Dalkeith Hot Pool was an open air hot spring in Dalkeith, Western Australia.[1][2][3] It was situated on the foreshore of the Swan River near Sunset Heritage Precinct at the foot of the escarpment.[1][2]
The hot spring was created in 1922[4] with the bursting of the casing of a pipe that was part of a nearly 500-metre-deep (1,600 ft) artesian well reaching into the Yarragadee Aquifer.[1][2] This well had been drilled in 1908 on the Dalkeith foreshore to provide water, as mains water was not available at the time.[4] After the pipe burst, locals built the Dalkeith Hot Pool by enclosing the escaping hot water with limestone walls.[2][1]
During the Second World War the Dalkeith Hot Pool was moved into a concrete pool that had been built for the US Navy based in Nedlands.[2] This concrete pool was situated further east along the foreshore, adjacent to the site on which Tawarri Reception Centre was later built in 1957[5][3][4] between Sunset Foreshore and Beaton Park. During this time, Dalkeith Hot Pool was used exclusively by the US Navy for rest and recuperation (R&R).[2]
Dalkeith Hot Pool was infamous for nude – and "nearly nude" – bathing as early as 1935, and those caught by police were taken to court and fined.[1][2][6] The pool was eventually closed in 1953, and then filled in around the time of the construction of the Dome (which would become the Tawarri Reception Centre) adjacent to Dalkeith Hot Pool.[6][2] In 1962 the artesian well was plugged,[4] and the concrete pool was apparently "removed by the Nedlands Council in the early 1990s to facilitate landscaping in the vicinity."[3]
- ^ a b c d e Howie, Kimberley; Wynne, Emma (24 January 2014). "Steam and scandal at the Dalkeith Hot Pool". 720 ABC Perth. Retrieved 23 September 2018.
- ^ a b c d e f g h "Name the River's Edge – Historical Information on Foreshore 3" (PDF). www.nedlands.wa.gov.au. City of Nedlands. Retrieved 23 September 2018.
- ^ a b c City of Nedlands (1 January 2017). "Tawarri Reception Centre". Heritage Council of Western Australia. Government of Western Australia. Retrieved 23 September 2018.
- ^ a b c d "Taking Tawarri towards tomorrow" (PDF) (Media release). Nedlands, Western Australia: City of Nedlands. 4 May 2017. Retrieved 23 September 2018.
- ^ "Dalkeith Hot Pool". State Records Office of Western Australia. Government of Western Australia, Department for Culture. 19 May 1955. Retrieved 23 September 2018.
- ^ a b "Dalkeith's (too) Hot Pool Closes - Misbehavior the Reason". Trove: The Mirror. Vol. 30, no. 1692. Perth. 31 October 1953. p. 1. Retrieved 23 September 2018.