Spring Hill Baths
14 Torrington St
Spring Hill
Brisbane
Mon-Thu 6.30am-7pm
Fri 6.30am-6pm
Sat-Sun 8am-5pm
Winter close Sun 1pm
1300 733053

The oldest surviving swimming baths in the southern hemisphere, the quaint Spring Hill Baths sit snuggled in a quiet street of original Spring Hill cottages.

Preserved in their entirety from the 23.43 metre (25ft 6 in) long pool itself to the line-up of gaily coloured Victorian changing cubicles and the upper gallery with its stepped wooden bleachers, the baths were built in 1886 at the behest of Mayor James Hipwood, who was also their inaugural swimmer.

As the city’s first inground pool to replace Brisbane’s increasingly polluted floating river baths, they were drained every evening into the local Spring Hollow drain and replenished from the now boarded over holding tanks at the end of the baths. This colonial practice continued until 1961 when a filtration system was installed.

More recent innovations include an espresso machine, heating, Aqua aerobics classes, babies learn-to-swim and handy conversion charts on the walls so lap swimmers can calculate their distance swum.

As well as single entry, discounts for weekly, monthly and annual are available.