Western Beach Boat Yards (Geelong)
The former Western Beach boat yard is now a park which honours the area's extensive industrial past and showcases remaining infrastructure and some historic original boats from the area.
Interpretive signage onsite provides further information about the history of the area, including the addition of sea baths in the 1840s.
Attractions in the area include:
The Gheringhap
Fishing boats such as the Gheringhap, sitting in the a cradle at the park, were built by master shipwrights at Western Beach. Yachts, cruisers, naval vessels, cray-boats, shark-boats and more were crafted over many years from the late 1920s as Western Beach became Geelong's chief maritime focus. The Gheringhap was one of the last of its era. Higgs Brothers, Charlie Blunt's Boatbuilders and Barrow's Boatyard operated from this site. The Gheringhap was built on this site by Noel Higgs in 1972. It was built as a work boat. Sunk in the bay in 2018 it has been salvaged and renovated.
Double ended fishing boat and crab winch
The 103-year-old double-ended fishing boat, is positioned on the old slipway to show how it would have been launched. Double ended fishing boats were just some of the many marine craft maintained and repaired at Western Beach. The one at this park was one of the original commercial fishing boats to operate from the Geelong waterfront. Vessels were hauled from the water by crab winch and then shunted sideways on a traverse to be serviced by various operators over the years, including Geelong Nautical Centre, Lew Marine and Ausport Marine.
Outdoor Gym
An informal gym for those who enjoy exercising along the foreshore.
Signage in the area
Taking to the water in the 1800s
Geelong's great love for swimming in Corio Bay was evident at Western Beach as early as the 1840s when a fierce rivalry emerged between it and Eastern Beach.
Ironmonger Richard Parker set up The Geelong Public Bathing House in 1844 and the popularity of Western Beach quickly sparked a bathing-house war with the Geelong Sea Bathing Company, a kilometre to the east.
In the early days, an unwritten rule designated Western Beach for men's bathing and Eastern Beach for women. Often, however, certain gentlemen ignored this convention and respectable women were frightened off.
While Parker's operation was destroyed by a storm, others were keen to exploit the area. In 1856, the Western Beach Sea Bathing Company started up. A year later, it built a second bathing house, providing the public with one for men and one for women. In 1870, Henry Fitzgerald built his Victoria Baths at the end of Cavendish Street.
Ongoing competition from Eastern Beach prompted the two Western Beach operators to join forces in 1873. The Victoria Baths were designated for gentlemen and the Western Beach facility for ladies, after its original ladies' baths were demolished.
The baths changed name to the Western Beach Gents Baths and remained a fixture of the beach for many years. Time and tide, however, eventually took their toll and they were removed over several years between 1927 and 1938. Today, a forest of shipping masts ply the water where these popular bathing houses once stood.
Building and servicing boats
Charlie Blunt's Boatbuilders, Barrow's Boatyard, Higgs Brothers... these names are synonymous with Western Beach's long-time boating enterprises. Likewise, the Western Beach Boat Club, Western Beach Boatyard and Geelong Harbour Trust Slipway and Lew Marine.
The Geelong Harbour Trust leased the Western Beach sites to various boat-building and servicing interests. Slipways were installed and the trust undertook its own activities on site as well. Craft were winched up from the water then shunted sideways for maintenance and repair works.
The marine operations sprang up at Western Beach after Geelong's maritime industries were cleared from Eastern Beach in the late 1920s. Times were changing. The bathing houses of the 19th century had gone and Eastern Beach was evolving into an Art Deco masterpiece.
Charlie Blunt built workboats, some of which were used in New Guinea during World War 2. Barrows rented space to amateur fishermen to house their boats.
The Higgs Brothers built trawlers for the American, Australian and Royal navies, which were used in the Coral Sea and New Guinea. All manner of craft were fashioned by these master boatbuilders. The Alexander Thomson, Annie Taylor, Erskine, Austides, Lauristan, Leederry and Two Brothers are just some of their handiwork.
Lew Marine bought the Geelong Nautical Centre chandlery, using it to make bridles and slings. It then took over the adjoining Higgs Brothers site. Next door was Ausport Marine's boat construction and maintenance yard.
A rich marine history
Western Beach has hosted numerous activities down the years: timber sea-baths, boatyards and boat builders, slipways, rowing clubs, boating clubs, naval cadets and chandlers.
Victorian-era bathers splashed about in neck-to-knee costumes while shark boats, cray boats, yachts, wartime naval vessels and more have emerged from Western Beach's workshops.
Youthful seamen have learned their nautical craft at Western Beach's clubrooms. Recreational rowers have worked muscle and oar through its shallow waters. Workman have hammered, drilled and sawn rough timbers into sleek sailing craft.
Since the 1840s, this busy marine precinct on the edge of Cono Bay has blended recreation with business: swimming and boat launches, yachting forays and running repairs, rowing and angling.
Today, Western Beach remains a busy enclave of industry and recreation and wonderful natural assets. The pretty north-facing shoreline has been reclaimed, walking boulevards and seawalls and piers have been built. Where thick timber once filled the clifftop, you'll now find peppercorns, figs, eucalypts, palms and green slopes.
Listen closely and you'll hear a sea of constant birdsong - wattlebirds, herons, seagulls, cormorants, pied oyster catchers, bristle-necked grebes and plump pigeons.
On a sunlit day, look closely and you can see a diamond glister as it flashes over the waters of Corio Bay.
Location
90 Western Beach Road, Geelong 3220 View Map
