When the early British settlers created the Swan River colony, they brought with them ideas of going to the beach that involved piers and a particular degree of modesty.

The colonists came from a culture where the beaches were cold and made of pebbles rather than sand.

It took them some time discover what the sandy Indian Ocean coastline had to offer, according to Richard Offen from Heritage Perth.

"The craze for going to the seaside came when the district named Cottesloe came into being in 1886," Mr Offen said.

A crowd taking to the water at Cottesloe Beach in 1907. ( Supplied: State Library of Western Australia )

"Cottesloe began to be really popular when the Perth to Fremantle railway opened in 1881 and this place was far more accessible.

"The beach became a popular venue for sea bathing and the trend was, shockingly, for mixed bathing."

Complaints over what beachgoers wore — or rather did not wear — dogged the local council until the 1940s, when bikinis became widely acceptable.

Until then, the local authorities tried to enforce strict rules and in 1910 even created a "women and children only" section of the beach.

A Cottesloe Beach notice from 1898 read:

Regulation costume for men and women; dress of dark material — serge, flannel or flannelette extending over the shoulder to the knee. Those in swimsuits should not loiter on the beach or on the jetty.

The local roads board also encouraged people to hire changing boxes, including some on wheels which allowed bathers to change and then emerge straight into the sea, without having to cross the beach in their swimming costumes.

Bathing huts on Cottesloe Beach allowed swimmers to change and dive into the water with maximum modesty. ( Supplied: Cottesloe History )

Push for a pier

As the popularity of Cottesloe Beach grew, so too did demand for something like an English pier to be built.

"Plans were drawn up in 1903 but it was not built until 1906," Mr Offen said.

"The jetty stretched about 328 feet (100 metres) in length and it later became known as Cottesloe Pier."

The opening of the jetty in 1907. ( Supplied: Cottesloe History )

The Cottesloe history blog recorded the popularity of the pier:

"The jetty became a major attraction for the area with brass bands playing every Sunday and on public holidays at the rotunda. "Passengers from the Zephyr pleasure steamer would disembark to listen to the music before heading off to Rottnest Island. "Fishing and diving were popular activities, along with moonlit evening strolls."

The jetty was however regularly battered by storms and became progressively shorter as damaged pylons were removed.

A young swimmer applies lotion before going in the water in 1923. ( Supplied: State Library of Western Australia )

Another jetty was built in 1922 but lasted only four months before being destroyed in a storm.

The Cottesloe Pier was then invaded by wood worm and by the late 1940s had become too unsafe to use.

The last of the jetty disappeared when the state government blew up the remaining structure with gelignite in August 1952.

In 1979, the Perth to Fremantle line closed and in 1982 the Centenary bathing pavilion, which had housed changing rooms and shops, was demolished.

But fortunes changed when the railway line reopened in 1983 and a new pavilion was built on the same site in 1996.

"Up until the 1920s, this was the beach for everybody in Perth," Mr Offen said.

"Then Scarborough started becoming popular and there was a plank road built.

"But Cottesloe remains the centre of our seaside activities to this day."