From Clay Beginnings
Surrey Dive
"A fine sheet of water"
Swimming – for fun, fitness, or competition - has long been a popular activity amongst local residents. In the days before public swimming pools, the most well known swimming hole was the Surrey Dive, once a quarry used by the Box Hill Brick Company.
In 1905 the newly formed Surrey Park Swimming Club petitioned the Council to purchase the former quarry site as a reserve. Surrey Dive became an official swimming pool with bathing sheds, springboards, and eventually a 10-lane course, making the Dive the first Olympic standard pool in Australia.
The sheer cliffs and extraordinary depth attracted only the most experienced swimmers. The Surrey Park Swimming Club hosted regular swimming carnivals, the first of which was held in 1907 and featured a young Frank Beaurepaire, who won the one mile championship in record time.
After drought conditions forced the closure of Surrey Dive in 1967-68, the once popular swimming hole was converted into an ornamental lake.
Photo: Swimming carnival at Surrey Dive, courtesy Box Hill Historical Society Inc.
Box Hill City Baths
Splish, Splash, we're taking a bath
While the experienced swimmers challenged themselves and others in Surrey Dive, there were few facilities for the young or inexperienced - despite repeated requests from the swimming club for improvements.
In the 1930s Ivy Weber, the first woman elected to Victorian Parliament and an advocate for health and fitness, organised a State Government grant to assist Council to build a new swimming pool at Box Hill.
The Box Hill City Baths, which were designed by City Engineer Frederick Kerr and featured tiles from the Australian Tesselated Tile Company, opened on 28 January 1939 in conjunction with the Australian Swimming Championships.
35,000 people went through the turnstiles in the first season and local schools were eager to use the Baths for swimming carnivals. The Surrey Park Swimming Club continued to use the facilities for training and competition and conducted learn to swim classes. Numbers peaked in the 1959-60 season when 105,000 came to the Baths.
Photo: Box Hill Swimming Pool c.1939, courtesy Box Hill Historical Society Inc.
Aqualink Box Hill
"Fun for the whole family"
After Surrey Dive closed, the Box Hill City Baths remained the only public pool in Box Hill. Despite a growing population, the attraction of modern indoor pools in other municipalities saw numbers at Box Hill decline.
In 1977 Council began upgrading the deteriorating facilities, and by 1981 swimming had become an all year round activity with the opening of the Box Hill Swimming and Recreation Centre. Champion swimmers and divers could train alongside toddlers learning to swim, while others could play squash, exercise in the gym, or just relax by the pool.
In the decades since, the Centre has continued to expand to meet the needs of residents who want to have fun and keep fit. And many successful Australian swimmers and divers have spent their long hours training here, including well-known swimmer Matt Welsh and coach Ian Pope.
In 2004 the Centre became known as Aqualink Box Hill (in conjunction with Aqualink Nunawading) and has won several sport and recreation awards. Although no longer just a facility for swimmers, it upholds the vision that Ivy Weber had when she advocated for the Box Hill City Baths in the 1930s.
Photo: West entrance to Aqualink Box Hill