El Dorado, the Lost City of Gold, exists, and it's right there in plain sight, right next to…read moreCentral station and just down the road from every damned hipster bar and coffee shop worth caring about. What the hell am I talking about? Prince Alfred Pool is what I'm talking about. No, not talking. Gushing, in strictly the non-chatroom sense. I always thought this was a scummy hobo park littered with needles and broken dreams. But I took a punt on a friends advice and hit this pool up for an afternoon swim and I stand before you a changed man. Firstly, it's free until November. Nada, nix, bupkiss. Secondly, it's a hella nice pool, with clean, clear water, lotsa lanes, and - the best - a huge slope of grassy wonderland for sunbaking and, sure, perving, because why not? There's a big wooden deck under a tree, umbrellas, a cafe, and state of the art changerooms. We even smuggled a bottle of wine in and got a little sozzled in the sun. Fine a lot sozzled. What a day though. I particularly enjoyed the city workers who busted out the budgie smugglers and were sprawling out in the sun while getting through a fat stack of reports. Now that's how you read, son. That's how you read.

They've finished building it, and it's beautiful. This is an outdoor Council pool set within the…read morelandscape at Prince Alfred Park, near Central Station. It's a great design: grassy hills, big yellow sun umbrellas, with detailing in dark wood and swimming-pool blue. There's not that much to it: a 50m pool and a cafe, change rooms, lockers, and little fountain thing for toddlers to run around in. It's highly green rated : sustainable materials, tri-gen energy, water recycling. The pool is clean and heated (though not too too hot). Suitable for wintertime laps, though getting out of the pool is the unpleasant bit. Today I was a bit unimpressed with people's pool etiquette (the slow lane is not for standing around in with your boyfriend, it's for swimming, morons - and a few stray legs from the play lane heading into the lap lanes, hmph), but I guess that's life in a public pool. It has the standard fast, medium, slow, and leisure lanes and mostly people understand what that means. I'm pretty thrilled that I had a swim in late May, and lay around in the sun. Go Sydney. Go Prince Alfred Park. And the best bit: it's free for the first 6 months! (Until some time in November 2013...)

We used to have all our swimming carnivals at this place, all through my primary and high school…read moreyears. Nothing changed in the main pool area in about ten years, perhaps except the toddler's pool has a cool little sail on top (but that was still years ago). They also have a training pool where we used to hold all our novelty events, and of course an Olympic pool which is 50m in length, and 8 lanes across. The place isn't all that big but it is outdoors so you get none of that sickly humidifying chlorine bleach smell everywhere. Of course you will once you enter the pools or even their new spa and sauna area. The change rooms are still the same old, with wet floors that I definitely wouldn't step in with bare feet, and an office/kiosk which sells some hot food and bottled drinks.

I was so exciting to go to the new pool as I'm living nearby. However, I can't use my Fitness…read morePassport & I was referred to Hurstville pool or other public pool. I just don't understand why my local pool don't operate like other council. I always paid my council rates on time, this is the only facility I was looking forward to use to improve my post operations on my knee & shoulders. I only hope Council will put the wellbeing of the people before profit.

Love this place. It…read morehas pool. A gym. Different classes for different things from zumba, to outdoor boot camp style training, to yoga! The pool has aqua aerobics and also a walking lane. And honestly, if you have a walking lane in a pool then it beats anything hands down. And people actually walk it. It's amazing.

Hit the gym for once so you can later hit the pool at the very same place, yeah! They have very…read moreinteresting classes and their concept will make you interested to come back again.

Beautiful spot for ladies only. Muslim, nun, big, small, petite and all kinds. The only legal…read moreladies only bath still operating in sydney. Must have a gold coin donation. Bath is in between Coogee beach and Wiley's bath. Definitely a woman's sanctuary and I love it here. Be mindful of the unofficial rules of no floaties and trying to steer clear of ladies doing laps

I had been going to the gym for years; putting up with no gym showers or toilets; you can go down…read moreto the noisy, dirty pool showers and toilets but who would do that after using the gym? And put up with the parking; or lack of when the park bike riders take up all the spaces. So once retired, I wanted a seniors discount; no such thing. You can get a rate if you have a disability, but not if you are just over 65 with a seniors card. $22 a week is a lot of money once you are on your own superannuation pension. So why isn't Randwick Council considering seniors. I don't want to do the aqua aerobics; I want to do weights and treadmills etc. And I don't want to pay $22 a week because you can only suspend it for a month. or cancel and re join when you come back. Randwick Council caters to the pool patrons. They don't cater to the over 65s. In fact don't consider the over 65s.

From the owner: The Des Renford Aquatic Centre is situated in Heffron Park at Maroubra, corner Jersey Road and…read moreRobey Street.