A popular history of Manuka Pool has the title That’s Where I Met My Wife. For many of us who grew up in Canberra in the 1950s and 60s (population 50,000), Manuka Pool was where we learnt to swim.
My family came to Canberra in 1956 and we were allocated housing in Kingston until we moved to our own house in Narrabundah. At the time, Manuka Pool was very much an Inner South community centre. Our parents had taught us the basics of water safety and how to swim, but once we started school the formal swimming lessons began. After all, there were swimming carnivals to compete in and we had to be safe swimming in the nearby Murrumbidgee River too.
Close to 60 years on I asked my younger brother Colin if he could remember the name of our swimming teacher. He said of course, it was Mrs Job at Manuka Pool. She wasn’t more that 5 feet tall he thought but she was a great teacher. Her lessons must have worked. I managed to do well enough to compete in the Interschool sports held at Civic Pool
both in Primary and High School. In Stories of the Inner South, collected and published
after a Community Festival at Manuka Pool in 1992, there are stories of Manuka Pool that bring back memories.
‘We lay on our towels in the sunning area at the back of the pool. The boys always nicked through the Manuka Oval and climbed the fence to smoke.’
‘I learnt to swim at Manuka Pool, and the boys used to stage rolled up towel fights.’
‘[My memories] are of learn to swim campaigns and it being freezing’.
After 30 years away from Canberra we returned in 2002. We agreed that we’d find somewhere in the Inner South, so we could be close to Manuka Pool. So 60 years after I learnt to swim at Manuka Pool, I’m there doing laps a couple of mornings a week – what a great legacy from Mrs Job.
— Rosemary Hollow
Friends of Manuka Pool 