It’s been a long time coming, 14 years to be exact, but last month, the Sydney North Planning Panel gave the tick of approval to refurbish Freshwater Surf Life Saving Club (SLSC). It comes as the club is preparing to celebrate its 116th year and is expected to cost the club $10 million and will include a Museum of Surf, improved member facilities, better storage facilities in the basement and a 163-seat restaurant.
“It’s a refurbishment of the existing premises, without increasing the footprint, to bring it up to speed and, more importantly, secure it for the next 20 years for the increasing membership,” Michael Bate, President of Freshwater SLSC, told Manly Observer.
While Mr Bate is happy with the outcome, not everyone in the community is thrilled with the plans. There are concerns over having a rather large restaurant attached to the club, how this would affect the already strained beach car park and the risk of investing so much money into a club that sits on the dunes with a rising ocean.
According to Mr Bate, there were several community information sessions held to reassure the community of the club’s plans and why they wanted to refresh the club.
“We set out to make improvements to the club, showcase our heritage through the gallery and museum, but more importantly, provide a really good working space for our increasing membership, as well as storage space downstairs,” Mr Bate explained.
The new Freshie SLSC
It’s been nearly 40 years since Freshie SLSC received an upgrade. In the 1970s, Wild surf threatened to destroy the heritage-listed front facade of the building, which brought on the club being extended behind the original building in the early 1980s.
In the new plans (which took so long due to COVID and the amalgamation of Pittwater, Manly and Warringah Councils into the Northern Beaches Council), the 1935 clubhouse at the front will be retained, and the existing balcony will be extended to the south-east with a new members lounge entry deck to be located to the south-west.
The current Museum of Surf will be extended across the building and will showcase the western façade of the original heritage building.
“Museum is the wrong word. It’s more an exhibition space,” Mr Bate said.
“We have the last double ender surf boat which we had fully restored, and we have the Duke’s [Hawaiian Olympic swimming champion, Duke Kahanamoku] surfboard which he used to surf here in 1914. We also have members who have important memorabilia and historical items stored in their garages that we want to have on display to anyone who’d like to come and have a look.”
The public toilets will be removed from the club and relocated to the Council’s Freshwater Beach amenities building (construction on the amenities building will commence in 2026).
The current café will be converted into a 163-seat restaurant that will serve early morning coffees all the way through to dinner. Mr Bate has said that while Boathouse (a popular restaurant chain) and Pilu (a beloved and critic acclaimed restaurant just across the Freshwater park) have come knocking, he said, that’s not the type of feel he’s after.
“This is not another Pilu, or Boathouse. The café at the moment is run by a local and it’s a family business,” he explained.
“We want someone that is local, someone that’s going to add a lot of value to what we do. Someone that’s going to pay the rent, of course, yes, but importantly, will give the community what they want.”
While some members of the community remain anxious over the sheer size of the restaurant, while we interviewed Mr Bate, on a not particularly busy morning, he pointed out there were about 40 patrons sitting around the café enjoying a late breakfast and coffee.
“Instead of people spilling over the path and blocking access, there will be proper seating which will open to the park,” he added.
He also confirmed it would be up to whoever won the tender for the restaurant to decide whether to have a restaurant-license (to serve alcohol with a meal) but highlighted it wouldn’t be possible to grab a six-pack and sit in the park.
Where’s the $10 million coming from?
Freshwater SLSC has up to five years to secure the estimated $10 million to refurbish the club, with Council adding they haven’t budgeted for funding the redevelopment.
Mr Bate explained the club would be looking to secure local and state grants, as well as member contributions, while being hopeful that through Council’s capital works funding program, Council may be able to contribute.
“We’re the first to admit that there are a few other surf clubs in front of us, in terms of needing funding like Manly or Newport,” he added.
“We aren’t going to do this in one go. We will undertake the refurbishment slowly, bit by bit, starting with the toilets, which don’t meet current codes.
“We also need to wait for Council to build their amenities building before we can start, so we have time to secure some funding.”
Mr Bate added that both the DA and the architectural drawings were done pro-bono.
The critics
Brendan Donohue, Northern Beaches branch president of Surfrider Foundation Australia, a coastal community lobby group, has campaigned against the refurbishment of Freshwater SLSC.
He is opposed to what he sees as the commercialisation of surf clubs and thinks surf clubs should be for the lifeguards and their volunteers, not to include restaurants.
“I’ve never seen people marching in the streets of Freshwater demanding another restaurant,” he told Manly Observer.
“There are plenty of restaurants within walking distance of the proposed restaurant at Freshwater SLSC – there’s Pilu, Harbord Hotel, Diggers. It’s just another attraction that is going to affect an already overly populated car park – a car park that is intended for beach goers.”
Mr Donohue added he holds serious concerns for surf clubs across the Beaches who continue to build so close to the ocean, despite the rising ocean levels and one-in-a-hundred-year storms happening every couple of years.
“Sinking $10 million into a building that has already been damaged (in the 1970s), and it’s going to be damaged again,” he said.
“Instead of putting money into upgrading SLSC that don’t need to be upgraded, why don’t we rather invest in sand nourishment which is desperately needed?
“There’s just this kind of mismatch between where there is a problem and we’re trying to solve a problem that doesn’t exist.”
When we asked Mr Bate about the risk of rising surf damaging Freshwater SLSC, he said it’s been there for almost 100 years, and if it was going to go, it would’ve already gone.
“The original plans in the 80s was to knock the front building down, but the locals and the members wouldn’t let them, and we are so happy they didn’t,” he explained.
“That building is a very important part of our community. There are families that grew up in this area who went to Saturday night dances here and said goodbye to family members who went off to war and didn’t come back. If it fell into the ocean because something beyond our control happened, then I reckon we would fix it up because it’s too important to our community.”
The plans
Below are the plans for the new Freshie SLSC which can be viewed in closer detail at the Development Application Master Plan (here).
Read more about the Freshwater Beach Masterplan:
