The smell of chlorine, the greasy film of sunscreen on your face, the scalding hot of poolside concrete giving way to the water’s cool, blue relief.  

Beach towels emblazoned with cartoon characters reaching across the pool’s grassy banks.

Eagle-eyed parents keeping watch over their splashing, squealing brood. 

"I used to take my children to (the pool at) Bendigo East, and it was when it was next door to the saleyards,” historian Kay MacGregor recalled. 

“I have this absolute strong memory of being there: the cows lowing, the blokes yelling out at their dogs, and the smell of the saleyards wafting over the fence.

“And kids eating Barney Banana icy poles.”

Ms MacGregor’s recollections demonstrate two truths about the community swimming pool: the sentimental place they occupy in the hearts of many, and the fact pools have not always been the pristine blue oases we think of today.

She and Bendigo Library historian Vivien Newton have curated In the Swim, an exhibition at the library that takes visitors on a journey to a time when pools were little more than muddy mining dams.

“They had muddy bottoms, sludge, because they didn't have concrete bottoms on them, of course,” Ms Newton said.

“It was really hard to learn to swim and open your eyes underwater because you couldn't see.” 

In fact, Bendigo’s first public swimming facilities existed not for leisure, but for hygiene. 

Modern-day Bath Lane, in the city’s CBD, is named after the wash facilities that used to run along it, places gold miners would go to clean away their workday muck. 

Visitors did not even need to bring their own swimsuits and towels. Both were available for rent. 

The concept of a public bath would eventually lose favour, as more people built homes equipped with private facilities.

But Ms Newton said they served their purpose.

“It was wet, it was summer and you needed somewhere to go.”

It did not take long for swimming to become a competitive endeavour in Bendigo. 

The earliest swimming club in the city dates back to the 1860s, when men raced at the Bath Lane facilities.  

But it was not until the 1956 Olympics the city scored its first Olympic gold. Faith Leech was just 15 when she swam alongside Dawn Fraser to take first place in the 100-metre freestyle relay at the Melbourne games.

Several items belonging to the late Ms Leech are on show in the library exhibition.

Her dressing gown, bathers and Olympic torch are all displayed, as is recently discovered footage of her in the pool. 

Her son, Adam Tuohy, said the paraphernalia represented his mother’s “determination to be the best she could be”. 

“To see mum when she was 15, like it was yesterday, wearing the blazer, it’s amazing,” Mr Tuohy said.

In fact, Ms MacGregor and Ms Newton credit the 1956 games with inspiring a newfound passion for swimming and pools.

“In the mid-1950s, you’ve got a push to build an Olympic-size pool with clean water and the latest filtration available,” Ms Newton said.

The transformation of the Bendigo Municipal Pool on Barnard Street bears a strong resemblance to how Bendigo went about acquiring funds for the Gurri Wanyarra Wellbeing Centre in Kangaroo Flat.

Government grants became available for pool-building, but it was fundraising from residents themselves that pushed the project towards fruition. They contributed £17,500 towards the pool build, a sizable chunk of the total cost of construction. 

Competing to be the highest contributor to the cause was just as competitive as the races the pool would eventually host. A photograph collected by curators shows one woman crowned “fundraising queen” for her collection efforts.

Well before the City of Greater Bendigo decided not to bestow Faith Leech’s name on the Kangaroo Flat pool, the city’s municipal governments were at the centre of swimming controversies. 

As early as the 1880s, Golden Square residents began lobbying local government to construct a pool in their suburb, believing too much attention was focussed on the centre of town. 

A replica of the petition they signed – a four-metre chain of paper sheets glued together – is at the library. 

When they finally got their pool in 1918, Golden Square became the first spot in Bendigo to allow men and women to swim together. 

It was only at its re-opening in the late 1950s that the Bendigo Municipal pool gave the green light to mixed bathing. 

Ms Newton said it became a “spectator sport” to watch the two sexes – once separated into different pools or different bathing times – cavort together in the water. 

Even as late as the 1920s, school headmistresses had to beg council for a women’s-only afternoon and evening so students could be taught competition swimming.

But learning to swim was always an important, life-saving skill for people living in and around the goldfields. The historians said the public record is littered with examples of children who drowned in mining dams during the early years of colonial settlement. 

Ms Newton’s mother even recounted following articles in the local newspaper teaching readers how to swim.

It is these memories organisers will next month invite visitors to record, recollections that will then be shared at February celebration ‘Stories from the Pool’. In the Swim: A History of Bendigo’s Swimming Pools is open until March 10.

Visit www.ncgrl.vic.gov.au/exhibitionsanddisplays for more.