I needed to work on my endurance as far as swimming was concerned. So I would sort of rotate the pools I would go to, between the Forum, Mayfield and Lambton, etc. And I just noticed that I'm literally the only person of colour in the pool. Like, where is everybody? And long story short, while I was at the Forum one day, I noticed there were quite a few women of colour sitting in the stands and their children were having lessons. After my laps I went and had a chat and I asked: “Oh, can you swim?” And they're like, “No, but, you know, my kids can.” And I was like, oh, that's really interesting…
And then I came across a story. A really sad incident happened in Canada. It was a group of—I'm going to call them African Canadians—who'd migrated to Canada. It was a massive extended family picnic by a river, and one child got his foot stuck under the root or something and six of his cousins went to help and six children drowned that day… in front of their parents. Their parents were helpless and couldn't swim.
And I don't know, maybe the hormones aligned or something, but I was like “We need to do something about this”, and I literally just approached Newcastle City Council for a community grant. Our first grant was about $4000 dollars. And then I went to the Forum and I said, “If I can find 20 women to swim, would you teach them how to swim?” And they were like, “Yeah.”
And so I quickly put together the website, put something on Instagram, put an EOI into the community and got 20 names and they all showed up. And I was as shocked as they were. I'm like, this is happening! And that was where it started. And that was two years ago.
Since then, we've had 330 people who've come through our course in such a short time. We've expanded from the Forum—we're now out at Lake Macquarie, at Maitland and on the Central Coast as well.
Now that we've managed to get the funding, we've got to spread the program from Rockhampton to Geelong.
Moonbow
“I didn't even know it was a thing. I just remember we were all like, “Is that? No, surely not.” It was literally a rainbow at night. Over the baths.” “We would go to the Baths after town…There was a few of us and we would go skinny dipping. I actually remember it so clearly…Yeah, maybe like three or four times with kind of the same crew. And I think there were lights there, but then it would sort of be like moonlight. I remember maybe getting told off once being in there… or maybe I'm making that up.
I can't remember if we were even totally nude. I think we were once, actually, because that was a big deal back then. Whereas now, I wouldn't give a shit. I guess it's just that feeling when you're with your friends and you're 18, you're all out together. You're like, “Yeah, let's do it”.
Then there was another time. It was with friends from church, so we weren't sloshed or naked. But we went there one night and it was raining. And then we were all in there and there was a rainbow. There was a night rainbow. I didn't even know it was a thing. I just remember we were all like, “Is that? No, surely not.” It was literally a rainbow at night. Over the baths.
It must have been a full moon plus the rain. It was so weird. I've never seen one since. But it was 100% there because we were all like, “This is surely not what we think it is”... But it was.
Callan Purcell, NYE Story
“It was main character energy, you know, it was us against the world… it was the last year of my teens and stepping into the 20s, it was a bit of a scary time.” I was about 19 and my friend and I decided to do the ultimate bucket list around Newcastle. It was always going to finish at the Baths by plunging into the water at the countdown.
It was main character energy, you know, it was us against the world. There was a countdown because we had to finish all of these tasks, however risky or not, before the countdown so we could get to the Baths, jump in the water, and then be rebirthed at midnight.
And it was a huge thing because at 19, it was the last year of my teens and stepping into the 20s, it was a bit of a scary time. But doing it with my best friend, it was exciting. And that night, everything felt right. The weather was perfect, the music was just right. The wind that was coming into the car was just right.
And no one was really there at the Baths. Funnily enough, I thought there would be more people, but it was just myself and Charlotte floating in the water and everything was in alignment. You know, the stars were in alignment, the water and myself were in like perfect harmony. And it was one of the first times that my mind just went blank. And I was like, this is it. This is… Oh, this is how you're meant to live. And I guess I've been trying to find that feeling ever since, whether at the Baths or elsewhere.
Just how you can float on through and just take a moment to look up, I guess.
And we got to the moment of the countdown…and you go 10, 9, 8, 7. And I think my eyes were open, but that salt water, you know, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. And we got to, you know, be rebirthed and we came out of that water and you genuinely did feel like you saw the Baths in a different way. You saw each other, you saw yourselves in a different way. Because it was the start of this new year and I was ready to take on my 20s.
Mermaids, Rachel Dryden & Jamie Sy
“The classic story of mermaids or sirenas is they'll use their beautiful voice to lure fishermen or sailors to their death. But actually they're doing that to protect the ocean and the waterways.” - Jamie Sy Rachel Dryden
“It feels great to meet up and hang out with friends and be okay to be a little bit kooky and to have that creative expression… that exuberant splash of colour in the water. To be able to cultivate that with friends and then have a community that people can come along and experience that is pretty special”.
Jamie Sy
I grew up in the Philippines and there's a lot of mythology and folklore around mermaids. So that's just stories that I grew up with. We call them Bantay Dagat or Bantay Tubig. Which literally translates to guardians of the ocean or guardians of water. So typically, the classic story of mermaids or sirenas is they'll use their beautiful voice to lure fishermen or sailors to their death. But actually they're doing that to protect the ocean and the waterways.
So there's Kataw, Ugkoy, Magindara. There's different names to it. And some of them can transform into human-like form. Some of them are like mermaids as we know it, which is half human top and then fish tail. But then there's other ones that still have scaly skin as well. And some have dolphin-like skin and the hole at the back as well.
…
With the people that I have snorkelled and freedived with there's a lot of responsibility, a feeling of responsibility to protect the ocean and just wonder as well. Everyone seems to have that sense of wonder for the ocean…and just that ethos of looking out for each other even from the breath holds, making sure that someone's looked after and making sure when we're doing our breath holds, Just looking out for each other and sense of belonging and responsibility for the ocean.
There's been a few times I've gone behind Newcastle Baths as well. It’s cool out there. There’s a bit of seagrass and there's some little channels as well which are fun to swim through.
I love going behind the Baths here, which for some people might just be like, eh, it's pretty normal. But I just find it so magical every time. Whenever there's like a big school of fish, but of little fish, it feels like I'm swimming through stars. And they're just so cute when the light hits them. And they're just reflecting back light at you and yeah, it's nice.
Penny Green, Photographer
“It's always to me a little bit like a stage, that place. When you're walking along past the bleachers, when it's very late and the light is beautiful…” I'm a stickler for doing a minimum of a kilometre up to two kilometres when I'm feeling energetic or depending on how cold the water is. For me, it's a place to go to for physical health and mental health. And I also go down to the Baths often with my camera—I have a camera when I swim because I try and capture moments of the swim for those people, I guess, who have the joy of—basically ocean addicts and photography. Then I often, when I can go down, I'll go down in the afternoon, depending on the weather and the light and just wander around with a camera and observe what's happening. It's always, to me, a little bit like a stage, that place. When you're walking along past the bleachers, when it's very late and the light is beautiful, I get a bit fixated on the shadows that are on the back wall at the end of the pool. You watch people and it just comes alive.
If you actually stand on the boardwalk and you're looking at the bleachers, it almost is like a setting. If you think of the Sydney Opera House—it’s a beautiful spot—okay, it's not the Opera House, but it is operatic if you think of just how the light falls. I'm not an architect, but I love the lines. A lot of people get fixated on basically capturing the angles and the shadows and all that sort of thing. That's one element.
There's always something happening down there. So it's a bit of a vibe. It's not a nightclub, but it's definitely a vibe.
It's a blue space, as we know they're good for us… A friend gave me a book on winter swimming in particular. But blue spaces, if you look into it, it's just that space of essentially nature. So it's like anything that improves your mental health, you're immersed in nature. Your senses are being impacted by water, by sound. You know, if you just stand there, yes, you might be belted by wind. But there's that feeling of… it's kind of a bit like ocean swimming. I think that you get a sense that you're just a speck in the world because there's so much going on around you and you just have that sense of the universe being bigger than you and you can't control anything and you're just in that spot and making sure that if you're in the ocean, you're okay. But it’s just, I don’t know, I don’t know how better to explain that one.
Jade Baker, Lost Wedding Ring
"It was quite windy and he went to help me with my dress and then the ring just fell off his finger into the water and he's like “Oh, my God, it fell in…” We got married in a Catholic church up on top of the hill, and then we came down here for photos. We had quite a big bridal party so we did lots of different photos. My husband, James—we'd been madly renovating the house because we'd converted some of the rooms in our house to bedrooms and um, he’d lost a bit of weight in the lead up, and so his ring was quite loose, but he thought it would be okay.
And so we were walking along, back along the promenade on the little jetty bit in the middle. I think it was quite windy and he went to help me with my dress and then the ring just fell off his finger into the water and he's like “Oh, my God, it fell in.”
And then there were some young guys, like teenagers, probably about 17 or 18, 19, I guess. They were swimming around and they were trying to look for it, and they tried for a while. Obviously, the panic that sets in, because it's not a very good omen to lose the ring within such a short space of time.
They didn't have masks or anything. They were swimming around and they were like, “Oh, we'll try and go down”. And they somehow had got masks and they were looking. And then we just had to give up, basically, because everyone was waiting for us. Everyone had made their way into the combis and were driving back, and so we had to just go “Oh, my God. Okay, we’ve gotta just leave”.
And so then we were having photos out the front of Custom’s House, and it was just the, the shock of this story. And then the young man appeared and said that he'd found the ring. And so it was like: “Yeah!”
Interviewer: Was everyone at the reception thrilled?
Jade: Oh yes, it was just so dramatic, like, such a low point and then such a high point… And so he found the ring, so it wasn't a bad omen.
Interviewer: And did he get the ring resized?
Jade: He did get the ring resized. Yes.
I've been coming to the Baths since I was really little. My grandfather taught me to swim here by just throwing me in because it was the '80s. My favourite wedding picture is on that little jetty bridge bit in between.
When our kids were only little, maybe three and one, we got a picture of them walking up holding hands along. It wasn't planned, but they were just walking along together. It was just really sweet. It was like, we were married and then our little people that we've made were there in the same spot.
Chris Balalovski, Macedonian Epiphany Celebration
“[The Macedonian community] still has a high cultural retention rate—language, traditions, food, music. Some of that religion as well extends to Epiphany at the Bogey Hole and Ocean Baths—a celebration or the marking of the Blessing of the Waters in January each year.”
I was born and raised in Newcastle, the son of Macedonian migrants who migrated here in the early 60s, predominantly to work in the steelworks. Every male member of my family—uncles, grandfather, father and some of my female relatives, aunts—had worked in the steelworks. That was the predominant reason for their migration. Interestingly, BHP only had two recruitment offices outside of Australia in the 50s and 60s. One was in Holland to recruit engineers and the other was in Macedonia to recruit labourers. There were many thousands of Macedonian labourers at the steelworks, Newcastle at the time. A community in Newcastle that numbers around 15,000 today. So it's fairly strong. At one point it was the largest non-English speaking background community group in Newcastle and the Hunter. It still has a high cultural retention rate—language, traditions, food, music. Some of that religion as well extends to Epiphany at the Bogey Hole and Ocean Baths—a celebration or the marking of the Blessing of the Waters in January each year.
[The Epiphany celebration is] a significant event in the Christian calendar… specifically maybe for Orthodox Christians to which the Macedonian community in Newcastle predominantly belongs. The main times of year being Easter, Christmas and Epiphany, are the biggest celebrations. Several hundred of the community will typically turn up after a church service earlier in the day and it marks the baptism of Christ in the River Jordan, and the parish priest presides over the event. He blesses the water at the Ocean Baths and then ceremonially throws a crucifix into the water which is retrieved by some of the younger members of the community. Whoever retrieves the crucifix, then is said to have good luck and it's a special blessing for the year. They then collect money from the community by door knocking on that day, and a couple of days thereafter, which is split actually between him or herself and the church.
I'm really happy to say that it feels as though that event is becoming itself a part of Newcastle—a Newcastle tradition, not just the Macedonian Orthodox community. That's because I think Australia more broadly has changed in the decades since the 60s and the 70s. It’s a much more inclusive society, a much more welcoming, much more curious, much more blended and integrated society and world that we live in. And the event itself is seen, certainly with some curiosity, by the onlookers that are there at the Ocean Baths. They're in their swimmers and then there's the Macedonian community, dressed in their finest, but in a very welcoming way. I've heard people, when I'm there at the event—someone will ask someone next to them, “What do you think's going on? What's this?” And the person who they've asked the question of knows the answer. So they don't have to guess, they don't have to wonder “What the heck is happening? Who is this community? What is this event?” They accurately describe what's going on. I think, you know, it's… it's hard to be a Novocastrian and not know someone from the Macedonian community.
I was born at the Royal Newcastle Hospital, directly opposite Newcastle Beach. So I like to say I was born on the beach… but of course my mother wasn't in the sand when I was born. She was in the hospital. And so that connection for me to the Pacific Ocean has always been there, and draws me back to Newcastle more broadly. Newcastle has one of the highest return rates of any city in the world. So a lot of young people will leave for their career or whatever, things in life that they're pursuing, but will return… and similarly for myself, I ventured out and did some things in various parts of Australia, was offered roles in various parts of the world, the world's capital cities, but chose Newcastle partially because of the environment… which very critically includes proximity to the ocean. The smell of the ocean is really important for me.
So from your teen years when you broke the shackles of going on picnics with parents to going out and venturing on your own, it was the Ocean Baths first and then in concentric circles going out from the Ocean Baths into the ocean, daring to go into the ocean. Something that we were cautioned against, something that was really fearsome, the mighty ocean.
My mother tells the story of when she arrived in Australia and saw the ocean for the first time. She got a wonderful picture of her dressed in all her finest, walking on the promenade of Newcastle Beach in the 60s, being petrified of the movement of the ocean, you know, the swell and the waves and wondering about its power and what it might do to you if you went anywhere near it.
So we were cautioned and it wasn't part of our culture and upbringing to be in the surf. There was surf culture and non-surf culture, and we belonged predominantly to non-surf culture. We came to really understand and respect the ocean and know how to use it safely. I never became a surfy. But body bashing in the ocean, there's just simply nothing like it—the freedom and the feeling of liberation and the salubriousness. The health feeling is fantastic. But then back in the Ocean Baths, that was the central focus for young Macedonians in the 70s, 80s. The entire steps would be filled. No room to sit all day, and games of football and handball and food and drink and people—courtship would happen there. Many relationships were formed there, there's no doubt. But that's waned from the 80s onward. That seemed to peter out. There's only a few guys who are using it in that way now. Certainly not a community focus anymore. Except for the epiphany celebration.
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