The Cache
Unfortunately suitable hiding spots are not easy to find in this location, and while the hide is as easy as I can place it, retrieving it will be problematic due to the shear popularity of the area. Please use the hint. Parking can be issue at Snapper Rocks and Rainbow Bay, so you might like to park at Point Danger and walk down via the stairways or park in Boundary St at Rainbow Bay, and walk around. Be aware, you will have to climb up one level of rocks but this should be easy enough for someone with average (or just below) fitness. Keep your eyes open for any old concrete around GZ, these are remnants of the old pools. If the rocks weren't here, you would be swimming in the same pool as the porpoises.
Please be aware that the logbook is in its own container within the outer container to avoid past problems with water soaking the logbook. Please return the logbook to the inner container, make sure the lid is screwed on correctly, and place inside the camo'd outer. Please remember to cover with a layer of natural camo to help rehide. There are plenty of she-oak needles and driftwood around the area.
The Story
tTo tell the story of the pools, you need to start with the story of the man who built the pools – Jack Evans. Jack moved to the Gold Coast at the close of World War Two, setting up a beach hire business on Kirra Beach. To supplement his income he also was a professional fisherman. In those days the beaches were unprotected and there had been a number of shark attacks in the area. When a friend of his was mauled, he set out baited hooks and caught the shark. He also developed a shark meshing procedure using army surplus camouflage nets. It was really quite successful and in one haul is said to have caught 16 sharks in one net. The public were eager to see what was caught in the nets and he started charging sixpence for visitors to view the dead sharks.
An early entrepreneur, in 1953 he built the Burleigh Head pool near where the Burleigh Pavilions are now and in 1956 was awarded the lease to build sea baths at Snapper Rocks. The pools were built of concrete on top of the wave cut rock platform. Initially the pools included a 55m Olympic sized pool and a smaller children’s wading pool, but he also included a 33m shark viewing pool, figuring that if the public were keen to see dead sharks they might also like to view live ones. The venture was a success with the public but somewhat plagued by other problems – sharks getting washed out of the viewing pool into the main swimming pools in rough weather and the death of some of the marine life, possibly due to lime leaching out of concrete. One local legend says that the Boyd Brothers – a local family of professional fishermen caught and released two dolphins into the pools as a ‘joke’. Newspaper cuttings and Jack’s own recollections says that the acquisition of the dolphins were planned as a replacement for the sharks. I suspect the truth lies somewhere between these two stories.
In any case Jack had an innate talent and was able to train the dolphins (inadvertently called porpoises). The original two dolphins, were joined by Bobo and JoJo and he soon had a whole pod performing tricks at his popular porpoise show. Unfortunately disaster struck again in 1959 when cyclonic conditions caused huge waves to break over the baths. One dolphin was washed out to sea and two others drowned. Realising he had a lot more to learn about dolphin care and training he headed overseas on study trips, and it was about this time that a fourth pool was built. This was used as a dolphin holding pool and nursery. It should be noted that during this period the pools were still open for the swimming public. Many locals have stories of swimming training in the same pool as the dolphins because their usual pool was being cleaned.
Encouraged with the continued popularity of the show but hampered by the limitations of the Snapper Rocks site – car parking was an issue then as it is now, Jack constructed a purpose built oceanarium at the mouth of the Tweed River at Duranbah. The porpoise show, along with a sea lion, shark and later a whale show, moved over there. The Snapper site remained available for swimming, in fact I went to “learn to swim” classes here in the early 70s. By the mid-1970s the council was applying pressure for the septic system in the complex to be connected to the council sewer system, this change in infrastructure would have cost considerable money, money Jack did not feel needed to be spent. He handed the lease of the pools back to the council in 1976 and the complex continued to operate for a few more years. By the early 80s, the complex was becoming derelict and a risk to the public. A decision was made in 1986 to demolish the buildings and fill in the pools. Only the outer seawall was left remaining, along with a water catchment pool which fed clean water into the dolphin pool. Both can still be seen, and sometimes crazy tourists will be spotted taking a dip in ‘the spa’ which is the old catchment pool.
These remains have been heritage listed in a recognition of the development of tourism and the beginnings of a theme park culture on the Gold Coast. Jack Evans pioneering work in marine mammal shows in Australia is also acknowledged in the heritage listing.
No visit to Snapper Rock is complete without acknowledging Froggy, the green frog shaped rock which stands guardian over the small beach which bears his name. Family legend that this was first painted by a great uncle, Frank Dorrough, has been confirmed by Toni Cameron – Jack Evans' daughter, although it’s been repainted several times and by different people since Uncle Frank first obtained his tin of green paint in the early 1960s.