Rain is still the only water at Belconnen’s derelict Big Splash Waterpark. Photo: James Coleman.
A collection of pool users have banded together to lobby the ACT Government for a key policy document they believe is missing, and which they believe is leading to many of the problems facing the territory’s popular swimming spots.
The impending loss of the 50-metre outdoor pool in Phillip has been in the headlines for years, ever since Geocon bought the site and announced plans to build two 13-storey residential towers on a section of the site that currently houses the Phillip Swimming and Ice-Skating Centre. The ground floor must also include a new public aquatic centre with a 25-metre lap pool, as well as a café, splash pad, learn-to-swim area and outdoor water play area.
“With Woden’s population due to double in the next 40 years, there is an alarming lack of adequate swimming facilities in Canberra’s southside,” Sarah Ransom from the Save Phillip Pool group told the ACT Government during a public hearing this week.
“In winter, north Canberra enjoys 2000 hours of 50-metre lanes available per week, this is only 300 in the south – split between Stromlo Pool and Lakeside in Tuggeranong.”
Then there’s the deteriorating state of Big Splash in Belconnen, which remains closed with no word on when it may reopen. A new Civic pool is also still years away.
It’s one reason why Dr Caroline Luke-Evered from Friends of Manuka Pool makes the trip to Lake Jindabyne every summer, rather than dare to dip in Canberra’s lakes and rivers for fear of toxic blue-green algal blooms.
“I’m not going to swim in Lake Burley Griffin – even if the government tested it and said it was clean, I just wouldn’t believe them,” she told Region.
In 2016, Manuka Pool also had to fend off plans from a Sydney-based developer that would have taken away half of the site’s lawns and cast the pool in shadow for most of the day.
Friends of Manuka Pool members Rebecca Scouller, Caroline Luke-Evered and Rosemary Hollow. Photo: Michael Weaver.
“With over 45,000 visits last season, the potential impact of that development [on Manuka Pool] would have been devastating,” Dr Luke-Evered said.
All of these problems, advocates say, could have been avoided if the government had an ‘Aquatic Pool and Urban Swimming Strategy’ in place.
Joined by the Canberra Wild Swim Club, a group that meets every Friday morning at Black Mountain Peninsula for open-water swimming in Lake Burley Griffin, Ms Ransom and Dr Luke-Evered are spearheading a push for the government to develop just such a strategy.
Approximately 23 per cent of the ACT’s children participate in swimming. Photo: Thomas Lucraft.
The idea stems from recent data from the ACT’s Sports and Recreation directorate, which shows that swimming is the most popular sport in the ACT, with participation rates of 23 per cent among children and 12 per cent among adults.
“We’re pretty much the only jurisdiction in Australia that doesn’t have an aquatic strategy,” Dr Luke-Evered explains.
“Every local government area in Australia, like NSW, has put in place an aquatic strategy. Everywhere, except for the ACT. New Zealand has one for the whole country. Shoalhaven’s got a really good one. A lot of the Scandinavian countries have them.”
The group claims that having a policy would have not only prevented the huge level of maintenance facing the Phillip, Belconnen and Civic pools, but also added new, larger and more “diverse” options across the ACT.
It’s calling for a 50-metre pool in each of the ACT’s six town centres, along with a 25-metre pool, a gym, rehabilitation facilities, and areas for aquatic sports such as diving, underwater hockey, underwater rugby, and water polo.
“And then have it easily accessible, and catering for diverse needs, so a time for Muslim women and a disability section,” Dr Luke-Evered said.
The group also wants the government to sign up to the Rotterdam-based ‘Swimmable Cities’ initiative, which aims to clean up waterways in cities across the world, and came about when Paris cleaned up the River Seine ahead of the 2024 Olympics.
“We could be leading Australia as the first swimmable city in Australia and the Southern Hemisphere.”
While there will be costs associated with all this, the group said it will be worth it.
Dr Luke-Evered argued that there’s clearly a strong demand for swimming spots in Canberra, to the point that Dickson Pool had to adopt a “one-in, one-out” policy last season due to a lack of lifeguards to balance the number of pool users.
Dickson Pool was so busy last season that it had to reduce the number of visitors on some of the hottest days. Photo: Region.
“As a retired GP and sports medicine doctor, I also know swimming is the best exercise anyone can do for long-term physical and mental well-being,” she said.
“It’s low impact, it’s rehab, it’s mindfulness, etc. And if we can get that through and say, ‘Listen, even when you’re injured, if you can’t run, if you can’t do all these things, you’ve just had a hip operation, you can try swimming.
“This will save money in the long term.”
So far, the group’s campaign has the support of Royal Life Saving ACT and independent ACT senator David Pocock.
The ACT Government has also informed them that a strategy is in the works, as the development of an ‘ACT Skate Strategy’ for the territory’s skateboarding facilities is nearing completion.
“We have to make sure someone in government is responsible for making sure it’s followed and that the people it affects – like pool users and swim sports groups – are consulted regularly.”
