It is seen in photos of Repulse Bay from the early 1920s.
Location of marker on map is approximate.
Notes from gw in a comment on the page 1920s Swimming at Repulse Bay:
David,
Your main post above noted the "pier" standing offshore in Repulse Bay. It's also seen in the 1920's photo at;
The pier doesn't reach the land, so it's not a normal pier. Para.120 of the 1920 Report of the Director of Public Works may hold the answer to its function. It states;
"Repulse Bay - A Diving Pier was constructed to permit of diving from the end thereof at all states of tide."
So was the "diving pier" the offshore pier, one of the others in your photo, or even out of camera shot?
The second photo at;
looks towards the Repulse Bay Hotel from a boat. There's no sign of the offshore pier. The photo is dated 1919, so the "diving pier" hadn't been built by then. The photo is one of a series of four on Flickr. The next is at;
http://www.flickr.com/photos/53652797@N06/5074397212/in/photostream
It's wrongly labelled "Deep Water Bay", but is actually Repulse Bay and shows a wooden pier running from the beach into the water. I think it's the same pier as the one nearest the camera in your photo. If so, it had already existed in 1919, too early to be the "diving pier".
Next, the pier at the far end of the beach in your photo. It can't be ruled out as the "diving pier", but it's in quite a remote part of the Bay, not where you'd expect the Government to put it to encourage public use.
It's been suggested that the offshore pier could have served flying boats. Again it can't be ruled out, but the photo of the flying boat at Repulse Bay in 1920 in your post dated 16-9-2013 above shows that they, this model at least, could come right up to the beach, meaning an offshore pier wasn't necessary.
On balance, I tend to think that the offshore pier was the "diving pier".
Whatever the offshore pier was for, it didn't last very long as it doesn't appear in the photo at;
said to have been taken around 1925, or the 1934 photo at;
I haven't been able to find any mention of the "diving pier" in the annual PWD Reports after 1920, but Pages 55 & 56 of the 1923 edition say that a strong typhoon struck on 18-8-1922. "The damage done to the highways and piers was exceptionally heavy", as a result of which, "considerable repairs were executed at...(a number of named piers)...and Repulse Bay Beach". It's unclear which of the Repulse Bay piers is being referred to.
The "Bathing Facilities" section of the PWD Reports mentions Repulse Bay for the first time in the 1924 edition, and states that, "Three rafts together with the necessary attendants were provided at Repulse Bay." These rafts were mentioned again in the 1925 and 1926 Reports, but there's no mention of the "diving pier".
I wonder if the "diving pier" was destroyed in the typhoon on 18-8-1922? I'll get around to checking the old newspapers one day.
Photos that show this Place
