Aquatots founder Alena Sarri remembers growing up at Big Splash. Photo: James Coleman.
The original builders of Belconnen’s Big Splash Waterpark are eager to do a deal with the current owners to restore it to its former glory – including adding an indoor 25-metre pool and hydrotherapy facility – if only they could find them.
Alena Sarri manages Aquatots, a baby and kids swim school with four facilities in Forde, Nicholls, O’Connor and Googong. However, her Dad, Andrew Sarri, and brother, Toni Sarri, were the masterminds behind Big Splash, taking over the lease in 1979 when it was known as the ‘Jamo Pool’, which had only a 50-metre pool and a toddler pool.
They hired local builders in Fyshwick to fabricate the waterslides, including the twin ‘Hurricane’ slides.
“They’re very business-oriented, so they have a lot of big ideas and then just make them come to fruition. Throughout their whole lives, they thought big.”
Big Splash is far from its heyday now. Photo: James Coleman.
Alena was only one at the time, but the waterpark is part of nearly all her memories.
“Growing up, I’d go every day – that’s where my mum started teaching swimming – and then I began working there, pretty much sat at the front counter. I remember the line to the slide went all the way to the top of the tower, and you’d be waiting hours for a go.”
The picture today is very different. For the past two years, the waterpark’s only visitors have been “urban explorers”, taking videos of the site for social media, or vandals.
The Sarri family sold the business in 1990, with Toni and his wife opening a pub in Ginninderra instead. The waterpark was acquired by a developer, who then went bankrupt, and subsequently sold it to Ron Watkins, who gave it the Big Splash name and added the ‘Speedcoaster’ and ‘Twister’ slides, purchased from Wet’n’Wild on the Gold Coast for $1.5 million.
When Watkins retired in 2021, the lease went to Translink Property Management in a $7.5 million deal.
However, for the first time, it failed to open for the 2024 season, the website was removed and the phone lines were disconnected. There was no word from the owners as to why. Two separate petitions to “bring back Big Splash”, including one by the ACT Greens, begged the government to step in.
Last month, City Services Minister Tara Cheyne announced that she had received confirmation from the owners that they were undertaking a program of works to prepare the facility for a mid-November reopening.
If they don’t, she warned, the owners would face action from the regulator for failing to meet the site’s lease conditions, which require it to operate as a public pool.
Big Splash is under orders from the government to at least open the 50-metre pool this season. Photo: James Coleman.
Watching on, the Sarri family is heartbroken. Alena says the owners’ plans to open in as little as two weeks are “pie in the sky”.
“Pools are like ships – it’s just constant painting, constant rust-proofing, and constant making sure the chemicals are right. If you get that wrong, it ruins the metal,” Alena says.
“Pools are living, breathing things. Even the 50-metre pool’s concrete is likely cracked and would need substantial work. Depending on the state of the waterslide towers, parts will either need to be re-braced, replaced, or the whole structure demolished and rebuilt.
“It’s been left to rust for so long. You’d need to get somebody in there to say what needs to be done … But you’re obviously going to need time to do that. But some of the new waterparks that have been opened in Sydney, you could literally pick up the design and put it on that site, and it would work really well.”
How much would this take?
“A lot” is Alena’s simple answer.
She suggests the ACT Government could provide some of the funding, in the same way it subsidises Belgravia Leisure to operate the Gungahlin, Civic and Stromlo pools.
However, she also has another idea to make Big Splash sustainable even in winter when Canberra’s other outdoor pools close – by turning half of into another indoor Aquatots facility.
“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 says.
“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.”
These, along with a swim-school pool, would be operational year-round to offset the costs of the outdoor attractions.
“I also know for a fact there are a lot of people who love winter lap swimming outdoors, so we could even keep that open all year, too. It’s actually really good for you.”
Alena Sarri is more than ready to share her ideas with the Big Splash owners. Photo: James Coleman.
She says she’s ready to put all of this in a deal for the current owners – if only there were a way of getting through to them.
“We haven’t been able to get in touch with them, and every time I write to the government, I’m told it’s privately owned,” she says.
“I’m just so sad and disappointed to see it in the state that it is, and for Canberra, the more people we’re packing in here, the more stuff we’re going to need for people to do, so getting rid of that waterpark isn’t an option.”
