East Beach is the most popular holiday destination for residents and Geelong visitors, located on the shores of Corio Bay. The beach was developed in the 1930s in the Art Deco style, and today there is a special swimming pool for children, a gazebo, a pavilion with changing rooms. The waters of the bay are protected from sharks. A number of of Art Deco buildings along the beach are listed in the Victorian Epoch.
However, the place has not always attracted crowds of holidaymakers. In the very early days of of Geelong, the area of what is now East Beach was an "eyesore" of the city with its sheer cliffs stretching from the northern boundaries of the city to the bay. It wasn't until 1914 that the first plan for the beautification of the area. It was assumed that a 1.6 km long breakwater would be built here, reclamation of the coastal strip would be carried out, and the rocks along the beach would be smoothed. Further plans included the construction of a small hut on the beach, which, however, was to be built on the beach, which, however, was designed as a gazebo.
The landscaping work began in 1927 with the construction of a concrete stairs, embankments and changing rooms. A shark-proof swimming area with an area of 3.5 hectares and a capacity of up to 10 thousand people, as well as a children's pool, were built in 1939. All of this cost the city $80,000.
However, in the 1960s, East Beach, located within the city limits, began to began to lose its appeal as Geelong residents, most of them with cars, began to prefer to holiday on suburban ocean beaches. Decades of neglect had left the beach in a state of complete disrepair. It was only in 1993 that this situation began to change when the Geelong City Council announced plans to restore the area. The first priority was was to rebuild a fence to protect the waters of the bay from sharks. Then the gazebo, children's pool and locker rooms were restored. A restaurant opened on the top floor of the gazebo. The revitalisation of East Beach was part of a larger project to beautification of Geelong's seafront, which continues to this day.
