Where else in Australia can you swim in a big, free, outdoor pool with peacocks looking on? Add change rooms, showers, a public barbecue and café or pub for lunch – and you’ll want to walk over every day.
That Free Launceston Swimming Pool
That free Launceston swimming pool that everybody remembers is at Cataract Gorge First Basin. It’s officially called The First Basin Pool. Locals call it The Gorge pool.
It’s a 15 minute walk from the mall. Welcome to Tasmania, where you’re never far from a possum (more on them later).
The Gorge pool is open from March to November. In winter the pool is drained and can also flood. In spring and summer swimming here with an ice cream or beer afterwards is a Launceston ritual.
People used to pay a toll to come here (the old toll house is still at the entrance) but like so much that is good about Tasmania, this is now free.
Famous Views
Famous views of the surrounding Cataract Gorge Reserve are also free and have been turning up on postcards for a century. Look for the Crusoe Hut and the bandstand, which are living history.
There are walking tracks around the pool, an award-winning chairlift overhead (don’t drop your thongs), an old-fashioned tea room and a café with a good Tasmanian wine list – all just minutes from the pool change rooms.
Simple Swimming and a Pub Lunch
If you’d like to walk in, use the lockers, swim and change – then walk back the way you came for a drink or lunch – just find the King’s Bridge Bar and Restaurant, which is next door to the main Gorge entrance. King’s Bridge is where people stand to take photographs, and in the past, where young men stood on the edge and dived in.
It’s a great start-end landmark. The Gorge itself can be complicated with its multiple entrances and twisting paths and wooden signs.
The King’s Bridge Bar and Restaurant is an easy start.
If you are ending the day here on sunset then you may see a possum or two in a tree on the path back.
The King’s Bridge Beginning
The nearby watermill at King’s Bridge pub and restaurant, dates from 1840. It’s a lovely old building with indoor and outdoor seating. King’s Bridge itself has an affordable menu with pub classics (burgers) and Tasmanian oysters, beer and wine. It opens at 11.30am for coffee.
There is also coffee at the café near the pool.
The water below you in the Gorge is 20 metres deep. And yes, eels have been known to swim here (but not in the pool).
History and Mystery
Children for generations have scared themselves silly on the Suspension Bridge at the Gorge, which swings wildly across the abyss, if you jump up and down.
You don’t have to use it to reach your swimming destination, but if you want to get happily lost in the Gorge, you can try.
This is certainly not your average swim. There is history and mystery all around.
Volcanic Pit?
Locals believed the urban myth that the river was above a volcanic pit.
There was even supposed to be a submarine down there, lost in the 1960’s.
There is traditionally a place called Cranky Man’s Cave, although the Cranky Man himself has long gone.
Old Postcard Favourite
This old postcard shows you the bridge as it looked back in 1906.
This has always been a popular place for wild swimming in the South Esk River below (despite the odd eel) the big, sparkling, turquoise free swimming pool arrived a few decades later.
It’s hard to believe you are so close to the city, but also so close to nature and history. Bring a $2 coin for the lockers.
The First Basin Café and Bistro is much closer than Kings’ Bridge pub and restaurant, just steps from the pool.
It’s open from 9.00am to 4.00pm so if you want to walk in for breakfast it’s an easy option. And yes, if you sit outside, you may be dining with peacocks.
Kings’ Bridge Bar and Restaurant
147 Paterson Street
Launceston 7250
Hours: 11.30am to Late
