Dalkeith Hot Pool was an open air

hot spring A hot spring, hydrothermal spring, or geothermal spring is a spring produced by the emergence of geothermally heated groundwater onto the surface of the Earth. The groundwater is heated either by shallow bodies of magma (molten rock) or by circ ...

Dalkeith, Western Australia Dalkeith is an affluent suburb of Perth, Western Australia within the City of Nedlands. The suburb is surrounded on three sides by the Swan River. History The suburb takes its name from a cottage built in 1833 by Captain Adam Armstrong and his ...

. It was situated on the foreshore of the Swan River near Sunset Heritage Precinct at the foot of the escarpment. The hot spring was created in 1922 with the bursting of the casing of a pipe that was part of a nearly

artesian well An artesian aquifer is a confined aquifer containing groundwater under positive pressure. An artesian aquifer has trapped water, surrounded by layers of impermeable rock or clay, which apply positive pressure to the water contained within th ...

reaching into the

Yarragadee Aquifer The Yarragadee Aquifer is a significant freshwater aquifer located in the south west of Western Australia and predominantly beneath the Swan Coastal Plain west of the Darling Scarp. It has a north–south range from about Geraldton to the south coa ...

. This well had been drilled in 1908 on the Dalkeith foreshore to provide water, as mains water was not available at the time. After the pipe burst, locals built the Dalkeith Hot Pool by enclosing the escaping hot water with limestone walls. During the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

the Dalkeith Hot Pool was moved into a concrete pool that had been built for the US Navy based in Nedlands. This concrete pool was situated further east along the foreshore, adjacent to the site on which Tawarri Reception Centre was later built in 1957 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). Dalkeith Hot Pool was infamous for nudeand "nearly nude"bathing as early as 1935, and those caught by police were taken to court and fined. 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. In 1962 the artesian well was plugged, and the concrete pool was apparently "removed by the Nedlands Council in the early 1990s to facilitate landscaping in the vicinity."

References

{{coord, 32.00187, S, 115.80601, E, type:landmark_region:AU-WA, display=title, format=dms 1922 establishments in Australia 1953 disestablishments in Australia Swimming pools Swimming venues in Western Australia Bathing in Australia Natural pools Defunct sports venues in Australia 20th century in Western Australia