Manly was isolated from Sydney for many years - only accessible by road through Parramatta and the north western bushlands, a distance of 70 miles, or by punt from The Spit in Middle Harbour.
The first person to see the potential of Manly as a resort village was Henry Gilbert Smith, an English entrepreneur. In the 1850s he built the first hotel, and developed a shopping street from the harbour to the ocean, naming it the Corso after the famous street in Rome.
Smith was behind the first ferry service to Manly, and began the beautification of the Ocean Beach with the towering Norfolk pines.
During the early settlement days, the British soldiers were so hot in their woollen uniforms they would strip off and go swimming naked, just like the natives had for thousands of years.
In 1833 sea bathing was banned completely during daylight hours. It was not until 1902, after a lot of civil disobedience and many arrests, that this law was finally revoked.
A local Manly newspaper editor named William Gocher publicly announced his intention to bathe during the day, and mounted a campaign to have the surf bathing regulations changed. It worked!
But people were forced to wear neck to knee costumes, which grew so heavy in the water their wearers were often drowned. Also, bathing was segregated with separate hours or different parts of the beach for men and women.
Once again civil disobedience won out and mixed bathing in modest but light costumes eventually became the norm.
From 1903, the success of the all-day surf-bathing campaigners led to a boom for local businesses and property developers as bathers and surfers flocked to the resort.
Manly was the first place in Australia to have a surf boat patrolling the beach. The first surf life-saving demonstration was given by the Sly Brothers (George, Charlie, Tod, Eddie and Joe) and their relative Neil Norgreen at Manly Beach on 26th December 1903.
The demonstration featured 'rescues' using their fishing boat and Freddie Williams and other local swimmers as the ‘victims’. The boat was originally a clinker built doubled whaler, converted to a tuck stern for laying nets, and based at Fairy Bower (Shelley Beach).
The newspaper of the time reported that onlookers 'witnessed… skilful exhibitions of shooting the breakers in their surfboat'.
Manly was also the venue for Australia’s first professional lifeguard, Edward ‘Happy’ Eyre, who patrolled the beach from 1904 onwards.
Surfboard riding was introduced to Australia in around 1910, with a few locals demonstrating their ability to stand on Hawaiian surfboards by 1912. In the summer of 1915 the great aquatic Hawaiian, Duke Kahanamoku, gave an amazing exhibition of wave riding with a solid surfboard he carved himself from a local tree.
Gradually Manly began to lose its isolation due to the development of tram services, the opening of the first Spit Bridge in 1924, and the opening of the Sydney Harbour Bridge in 1932. The ferry service reached its peak in the 1930s, bringing thousands to Manly on public holidays aboard the South Steyne.
The Port Jackson and Manly Steamship Company built Australia’s largest shark-proof swimming pool at the Harbour Beach in 1931. It was enormously popular with holiday-makers until its destruction in a storm in 1974.
Manly has a world-famous reputation as a hotbed of sporting talent. In the 1924 Olympics, all of the gold medals awarded to Australian competitors went to Manly-based competitors - Andrew ‘Boy’ Charlton, Dick Eve and Nick Winter.
A ‘Pathway of Olympians’ running along the harbourfront commemorates all of Manly’s many Olympic athletes. Just look at the plaques laid into the promenade.
North Head is a unique part of Sydney’s landscape and includes the buildings of the old Quarantine Station, where people arriving to Australia on ships harbouring infectious diseases were quarantined until it was safe for them to be allowed in.
Manly is home to a colony of little or fairy penguins, the last one on mainland New South Wales. The Penguin Aware program encourages the local community to protect these beautiful seabirds.
The penguins can be seen during evening hours among the rocks near the Aquarium and under the boardwalk near the wharf.