For about six years in the late 1920s and early 1930s, Coogee had something no other Sydney surf beach ever had: a proper English-style amusement pier, running out about 180 metres from the middle of the beach into the Tasman. It was meant to be Sydney's answer to Brighton, with a 1,400-seat theatre, a ballroom for 600, a 400-seat restaurant, shops and a penny arcade. What actually got built was a lot less grand. The money ran short, the crowds drifted away as the Depression bit, and the surf did the rest. By 1934 the superstructure was gone. The shark net hung off it outlasted the pier itself by more than ten years.
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Coogee Before the Pier
Coogee had been a day-tripper's spot for a long time before anyone drove a pile into the sand. The Dictionary of Sydney says that for local Aboriginal people "koojah", or Coogee, was a rich source of food, and that in the nineteenth century the place became a favourite for weekend picnics, cricket, shell collecting and swimming.
The big drawcard of the Victorian era was the Coogee Aquarium and Swimming Baths, opened on 23 December 1887. It was designed by the architect John Smedley, Italian in style, with a fancy octagonal dome over the middle. The Sydney Morning Herald called it a "most exquisite addition to Sydney's places of entertainment". People came to see seals, sharks and live fish, and there were bandstands, aviaries and an open-air bar. The novelty wore off pretty quickly, though, and the 1890s depression didn't help.
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Electric trams replaced the steam trams in November 1902, and that made the trip out from town a lot easier. In 1929 the Coogee Advancement League published a promotional booklet called Beautiful Coogee: Australia's Most Beautiful Seaside Resort.
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Swimming was booming too. The Coogee Life Saving Brigade was formed in 1907, it built a wooden clubhouse in 1910, and a big new surf club building went up in 1929. Coogee also had a darker reputation for sharks. Ashley Kingston of the Randwick & District Historical Society told the ABC in 2026 that there were two fatal attacks at Coogee in 1922. After them the beach got a galvanised steel shark observation tower on concrete piles, fitted with an electric bell, plus a shark-proof fence that collapsed before the swimming season even started.
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The Big Idea: An English Pier for Coogee
The pier was a private venture by the Coogee Ocean Pier Company Limited. Randwick City Council's Our Story history says work began in 1924 with a budget of £250,000, and that the company modelled the pier on English seaside piers like the Palace Pier and West Pier at Brighton. The Dictionary of Sydney says it was designed by G.L.D. James. It also records, with a bit of a smile, that the company had a "somewhat unimaginatively" chosen name.
The plans were huge. According to the Council, the pier was meant to run 250 metres out to sea and hold:
- a 1,400-seat theatre
- a ballroom for 600 people
- a 400-seat restaurant (the Dictionary of Sydney says upstairs)
- small shops
- a penny arcade
The company sold the pier to investors as built to last. The Council says the contractors claimed it would be "considerably stronger than any similar pier constructed in England", and the Dictionary of Sydney traces that boast to the company's abridged prospectus, printed in the Sydney Morning Herald on 30 January 1926.
Driving the First Pile
Sydney got caught up in it. The Council says big crowds gathered to watch the first piles being driven on 24 July 1926, and radio stations 2BL and 2KY broadcast the proceedings live. Radio was still new then, so a live broadcast of piling work at a beach shows how much of an event this was.
The piles weren't concrete. Ashley Kingston told the ABC the pier stood on cast-iron screw piles: "They basically had a long piece of cast iron that had an attached thread and they were screwed in with an electric winch."
Opening Day and What Was Actually Built
Randwick City Council and the Dictionary of Sydney's entry for the structure both say the pier opened on 24 July 1928, two years to the day after the first pile went in. Not every source agrees, and I've set that out further down.
What opened was a cut-down version of the dream. The Council says that because the money ran short, the pier only reached about 180 metres (other sources say 183 metres) and had "minimal facilities". It was over budget and late. What the records show actually happened out there is dancing, regular concerts and a café. The Dictionary of Sydney paints a nice picture of Sunday afternoons and evenings, with the pier all lit up and orchestras and popular singers playing to the dancing crowds.
Ashley Kingston, talking to the ABC, put it bluntly: the full-sized theatre, the ballroom and the rest of the bold plans "never made the final structure".
The Shark Net: The Pier's Real Success
Funnily enough, the most useful thing the pier ever did was hold up a net. The Council says the pier made the shark net possible. The net cost £6,750, stretched across the southern half of the bay and was tied to one of the pier's pylons. The Dictionary of Sydney puts the cost at "more than £6,500" and says it got worldwide publicity as a revolutionary idea.
The opening was a huge party. It was run alongside the unveiling of the new Giles' Ocean Baths complex and new surf sheds, all promoted as "Come to Coogee" Week, and the Council says 135,000 people turned up. A National Library panorama by EB Studios dated 16 November 1929 is catalogued as taken during the opening of the shark-proof enclosure by the Mayor of Randwick, with the pier in the background.
Within four months more than 800,000 bathers had used the netted water. When a hole showed up in the net, the Council says 40,000 people came down just to watch a diver inspect it. That says a lot about Sydney in 1930.
Night Surfing Under the Lights
The pier and the net together made night surfing possible. The Council says floodlights were installed that were strong enough for night surf carnivals, and crowds of 20,000 to 30,000 came down of an evening. The Dictionary of Sydney adds that the penny entry charge did very nicely for Randwick Council.
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Ashley Kingston thinks the old photos show which attraction people actually loved. Both cost money to get into, and the Depression had just hit, but "the shark net's full of people and the pier's practically empty," he told the ABC. "Then when the pier came down, the shark net stayed up. And in fact, they actually extended it."
Depression, Storms and Debts
The pier opened at the top of the boom and was dragged down by the bust. The Council says crowds thinned out over the next few years as the Depression hit, and storms damaged the buildings. Coogee's surf is no millpond, and an iron pier standing in the middle of the break copped it.
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Money troubles reached right into the company office. A bookseller's description of the 1929 promotional booklet Beautiful Coogee: Australia's Most Beautiful Seaside Resort says its author, Charles Henry Rolleston, was secretary of the Coogee Ocean Pier Co., and that the Sydney Morning Herald of 6 January 1931 reported him in bankruptcy court. I couldn't open that newspaper report myself, so treat it as the bookseller's account.
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Pulling It Down
The end came in 1933 and 1934. Randwick City Council's history says "the dream of an English-style resort ended with the demolition of the pier superstructure in 1933–34". The Dictionary of Sydney and Wikipedia both give 1934 for the demolition. The Kasz Books description of the Beautiful Coogee booklet says the pier was "ordered for demolition by council in 1933". The Council's February 2026 meeting wrap-up simply says the pier "was destroyed by storms in 1934".
So the pier lasted only about six years from opening, or about eight from the first pile. Kingston told the ABC it came down because of financial failure. The Council puts it down to falling patronage and the sea. Both were true at the same time.
The Net Outlives the Pier
The shark net kept going long after the pier. The ABC says it was held up by its own tower on the beach once the pier was gone, and a 1937 Mitchell Library photo shows the net's support structure next to the base of an old shark tower. Another shark tower went up on the beach in the 1940s, but reports at the time called it too flimsy and the lifesavers wouldn't use it.
How the net ended depends on who you read. The Council says it fell into disrepair during the Second World War because materials were scarce and the foreshore was fortified, and it was finally pulled out after more heavy seas. The Dictionary of Sydney says it was removed for security reasons during the war. The ABC says it collapsed in 1945 and was never replaced.
The Aquarium Next Door and the Shark Arm
The pier wasn't Coogee's only famous attraction. A year after the pier came down, the old Coogee Aquarium was the scene of one of Sydney's strangest crimes. In 1935 a captured tiger shark coughed up a tattooed human arm in front of the crowds, and that started the Shark Arm case. I've told that story in full in The Shark Arm Case – Coogee Aquarium – 1935.
Wikipedia says the Aquarium's big dome collapsed in a storm in June 1945. The building was heritage listed in May 1982, according to the Dictionary of Sydney, and was rebuilt as the Coogee Palace. It reopened in August 2014 as the Coogee Pavilion after a renovation by the Merivale group.
What's Left: The Mystery of the Pylons
For decades Coogee locals have sworn that bits of the pier are still under the sand. Wikipedia mentions lifeguards finding remains on the sea floor about 50 metres out, and some locals reckon the rip in the middle of the beach is partly caused by old pier foundations.
Then in July 2022 rough surf exposed a row of twelve concrete pylons on the beach. Randwick Council removed them because they were shifting in the sand and were a danger to swimmers. At the time everyone called them the last of the pier. City Hub reported in August 2022 that Council planned to turn the "historic Coogee Pier pylons" into public art, after Cr Joanne McCafferty's motion to consult local artists and residents. Cr Bill Burst also suggested a historical plaque.
Then came the twist. In August 2026 the ABC reported that Ashley Kingston had matched the pylons to old photos of the shark towers and the shark-net support tower. They weren't pier piles at all, because the pier stood on cast iron. Kingston said the mix-up went back at least to a 1975 Sunday Star report. Randwick Council's February 2026 meeting wrap-up agreed: heritage advisers said the blocks were "most likely columns from early shark net infrastructure" from the 1920s to 1940s. That meant they had little heritage value and weren't practical to reuse. Instead, Council said it would mark the pier's history "through interpretation and storytelling", for the 100 years since the first pier pylons went in.
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So nobody is building a new pier at Coogee. What's planned is a way of telling the story of the old one, a century after Sydney crowded the beach to watch the first pile go in.
Timeline
- 23 December 1887 – Coogee Aquarium and Swimming Baths open.
- November 1902 – Electric trams replace steam trams to Coogee.
- 1907 – Coogee Life Saving Brigade formed.
- 1922 – Two fatal shark attacks at Coogee. A steel shark tower and shark fence follow (Kingston, via the ABC).
- 1924 – Coogee Ocean Pier Company begins the project, budget £250,000 (Randwick City Council).
- 30 January 1926 – Company's abridged prospectus published in the Sydney Morning Herald.
- 24 July 1926 – First piles driven, broadcast live on 2BL and 2KY.
- 24 July 1928 – Pier officially opens (Randwick City Council, Dictionary of Sydney structure entry). The Dictionary of Sydney's Coogee entry gives 24 July 1929.
- 1929 – New Coogee surf club building constructed.
- 16 November 1929 – Shark-proof enclosure opened by the Mayor of Randwick, during "Come to Coogee" Week (135,000 people).
- 6 January 1931 – Pier company secretary C.H. Rolleston reported in bankruptcy court (per Kasz Books).
- 1933–34 – Pier superstructure demolished. Most sources give 1934.
- 1935 – The Shark Arm case at the Coogee Aquarium.
- 1945 – Shark net collapses and isn't replaced (ABC). The Aquarium dome collapses in a storm in June.
- May 1982 – Aquarium building heritage listed.
- August 2014 – Coogee Pavilion opens in the old Aquarium.
- July 2022 – Twelve concrete pylons exposed by surf and removed by Council.
- February 2026 – Council confirms the pylons were most likely shark-net infrastructure and plans to mark the pier's centenary through storytelling.
- August 2026 – ABC reports Ashley Kingston's findings on the shark towers.
Where the Sources Disagree
- When did it open? Randwick City Council's Our Story page and the Dictionary of Sydney's structure entry all say 24 July 1928. Catie Gilchrist's 2015 Coogee entry in the same Dictionary of Sydney says the pier was built in 1928 and opened with a gala on 24 July 1929. The Coogee Media local history site has been reported as giving 10 November 1928, but I couldn't load that page to check. I've gone with 24 July 1928, which most of the sources give.
- How long was it? The Council and the Dictionary of Sydney structure entry say 180 metres. Gilchrist's Dictionary of Sydney entry says 183 metres. The plan was 250 metres.
- Did it ever have the theatre and ballroom? The Dictionary of Sydney and Wikipedia describe it as having a 1,400-seat theatre, a 600-person ballroom and a 400-seat restaurant. The Council says those were the planned attractions and that the finished pier had "minimal facilities", with dancing, concerts and a café. The ABC, quoting Ashley Kingston, says the bold elements "never made the final structure".
- When was it demolished? The Council's Our Story page says 1933–34. The Dictionary of Sydney, Wikipedia and the Council's 2026 meeting wrap-up say 1934.
- Why did it go? The Council blames falling crowds and storm damage. The ABC says it was dismantled "owing to financial failure". Wikipedia puts it down to Coogee's rough surf.
- Shark net cost and end: The Council says £6,750, while the Dictionary of Sydney says "more than £6,500". The net was removed for wartime security (Dictionary of Sydney), fell into disrepair and was then dismantled after heavy seas (Council), or collapsed in 1945 (ABC).
- The pylons: From the 1970s right up to 2022, the concrete pylons were reported as pier remains (City Hub, 2022). The Council (2026) and Ashley Kingston (ABC, 2026) now say they were most likely shark-net and shark-tower footings, because the pier stood on cast-iron screw piles.
My Earlier Posts
- The Shark Arm Case – Coogee Aquarium – 1935 – Jim Smith, Reginald Holmes and Patrick Brady
- Sherbrooke House – 20 Coogee Bay Road – Randwick – New South Wales
- Wedding Cake Island
- Drawings Of The Sydney Eastern Suburbs In Colonial Times
- Aboriginal Land Names Across The Eastern Beaches
- Sydney Trams – From Horse Trams to Light Rail
Sources
- Randwick City Council, "Coogee Pier", Our Story: ourstory.randwick.nsw.gov.au/nodes/view/9753
- Randwick City Council, "Wrap-up from first Randwick Council meeting for 2026" (February 2026): randwick.nsw.gov.au
- Dictionary of Sydney, "Coogee Pier" (structure): dictionaryofsydney.org/structure/coogee_pier
- Catie Gilchrist, "Coogee", Dictionary of Sydney, 2015: dictionaryofsydney.org/entry/coogee
- Declan Bowring, "Historian finds Coogee Beach's concrete cylinders held up shark towers", ABC News, 29 August 2026: abc.net.au
- Erin Modaro, "Historic Coogee pier pylons to be transformed into public artwork", City Hub, 6 August 2022: cityhub.com.au
- Kasz Books, listing for C.H. Rolleston, Beautiful Coogee (1929): kaszbooks.com
- Wikipedia, "Coogee, New South Wales": en.wikipedia.org
- National Library of Australia, EB Studios, Panorama of Coogee Beach, 16 November 1929: nla.gov.au/nla.pic-vn6006062
- Images: State Library of New South Wales, National Library of Australia and contributors, via Wikimedia Commons