Interview Transcript from Illawarra Stories Wollongong City Libraries Oral History Project – Joy Lynch
Interviewer: Jo Oliver
Interview date: 7 February 2022
Jo Oliver The following interview was conducted with Joy Lynch as a part of Wollongong City Council Libraries Illawarra Stories, oral history project and it took place at Joy’s home in Austinmer on the 7th of February 2022, and my name is Jo Oliver. Austinmer Early Morning Swimming Club, because we have a section on Illawarra Stories of ocean pools.
Joy Lynch Yes.
Jo Oliver So how long has that been going and how long have you been part of that group? Joy Lynch Oh well, I was sort of trying to think about how you know, when it first started. But it, the board down there is dedicated to George Cole, and he was sort of one of the founding members of the club. He was the president there for a long time. And he used to have an old board that he used to put up with the temperature and it was a funny thing when he came up with one morning with ‘turbidity.’ And some of them said, ‘What on earth’s turbidity mean?’ [laughs]. And it was funny. And, ah, you know, he explained it all because he was a maths teacher at Wollongong High School. But his kids went through Austinmer. In fact, I taught young George down here, um, when he was in year six. And, um, he sort of started it off with, um, Donnie Bray from Thirroul and then it sort of just grew from there. And that was it was probably in the early nineties, 1990 something like that. But I mean people had been swimming and they used to call them the ‘fibroids group’ [laughs] which was an interesting group. But, um, that was, they used to just swim on a Saturday and Sunday. But George sort of started this group up and it just sort of evolved I think from, um, from that. I remember we had our first Christmas party over at Donny Bray’s place in Thirroul. And ah, a lot, a lot of people have passed away now the, you know, the people that have been in for a long time, but and that, that was really nice to get together. It was only a fairly small group then and then it’s just grown from there. So, we always have Christmas parties and we used to have a Christmas in July there at one stage, but that sort of folded I think but, ah, but no, it’s, it’s, you see people at different times too.
Jo Oliver Yeah.
Joy Lynch And it’s not the same, you know, not the same ones so, um.
Jo Oliver And it’s always been men and women that group?
Joy Lynch Oh yes.
Jo Oliver Yes.
Joy Lynch Yes, most definitely because the Otters, um, they would have started in about the early sixties, I think, ’62 or something like that. But that was male only and I wasn’t allowed to join because of my being a female so [laughs] you know. But the, um, early morning swimmers is, yeah, male and female.
Jo Oliver Right. And it seems to be a fairly informal group, is that, is that right?
Joy Lynch Oh, yes.
Jo Oliver Yes. So is there any, there’s no real actual formalities. it’s not an incorporated group or anything like that. But you’re, you’re the president at the moment.
Joy Lynch I’m the president [laughs]. Well, yes, I am the president. Um, oh, it was funny when Bernie, um, O’Donnell said to me one day, he said oh, he’s got a job for me this next year. I said, ‘Oh, what?’ He said, ‘Oh, the president.’ I said, ‘What! ‘Anyway, I think Donny Bray was the first president from, he was from Thirroul, and then, um, and then sort of Bernie took it on and, and he was president for quite a while. But Brian’s been forever and a day the, the, um, the secretary.
Jo Oliver Right.
Joy Lynch He’s always done the board, although now there’s a few extra people doing the board. So, um, we have John McCormack does a, a stint on the board and then we have Joe and, um, Mark, they, they have a week about and then Cookie Lloyd from she’s, they bought the rectory up here at the old church, um, so, she does a week as well. So, it depends on when people are around as to what week they sort of work out, and they usually have a theme for the week now. But George started it all that off and I remember him saying, ‘If you don’t get there by eight o’clock, you’re not an early morning swimmer.’ But I think that’s, that’s a bit, um, changed now, so [laughs].
Jo Oliver Broadened a bit. And I did, I have taken a photo which is in the library collection of the board. So just if you can just explain the board what it has on it.
Joy Lynch Oh, well, the board It’s very informative for people and it’s amazing the number of people who walk down and actually look at the board. Even visitors come down and just stand and look. So, the board has George’s name at the top and it was in memory of him with a little photo. And, um, it always says what the date is and if people’s birthdays are there, they have, Brian has all information there. He writes up, “Happy Birthday,” what not. There’s always something about the weather and what, whether it’s going to be showers or, you know, and the temperature. He always has tides, high and low tide, ah, turbidity, so we know how, how clear the water’s going to be. And, ah, what else is there, um.
Jo Oliver I think the water temperature.
Joy Lynch Oh, the water temperatures always there.
Jo Oliver So somebody takes that. Brian
Joy Lynch Brian takes that, yeah. And there’s a lot of controversy about the temperature because he’s gone through umpteen, um, thermometers in his time, so [laughs]. It was funny one time I think Peter Spillane had ordered all of these little thermometers and from somewhere and he I think he was thinking out he was getting about three, but he must have been about three dozen he ended up with and he was giving them away. And of course, they weren’t any, they weren’t very good. So, you know Brian keeps us up to date with the water temperature and there’s always some. There’s always a question on the board and it’s normally, Fridays normally, um, a maths question, there’s always a music question. And there’s just this last few years, it’s, it’s based on a theme. It hasn’t always been like that, but, um, it’s based on a theme so, um, If you don’t know the answer, the answers up the next morning so you can go and have a look and see what the answer was to the question from the day before. So, um, yeah, so that’s good. And there’s, um, oh, sunrise and sunset and all that, you know that Brian has some interesting information. And he often sends out emails too about, ah, when the water’s coming, the cold water, or the warm water’s coming through. And, um, you know any information, if somebody’s been away and they send a photo back from where they were swimming, he’ll send that out to people so
Jo Oliver Yeah.
Joy Lynch It’s just an informal, it’s a very friendly group and, um, yeah, there’s no competition or anything, but they always give me my lane on the side of the pool, though. [laughs]
Jo Oliver Oh do they! Which lanes that?
Joy Lynch Oh, the southern pool, I always swim in the second pool on the southern side.
Jo Oliver Yeah.
Joy Lynch Um, yeah, so most people get out of the way for me [laughs].
Jo Oliver So close, closest to the, um, ladder or the other side?
Joy Lynch No, no, the other side on the southern side.
Jo Oliver The southern side.
Joy Lynch Yeah yeah.
Jo Oliver And that’s the presidents?
Joy Lynch That’s the president’s lane, yes, yes.
Jo Oliver So how long have you been the president?
Joy Lynch Oh, only for about three years I think.
Jo Oliver Yeah.
Joy Lynch About three years, yeah.
Jo Oliver Right. And before that it was Brian.
Joy Lynch No, no before that was Bernie.
Jo Oliver Bernie.
Joy Lynch Bernie.
Jo Oliver I see.
Joy Lynch Bernie, um.
Jo Oliver So Brian’s the secretary?
Joy Lynch Secretary, yeah.
Jo Oliver Yeah.
Joy Lynch Yeah, so.
Jo Oliver And there’s the Christmas party each year, so, um, just for anyone listening, what happens at the Christmas party?
Joy Lynch Oh, the Christmas party is just an, it’s very informal. Everyone brings a plate, um, of goodies and it’s amazing the amount of food and you know the choice of food is just beautiful. So, it’s always, well apart from last year, it was, it’s always on the, the last Thursday in November. And the last few years it’s been down at the surf club. Before that we’d been to different places but, um, so everyone brings, um, you know, a plate of things and, um, whatever they want to drink, they bring in. And we always give $5 donation to the surf club. And Elaine usually organises that. So, ah, she always brings tea and coffee in and, you know, sets it up, so no, it’s just nice. And then we, we have, um, Life Members are awarded. We have to think carefully who to give the life memberships to [laughs].
Jo Oliver So is there any set criteria for that or is that..?
Joy Lynch Well, it’s, it’s probably, um, for how long you’ve been swimming here.
Jo Oliver Yeah.
Joy Lynch Mainly, mainly yes, yeah.
Jo Oliver But it’s not based on a certain number of years, it’s just when, when you feel that it, they’ve been here a long time.
Joy Lynch Yes, yeah. I mean, last year we, we awarded it to, um, Jeff Greenhouse. I mean he’s been here since he moved from Coledale I think when he was about six years old.
Jo Oliver Yes. And, um, you know, so that was, that was nice. So, he was awarded that.
Jo Oliver And I think Judy Bourke?
Joy Lynch Oh, Judy Bourke, that’s right. No, we didn’t give it to Jeff Greenhouse, that was the year before I think. That was with Ian. Um, yeah, Judy Bourke had it, that’s right, last year, hmm.
Jo Oliver So there’s only one each year is there?
Joy Lynch No, no, we gave two. I’m just thinking who did we give the other one to? Oh, I know it was Kirk, Kirk.
Jo Oliver Yeah.
Joy Lynch Um, yeah, he’s been swimming for ever and a day because he’s a local as well. Jo Oliver Yeah, yeah. And other than that function, is there any other, other things during the year or it’s, it’s really just a fun social club?
Joy Lynch Yeah, yeah, it’s just a fun club. And as I said, we used to have, um, Christmas in July sometimes. We had a few of those, but, um, we haven’t sort of had that, probably with COVID and what not happening, so, ah, that hasn’t happened so much now.
Jo Oliver Mm. And what sort of role do you think it has in the community then? What what’s important about it for people?
Joy Lynch Oh, look, it just brings people together and it’s just, you know, so nice to sort of catch up with different people of a morning. And you know, ‘How you going?’ Or you know if something’s, somebody’s had an issue, you know, you can sort of find out and then maybe go and help them along with something and, um, or visit them in hospital if somebody’s had a, and you know some fall or something like that. But it’s a real community sort of, um, thing. And it’s you know, it’s just nice to just sort of get, get together. And there’s no you know, no sort of special things that we do. There’s a big, well we call them a big new group of ladies coming down now.
Jo Oliver Yes.
Joy Lynch Um, which is nice to see.
Jo Oliver Yeah, yeah.
Joy Lynch But no, it’s just a community thing. It’s you know it’s, it’s everybody sort of gets together and there’s no set time. If, you know, you get down there whatever time you are and you can meet different people at different times so. There was a big issue I remember with, um, when there’s the, ah, in winter like sometimes it gets very cold as you know and, ah, I remember John McCormick started the radiator. He used to wear a, he used to have the little wetsuit they used to call them radiators so and then some of us went in to have a hot shower in the surf club, so we were sort of a bit divided there [laughs]. We get, yeah, I still go in there I must admit. And you know people still yeah, give you a bit of a [laughs] rahoo about that. But that’s okay [laughs].
Jo Oliver Yeah, but it’s all in good fun really.
Joy Lynch Oh yeah.
Jo Oliver Seems to be.
Joy Lynch Yeah.
Jo Oliver What’s the, is there, what’s the relationship with the Otters, is there..?
Joy Lynch Not really anything. I mean some of the, the early morning swimmers are members of the Otters.
Jo Oliver Yeah.
Joy Lynch Um, and they come down every Sunday during winter.
Jo Oliver Hmm.
Joy Lynch Um, but there’s no, there’s no sort of, um, you know, crossover with, with them or anything like that. They sort of tend to come up this end of the, of the, um, the dressing sheds and we sort of tend to go down the other end at this stage. So, ah.
Jo Oliver Yeah. And that’s men only still?
Joy Lynch Men only yes, yes, yeah.
Jo Oliver And, um, Ross, Roscoe, Taylor, he, the other thing at the Christmas party?
Joy Lynch [Laughs] That’s right, yes, yeah, he always does a poem. Now I don’t know how he comes up with it, but he tries to think of something you know throughout the year with different things happening and he puts it into this beautiful poem that he, that he makes up and you just think, and he loves to read it out. Although last year he had broken his leg I think, and he wasn’t able to do that. But, ah, no he, he does that every year, so. And he used to swim, they used to be a group of four of them, um, they used to swim very early. Ah, I’m not sure whether you know he wouldn’t be swimming at the moment, but, um, but anyway, that’s sort of, that was a really early group of people that used to – Johnny Mercer was one of those – and you know, and Roscoe.
Jo Oliver And, and Frank, is it Frank?
Joy Lynch Oh Frank, yeah, he goes, he goes fairly early when he’s, he’s, yeah, yeah.
Jo Oliver So they were the early Austinmer.
Joy Lynch Yes.
Jo Oliver Early, early swimmers.
Joy Lynch Oh well Frank hasn’t been here all that long, but, um.
Jo Oliver No.
Joy Lynch Well, I suppose he has now, but yeah, there’s a few others that, that swim early.
Jo Oliver Hmm. And you know some of the group are, you know, obviously people get older and pass away and,
Joy Lynch Mm.
Jo Oliver um, you know is that, is that sort of noticeable, do people. support each other through that or..?
Joy Lynch Oh yes, yeah. There’s been quite a few you know, um, people have passed away, but we always go to the funerals, you know, there’s a big group. Um, and the families appreciate that because you know the, the people who have passed away have, have always sort of swum of a morning and they really appreciate a lot of the other members coming to the funeral.
Jo Oliver Hmm, yeah, it was a significant part of their life, yeah. And, um, it seems that people come, you know, people have injuries and then come and
Joy Lynch [laughs].
Jo Oliver sort of rehabilitate.
Joy Lynch Hmm.
Jo Oliver Yeah. So do you have any, remember any funny stories about the group or
Joy Lynch Oh!
Jo Oliver stand out things?
Joy Lynch Oh there’s, there’s quite, yeah quite a few funny things. Like I remember, Donnie Bray. He was, um, he’s passed away now but, um, and he was, you know, sort of one of the presidents. But he sort of towards his later years he was losing his memory a bit, and, um, you know he used to strip off sometimes and forget that he didn’t have his cossies on underneath [laughs].He used to go, you know, running in and then coming out and, um, John McCormack, I remember one time he didn’t bring his cossies down and he went in in his tracksuit pants. He said, ‘I’m still going in!’ And you know other people have been in their undies because they’ve forgotten their cossies, or, um, you know they’ve left something behind. So, yeah, there’s always a collection of things that people leave behind too down there that, um, that are funny. But there’s, you know, people have been, um, like Fay Costan she had a nasty accident there one morning getting in the pool with it and she slipped down the steps and the, the, um, her shin sort of got caught there and took a huge amount of skin off there. So, you know everybody sort of rallied around and tried to help her there with that. But there’s been a few sort of, you know, people slip over in that and whatnot.
Jo Oliver Yeah. And the group was involved in the well, the refurbishment of the bathing pavilion. Did, did the group as a group make comments on that or did just individuals make comments.
Joy Lynch You know there was sort of a bit of a committee that, um, that Felicity McGregor put a lot of work into it and, um, and you know some of the things that we suggested you know it was all put to Council and Council came out and we had meetings with, with the Council over it. So, yeah it was, it was, um, yeah, done sort of, you know, as a committee basically.
Jo Oliver Yeah. And do you think the group is happy with what, how it’s been renovated?
Joy Lynch Oh, I,
yes and no. I think that I think the main thing was the, the access, like they didn’t really want the door in that area there.
Jo Oliver Yeah.
Joy Lynch But you know, it sort of quietened down now because they made a suggestion. I think Ron Forbes, who, he designed the, the Surf Club, um, and he just lives up in Balfour Road there, he made a suggestion to put it on the northern side where the men’s sort of, um, entrance is to make it a separate sort of area there. So, which we thought was a good idea, but, um, they, they didn’t sort of, you know go ahead with that. But, ah, oh, I mean overall I think it’s okay. The, the new seats are good and the painting’s done well and
Jo Oliver Yeah.
Joy Lynch and they kept open the, you know, the air can get into the inside of it because I think at first they were going to close that off which they had a, they had, they were going to put it in with, um, some pieces of wood, you know, like a wooden sort of an insert, which you know wouldn’t have worked really because you just need that the air coming through. And,
Jo Oliver Yeah.
Joy Lynch you know, I mean the new showers in there are so much nicer than the old ones. Jo Oliver Yeah.
Joy Lynch And the new seating and, and things like that, but and the new toilet. So, um, you know I mean it’s they’ve done a great job really, ah, you know. And, and you know the, the door into the change room there, it breaks down a few times, but they come and fix it quite often so that’s good.
Jo Oliver Yeah, yeah. So, do you think the group will keep going?
Joy Lynch The early morning swimmers?
Jo Oliver Yeah.
Joy Lynch Oh, most definitely.
Jo Oliver Yeah.
Joy Lynch Yes. The numbers are growing.
Jo Oliver Yeah.
Joy Lynch Um, you know it’s amazing and, and, you know, to be a member you have to give your e-mail address to Brian because he will send out all of the information about, you know, different things as I said about the water temperature and when this is happening and who’s been here and that sort of thing. So no, it’s nice to see it growing.
Jo Oliver Yeah, good. Well Elaine gave me this morning copies of Roscoe’s poems.
Joy Lynch Oh good. On Christmas morning we have a little Christmas get together and a photo. So, everybody brings a little plate on Christmas morning.
Jo Oliver Yeah.
Joy Lynch And then there’s a photo that’s usually taken up on top of the, ah, surf club the, um, the dressing sheds there.
Jo Oliver Yeah.
Joy Lynch Well sometimes it’s out in the middle of the walkway there yeah,
Jo Oliver Yes well it’s all been very interesting thank you Joy.