#blog12daysxmas Day 9 Swimming training at Hawthorn Baths

With the current building works going on at the Hawthorn Aquatic and Leisure Centre, it is quite timely to have a look at this 1951 footage of Swinburne students doing swimming training. It is also very suitable for a steamy January day when the Hawthorn Baths would have been packed. Please note that the film has no sound.

We are familiar with Swinburne University today dominating the Hawthorn landscape but it is true to say that Swinburne (and its predecessor the Eastern Suburbs Technical College) played a significant role in the Hawthorn community from early in the twentieth century, and in fact its establishment dates back to a similar time to that at which the Hawthorn Baths were opened. This footage dates to 1951, almost half a century after both were opened.