WILD waves that lashed the coastline earlier this week have uncovered a fondly-remembered part of Newcastle history.
Next to Newcastle Ocean Baths, pieces that once made up the old map of the world pool have resurfaced.
Strong wind brought powerful swell and hazardous surf conditions to Newcastle beaches in the last week of July.
Constructed in 1937, the Young Mariner's Pool was a shallow child-friendly section of the baths. It featured concrete slabs carved to resemble the world map.
Countries of the Commonwealth were coloured in red, with the rest in green.
Battered by sand and storms, the continents were eventually broken up and mostly removed in the 1970s. Some pieces were believed to have been dumped off Nobbys breakwater.
Former Herald journalist and history writer Greg Ray said a city engineer came up with the idea while watching the lord mayor's son try to sail a model boat in a rockpool.
Years later, the concrete perimeter was further extended and the canoe pool was created beside the map pool, he said.
"Between the canoe pool and the Young Mariner's Pool, it was the place to go way back when," Ray said.
He said the continents were mostly covered by sand, but every now and then a big storm washed away the sand to reveal the little pieces that remained.
"The map of the world pool gets people excited because all the older people remember having a lovely time there when they were children," he said.
"It gets young people excited too because they imagine that the continents are still buried under the sand, and all they've got to do is dig far enough and they'll find them."
Beachgoer, Belinda Russell fondly remembers how her Dad talked about the long lost map of the world next to the ocean baths.
She said it was amazing to have seen a part of Newcastle history resurface.
"My Dad was born in 1936. He is a Newcastle man and he used to talk about this world map in the pool and no one ever believed him," she said.
"This is proof that it is actually there under all the sand."
History writer Mike Scanlon vaguely remembers the map pool, half-covered in sand, from his childhood growing up in Newcastle in the 1950s .
"After the colours became faded, it was smothered by sand and people semi-forgot it was there," Scanlon said.
"It's been a great talking point, it has been a nostalgia thing really. It did exist when there was no TV, just people listening to radio serials. It was a very different era."
