The entrance to Big Splash, as it appeared midday on Friday, 7 November. Photo: James Coleman.
This Saturday marks the precise midpoint of November, which Canberrans will know as the date given when Big Splash would finally reopen for the 2025 season – on pain of “regulatory action” from the ACT Government if it didn’t.
But you might want to put your swimmers back in the drawer.
Construction fences have gone up around the Belconnen water park, but there’s no heavy machinery or staff on-site, and the grounds and pools remain littered with graffiti and weeds.
Not what waterparks typically look like a week before opening. Photo: James Coleman.
In late October, Attorney-General and Ginninderra MLA Tara Cheyne said Access Canberra had been in touch with the owners, Translink Management Group, and although communication up to that point had been “poor”, the government was informed that a “program of works” was planned for a mid-November opening.
“However, if the owners fail to open for the 2025-26 season, Access Canberra may consider regulatory action in relation to lease use provisions,” Ms Cheyne wrote.
She later added she expected the waterslides to remain out of action due to their “state of disrepair”, hinting at deeper structural issues, but that “pools are a lot simpler in design, and more straightforward to service, repair and maintain”.
The site’s lease conditions require the owners to “maintain, repair, and keep the premises in a condition to the satisfaction of the Territory Planning Authority”.
Ms Cheyne said the owner had already been forced to resolve some issues, such as holes in the fence, by a government-imposed ‘Controlled Activity Order’, but it was time for other lease conditions to be imposed.
These require the premises to be used for an “aquatic and indoor sports and recreation centre and an unlicensed family restaurant”.
“Uses other than those relating to swimming and other aquatic activities may be subject to specific conditions determined by the Authority,” the site’s lease reads.
A spokesperson for the ACT Government told Region this week that Access Canberra remains in contact with the owner to “ensure compliance with the legislation” and reiterated the threat of regulatory action.
“This includes potential controlled activity orders, or in extreme circumstances, termination of their lease.”
The government has previously stated that the water slides would likely be in the ‘too-hard’ basket for the 2025 season – but not the pools. Photo: James Coleman.
Meanwhile, the former owners of Big Splash, the Sarri family, have had “positive chats” with the ACT Government about a plan to partner with the current owners and reopen Big Splash as a year-round facility, featuring indoor swim schools and hydrotherapy pools.
Alena Sarri manages Aquatots, a baby and kids swim school with four facilities in Forde, Nicholls, O’Connor and Googong. Her dad, Andrew Sarri, and brother, Toni Sarri, managed the site from 1970 to 1990, when it was known as the ‘Jamo Pool’.
“We’d like to see a more inclusive waterpark, so with splash play areas for kids with different abilities – we don’t have much of that in Canberra,” she told Region last week.
“But we’d also look at a hydrotherapy facility for that site – which would really benefit Belconnen – and because our swim school specialise in infants, we need the water to be quite warm, so we can easily double that up with a hydro [pool].”
Sarri said she’d had “some positive chats” with the government so far, but added “it doesn’t sound like the owners are interested in talking”.
“I honestly don’t even think they are in town any more.”
Alena Sarri manages four Aquatots facilities across the ACT – and would like to add another to the fold at Big Splash. Photo: James Coleman.
She deemed overhauling even the site’s 50-metre pool in time for mid-November as “pie in the sky”, and said it is likely “way too late for this season”.
“You would need someone to assess the structural damage of the pools and filtration systems. It’s not just a matter of filling it up and switching it on. It’s been neglected for too long.”
The ACT Government has washed its hands of pushing the plans forward, however, saying Big Splash is a “privately owned facility” and “conversations around current and future operations between third parties are not a matter for government”.
“However, the contact details of the lessee’s planning representative have been provided to the Sarrises should the private parties wish to discuss the future of Big Splash.”
The government has not indicated what actions it might take in relation to the current lease.
