Marrinawi Cove

Came here in a Sunday, jazz playing with the harbour views and cute dogs everywhere.

Awesome quiet oasis in the middle of the busy, bustling city. Open 24/7 for free swimming area. Good change rooms/toilets but they close at 10pm. Showers inside and cold ones outdoors. Excellently netted off swimming area with easy access down sandstone steps and metal walkways × 3 with railings (make sure you use them as the ground gets extremely slippery near waterline). Limited shady areas under trees. Well lit at night. Limited paid on street parking spots 20m away or huge paid parking garage near entrance. Easily accessible by metro to Bangaroo station and then flat walk along road (approx 200m) to swimming area or alternately around scenic waterfront walk through reserve (approx 1km, also flat, or for the fitter types up a large set of stairs over the cutaway reducing distance quite a bit as long as stairs aren't a problem!)

Being able to swim in the harbour as the bridge looms close to you is a real treat! They've done a great job of making this available to the public, without making it feel sterile. Seeing fish and jellyfish in the water is amazing. My only issue is the lack of a real changeroom - only cramped toilets which isn't super pleasant.

We finally had our first swim at Marrinawi Cove, a year after it first opened. It’s better than we imagined or hoped… a truly beautiful and sheltered swim spot, at the northern end of Barangaroo Reserve, the landscaping, design and functionality are next level. And it looks like it’s been there forever. We felt a bit foolish for leaving it so long, we were so impressed. Marrinawi is the Sydney Aboriginal word for large canoe, and was used to describe the vessels of the First Fleet into Sydney Harbour. For thousands of years the Gadigal people used this area for swimming, bathing, canoeing and fishing. Now we’re so lucky to be able to enjoy it too. There’s no entry fee, a cute heritage amenities block, an outdoor shower and the (expensive) metered street parking is still cheaper than the various parking stations nearby. A keeper.

Beautiful swimming spot very accessible to the city. Way back in the day, Marrinawi was an Indigenous swimming hole, more recently back in the day, it was too polluted to swim in. Now it's back to how it should be, a delightful clean spot to swim in. This was the first spot for swimming to open West of the Harbour Bridge (2023), although now there are more. 🚻 Toilets immediately adjacent 🚲 Right on the Barangaroo bike/pedestrian paths ❗ The rocks can be slippy. Use caution.