Palm Beach Rockpool is a 50 m lap pool in the sheltered southern corner of Palm Beach, the corner locals call Kiddies Corner, at the very top of Sydney's Northern Beaches. It's free and named for Jack Carter, who spent more than 70 years as a lifeguard and swimming teacher here.
Key facts
- Type
- Rock pool
- Length
- 50 m
- Good to know
- Toilets, Change rooms, Parking
- Facilities and access
- Change rooms, toilets, pay-and-display parking (access off Ocean Road)
- Managed by
- Northern Beaches Council
- Cost
- Free
- Lifeguards
- Not at the pool
- Parking
- Pay-and-display off Ocean Road
- Best time to go
- Early morning; check the cleaning roster
- Water quality
- GoodPalm Beach, 0.2 km away. Sampled 26 Oct. Data: NSW Beachwatch, CC BY 4.0.
- Cleaning
- Dated roster published through 2026-12-28Council roster entry: Sun 01 Nov 06:00PM to Mon 02 Nov 05:00AM. Times change with weather and tides.
- Town
- Palm Beach, NSW
What it's like
The pool sits on the rock platform at the calm end of the beach, well away from the main surf, with the long sweep of Palm Beach stretching north towards Barrenjoey. At 50 m it's a full-length lap pool, and swimmers training for the annual Palm Beach to Whale Beach ocean swim put in their kilometres here. A small rock pool stood here in the 1920s and was enlarged to Olympic length in the 1930s. In 2019 it was named the Johnny 'Jack' Carter Rockpool.
When to go
Early mornings are the quietest and best for laps. The pool is out of use from about three hours before each published cleaning time until up to twelve hours after, depending on the seas.
Getting there and facilities
The pool is at the southern end of Palm Beach, with pay-and-display parking off Ocean Road, change rooms and toilets. Buses from the city and Manly run to Palm Beach, about 90 minutes from the CBD.
Good to know
The pool itself is unpatrolled. Parking fills quickly on summer weekends.