Government crews have had to make repairs to the fencing in recent weeks after the owners failed to respond. Photo: James Coleman.
The ACT Government has put to bed perhaps the community’s greatest fear for the future of Big Splash.
The once iconic Belconnen water park has been left seemingly abandoned since it failed to open for the 2024/25 season, and is now a mess of graffiti, broken glass and leaf litter.
With little word from the owners – a company called Translink Management Group – public fears have turned to rumours they are preparing to wash their hands of the business and sell the site off to developers.
But in a speech in the Legislative Assembly this week, Minister for Planning and Sustainable Development Chris Steel said that won’t be happening.
Mr Steel explained the Big Splash site is currently classed as a “PRZ2 Restricted Access Recreation Zone” under the government’s development regulations, which only allows for “facilities that meet the recreational needs and demands of the community and provide for a range of sport and recreational facilities and uses”.
He said the Planning Authority had not been approached about any other plans for the site, but also gave his answer as if this was likely.
“The site is for recreational facilities like a pool, and … the ACT Government has no plans to change the zoning of this site into the future.”
Regarding recent vandalism of the site, Mr Steel said the owners are required under the Crown lease conditions to “maintain, repair, and keep in repair the premises to the satisfaction of the Territory Planning Authority”.
He said Access Canberra’s “compliance team” had inspected the site three times over the past few months – in October 2024 and March and April this year – and tried chasing the owners about its derelict state, but failed to make contact.
However, given the lease conditions also “permit the authority to enter the premises to undertake necessary repairs and recover costs from the lessee”, Mr Steel said the government crew made some repairs of their own to the perimeter fencing earlier this year to address “immediate safety and security risks”.
“The lessee was notified of this work and … the lessee will be footing the bill for the work that Access Canberra’s had to do,” he said.
“Since then, Access Canberra has been in continued contact with the lessee to advise them of the safety risks to the public and reminded them of their obligations to maintain and repair the fencing as a matter of priority.”
The comments came in response to a motion from the ACT Greens calling for the ACT Government to go tougher on the site’s owners to make sure the waterpark reopens next summer.
“The community would like their pool back for next summer,” ACT Greens MLA Jo Clay said.
“They’d like to know what’s going on with the site, and they particularly want to know if they will still have a pool here in a few years.
“Government should take all of the steps they can using the existing powers that they already have to help reopen Big Splash next summer. Our community wants reassurance that the government is involved, that they’re taking this seriously.”
Ms Clay sponsored a petition late last year, calling for the government to “bring back Big Splash”. It attracted 74 signatures.
Not water you’d want to take a dip in. Photo: James Coleman.
Independent MLA Fiona Carrick, herself a big advocate for keeping a 50-metre outdoor pool in Woden, took the opportunity to call for an ACT-wide “aquatic strategy” to prevent the loss of more public pools.
“Yet again, we can see with Big Splash how ineffectual the government is at enforcing these conditions for privately owned public facilities,” she said.
“We saw the same lack of effective action from the government when the Phillip pool was closed for a year during COVID, then again failed to open for the following season because the owners had chosen not to undertake necessary maintenance. A letter was sent and no sanction was applied.
“It is clear that the private ownership model is a difficult model for public pool facilities.”
Ms Clay’s motion passed with unanimous support.
Mr Steel said the government would be providing a “detailed response” to both the motion and the recent online petition on Big Splash later this year.
