00:00The Port of Eden is best known for its small fishing fleet, but not far from here.
00:07In fact, just a stone's throw is one of Australia's most historical rock pools,
00:13but hardly anyone knows about it.
00:18Just over there is the Thomson's Point Baths,
00:22built into the rocky shoreline just after the turn of the 20th century by John Hines,
00:27the same builder responsible for Eden's iconic Australasia Hotel,
00:32the baths were accessed from above by wooden bridges that crossed a series of chasms in the cliff face
00:38and below by walking along the beach.
00:42Unfortunately, over time, termites got the better of those wooden bridges,
00:47and unless you're a mountain goat, the baths are now impossible to reach from above.
00:53As to the beach access, well, that has also become a bit hazardous
00:58with the proliferation of oysters on the rocks around the baths.
01:02Check out that main concrete wall.
01:05There's no way I'd be sitting on that in my swimmers.
01:10At their peak in the early to mid-1900s,
01:13generations of locals and tourists flocked to the baths,
01:17which were billed as safe and shark-proof.
01:20It was both a place to have fun and for some, like lifelong Eden man, Rob Whiter, to learn to
01:28swim.
01:29His mum used to toss pennies in the water and he had to dive in to collect them.
01:34Needless to say, with such an incentive, Rob learnt to swim pretty quickly.
01:39Oh, and that's Rob's mum, Jean, in the hat, circa 1932.
01:48Unfortunately, authorities currently have no plans to improve access to the baths.
01:54So for now, at least, they remain out of reach to most.
01:59A silent reminder of a time before the peak popularity of beaches.
02:04A time when ocean baths were the place to be.
02:24A Sunday night when ocean baths were the place to keep from misses.
02:28You
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