Freshwater Beach

Freshwater Beach is about 17 kilometres north-east of the CBD and just north of Manly. The beach runs roughly 300 to 350 metres between a headland to the north and one to the south, facing east-southeast into the ocean. A low dune system backs the sand, with a foreshore reserve, paved paths and a small commercial strip nearby linking through to residential streets.

History

• The land belonged to the Garigal people to the north and the Gayamaygal to the south before European settlement.
• The first land grant went to Thomas Bruin in 1815. The Manly Land Company subdivided the area as the Freshwater Estate in 1884, with the name probably coming from a freshwater stream that ran down to the beach.
• In 1886, a separate subdivision nearby was named the Harbord Estate, after Lady Cecilia Margaret Harbord, wife of NSW Governor Lord Carrington.
• For years, locals argued over which name should stick. Freshwater had become a popular camping spot, and some residents felt the rowdy reputation that came with it needed a more respectable name.
• In 1923 the Postmaster-General sided with the Harbord camp, and the area officially became Harbord.
• The beach itself reverted to Freshwater Beach in 1980, though the suburb kept the Harbord name until 2008, when a local petition got it changed back for good.

Beach Characteristics and Facilities

• Freshwater is a crescent-shaped beach with generally consistent surf, popular with beginner and intermediate surfers. Rips can form near both headlands. The sand narrows at high tide.
• A 50-metre ocean pool sits on the rock platform at the northern end, built in 1925 — the first ocean pool on Sydney's Northern Beaches. It has eight lanes for lap swimming.
• A surf lifesaving club stands near the beach, with public toilets, showers, picnic tables and a grassed area in the foreshore reserve.
• Lifeguards patrol during the warmer months, with flagged areas marking safer spots to swim.
• A promenade and stairs lead down from the surrounding streets. Parking is limited and mostly on-street, close to the shops, cafés and surf club.

Facts and Curiosities

• Freshwater Beach is considered the birthplace of surfboard riding in Australia.
• On 24 December 1914, Hawaiian swimmer Duke Kahanamoku gave a surfing demonstration here, on a board he'd shaped himself.
• The surfboard was shaped from sugar pine sourced from George Hudson's timber yard, a Glebe (Sydney suburb) workshop and finished at Freshwater.

• He gave a second demonstration on 10 January 1915, this time taking local teenager Isabel Letham out for a tandem ride.
  A statue of Kahanamoku stands on the northern headland, and his original surfboard is still on display inside the Freshwater Surf Life Saving Club.

  
• The beach is also part of the Manly–Freshwater World Surfing Reserve, declared in 2012 to protect the surf breaks along this stretch of coast.