Illawarra's once women-only Chain Baths are no longer a major tourist attraction and nearly 200 years after inception it is now a secret and forgotten place.

Key points: The Chain Baths is one of the first ocean pools to be established in NSW

The Chain Baths is one of the first ocean pools to be established in NSW The pool has gone by many names: Ladies Baths, Chain Baths, Nuns' Pool and strangely Lovers Gully

The pool has gone by many names: Ladies Baths, Chain Baths, Nuns' Pool and strangely Lovers Gully The natural ocean pool provided women with a safe and private bathing space away from prying eyes

The secluded, natural rockpool on the New South Wales south coast, known locally as the Nuns' Pool or Lovers Gully, were one of the first ocean pools in the state.

In the 1800s, unless you lived near the water, ablutions were a functional rather than pleasurable task for women.

But the baths changed that and by the 1830s it had become a place exclusively for women to cool off and socialise — in private and away from male prying eyes.

Marie-Louise McDermott has researched more than 100 ocean pools on the NSW coast as part of her Wet, Wild and Convivial cultural studies thesis.

"I certainly included the Chain Baths in my PhD because they are one of the very early colonial ocean pools created in NSW," Dr McDermott said.

"The only earlier one that I know of is the Newcastle Bogey Hole which was a small private pool when Newcastle was a convict settlement."

Situated at the bottom of a steep cliff, the Chain Baths are surrounded by walls of sandstone that form a private cove with limited access. ( ABC Illawarra: Sarah Moss )

Dr McDermott said at the time segregated swimming was the norm and the rockpools — surrounded by sandstone cliffs — were considered generous by English or Irish standards.

"This was partly because women were considered to need more privacy than men for bathing," she said.

"Men were bathing on more public rock platforms nearer the town.

"Women went to the other side of the harbour to a far more private place for their bathing."

'Terrible' access no deterrent

A windy path down the cliff face led bathers to the shallow pool where ropes and later chains, offered some security to the women who could not swim. ( Supplied: Wollongong City Library and the Illawarra Historical Society )

Dr McDermott said accessing the pool was not easy.

Located at the base of a windy path on the southern point of what is now known as Flagstaff Hill, the swimming hole was accessible at low tide by a set of smooth, and probably slippery, slab steps. The alternative was climbing down the precipitous rock face.

"The access is terrible and they did it in their long dresses, so you've got to realise how important it was for them to get there," Dr McDermott said.

"These ladies were probably wearing corsets.

"But if you can get to a place where you can splash around in the water on a hot day and not wear your corset, well that's a big incentive to go, isn't it?"

Dr McDermott said it showed how important the location was to women.

"There weren't many public places where respectable women could go. The pubs weren't for them. This was quite a special women's place."

An original postcard from the early 1900s promotes the Wollongong baths which were for ladies only. ( Facebook: Lost Wollongong, Kerry Whitehead collection )

What did ladies wear in the water? Probably not much

In the 1830s women's dresses and accompanying petticoats were tight, long and restrictive.

The weight of the clothing and the summer heat left women sweltering and odorous in their day dresses despite attempts to regularly bathe.

Swimming costumes were not commonplace and once wet, their clothes — which were not quick to dry — were heavy to carry back up the hill.

Dr McDermott suspected the ladies probably wore as little as possible in the water.

"That was one of the reasons for gender segregation.

"You can't be sure that women and children wore any sort of bathing costume," she said.

Most women in the 1800s only had one day dress. If they were wealthy, they had a better Sunday dress. ( Supplied: Wollongong City Library and the Illawarra Historical Society )

Despite its difficult-to-access location, the pools were prone to peeping Toms and prying eyes from the sandstone cliffs above so a fence was erected as a deterrent in 1842.

Dr McDermott said the women took precautions to protect their privacy.

"Women who wanted to swim at the Chain Baths had to take a maid with them to stay on the clifftop and make sure that no-one was watching them from the cliff above," she said.

At low tide, peeping Toms could access the Chain Baths from the ground. ( Facebook: Lost Wollongong, Kerry Whitehead )

Convict labour for tourism mecca

The officers of the Illawarra Stockade in 1839 created the pool wall but three years later the ninth governor of NSW, Lieutenant-Colonel Sir George Gipps, allowed the convicts to upgrade the women's pool.

At the time, Wollongong's population included 286 free females.

"Governor Gipps had to give permission for the convicts to work on it which meant that those convicts were not working on harbour improvements," Dr McDermott said.

"So again, that's showing us how important that pool was considered to be."

Governor Gipps established a regular steamer passenger service to and from Sydney to the Wollongong Harbour. ( Facebook: Lost Wollongong, Kerry Whitehead )

The Illawarra region was becoming known as a place for seaside recreation and bathing and the Sydney Morning Herald reported that a weatherboard and shingled building with three dressing rooms had been built onsite for women's comfort.

Dr McDermott said it was interesting that women's recreation was given that level of prominence in the tourism industry.

"Manly [in Sydney's Northern Beaches] hasn't happened yet so people are still getting shipped to Wollongong as a holiday resort," she said.

"The idea that this was part of the reason you would choose to take a ship down to Wollongong, to swim in Chain Baths, and spend your holiday there.

"In the 1800s Wollongong … wanted to attract tourists and this ocean pool [Chain Baths] was part of that promotion."

In the 1900s Wollongong was promoted on postcards as a holiday resort. ( Facebook: Lost Wollongong, Kerry Whitehead )

What's in a name?

The pool has been known by many names over the years.

The most well-known — Chain Baths — came about when in 1895, galvanised iron chains were hung across the baths at water level and gave women something to grasp when the ocean was rough.

The pool has also been known as the Nuns' Pool because nuns from St Mary Star of the Sea convent took schoolgirls there for decades from the early 1900s.

But from 1928, the Chain Baths appeared to lose appeal with swimmers when the mixed-sex 50-metre Continental Pool opened nearby.

Swimmers could hold onto the chains' metal rings in choppy seas. ( Supplied: Wollongong City Library and the Illawarra Historical Society )

The saltwater pool allowed suitably attired swimmers to be in the pool together.

Dr McDermott said that change was a sign of the times.

"I find it really evocative of a time when people bathed rather than swam and when women really wanted privacy for their sea bathing," she said.

But for those romantics-at-heart, the baths — or Lovers Gully, named for obvious reasons — may never lose its appeal.

Today the fence winds around the headland more as a safety precaution than an obstacle for onlookers. ( ABC Illawarra: Sarah Moss )

Watch The Pool on ABC TV Sunday September 22 and 29 at 7:40pm, or on iview.