Old Ballarat East
Here is what Eureka Stockade Pool/Dam once looked like. The image is from the Rose Series of Postcards and can be located in the Gold Museum Fitzgerald Collection. Click on it to be taken to the original source.
Now we have concrete boxes and no trees. Not bagging it, given its one of the few community resources in the East, however imagine if we had had a long term plan for this once beautifully natural place. This image is from the same collection. Click on it to be taken to the original source.
What a beautiful place it was, trees and shade and space. Click on it to be taken to the original source.
Did you swim here, have memories to share in the comments?
Great to see these old photos bringing back countless memories of congregating at the old Stockade pool, walking the half mile down Eureka St to the pool.My father at the time was teaching at the Eureka St State School.
[…] up from a deep cutting off Victoria Street. It was historic but neighbourly. 30 years prior a swimming dam cooled the residents in summer until the plug was pulled during the cult of chlorine. The […]
Wow, I didn’t know it was once a dam. How pretty. A bit like Lake Esmond these days? Although it’s not quite the beautiful surround it once was, the Eureka Swimming Pool is a huge asset to the East. The whole Eureka Park area really is the “lake wendouree” of the East. Somewhere for everyone to mingle, have a picnic, run about, relax and enjoy the outdoors. I miss the old Diorama!
I should try to find out more, but I believe the little lake behind MADE these days is called Lake Penhaulurick (spelling), which happens to be the name of many of my mum’s Ballarat Ancestors. Just an interesting piece of information.
wow it was really a beautiful site, unfortunately nothing stays the same unless we are more viglant
Have very happy memories of the Old Eureka Stockade swimming pool…. Lots of fun .
I remember,
back in the late 50’s swimming there and the Sovereign Hill pond. Loved it.
regards
Ditchy