Foot and Ankle Care for Freshwater
Freshwater had a population of 9,186 at the 2021 census, packed into 1.8 square kilometres between the ocean and Harbord Road, which makes it one of the denser suburbs on the Northern Beaches. It is also one of the closest to the clinic: 1.8 kilometres by road, essentially the same distance as Brookvale, and a straight run along Harbord Road.
The beach where Australian surfing started
Freshwater Beach is where Duke Kahanamoku gave his demonstration of board riding in 1914, the moment usually taken as the start of surfing in Australia, and the suburb has never really stopped. The surf club, the headland walk to Queenscliff and South Curl Curl, and the ocean pool keep a large part of the local population barefoot on sand and rock platform for a good deal of the year.
The suburb changed its name back too. It was Harbord for most of the twentieth century and officially reverted to Freshwater, its original name, in 2008. Harbord survives in the road you drive in on, in the Diggers club on the headland, and in the way plenty of locals still describe where they live.
For a podiatrist, a suburb like this presents in a particular way: heel pain and Achilles complaints in people who train barefoot on soft sand, forefoot pain from board riding, and the cuts, nail injuries and plantar warts that come with rock platforms, ocean pools and communal change rooms.
Getting here from Freshwater Village
By car it is about six minutes: out of Freshwater Village onto Harbord Road, west across to Wyadra Avenue, then into Corrie Road. It avoids Pittwater Road almost entirely, which is why the trip is quick even at busy times of day.
Freshwater is also one of only two suburbs with a direct bus to the clinic that needs no change. The 167 runs between Manly Wharf and Warringah Mall via Freshwater and South Curl Curl, and it stops within a few minutes’ walk of Corrie Road.
