Independent Murrumbidgee MLA Fiona Carrick and Save Phillip Pool protesters out the front of the Legislative Assembly. Photo: Supplied.
In a perfect world, the ACT Government would have acquired the Phillip pool and ice rink site instead of Geocon, and developed a new aquatic centre and ice sports centre for Woden, possibly with private partners.
Alas, that multi-million dollar dream was not to be. And many ratepayers will be happy about that.
It is easy to sympathise with the Save Phillip Pool movement. Independent MLA Fiona Carrick has for years been battling the ACT Government over the high-rise development boom in Woden, a seeming lack of planning strategy for the town centre and shrinking community facilities, particularly in sports and recreation. It’s one reason she is now in the Legislative Assembly.
The Phillip pool has become symbolic of this struggle, and its demise will mark the divide between old and new Woden.
But the decline of Phillip pool has been long in the making, through a combination of neglect, undercapitalisation and falling patronage.
The sad fact is that the day of the outdoor summer pool is long over, and Phillip pool in particular is just not as popular as it once may have been. The Phillip pool petitioners may be able to gather thousands of signatures, but how many of them would be found poolside over summer?
It is also not a viable business proposition to open a pool for four or five months a year. Business and government can’t base decisions on nostalgia.
There are only two other outdoor pools in Canberra – Dickson and Manuka. The rest are indoor pools that operate all year round and it is still difficult to make money. Ask the YMCA, which pulled out of managing Canberra’s five government pools in 2023.
Once Geocon bought the privately held site, the outdoor pool and the ice rink’s fate was sealed.
But under the lease it must provide a public pool, and its plans for the site, again put on hold over its apartment proposals, include an aquatic centre with an eight-lane 25-metre pool, splash pad, learn-to-swim area, toddlers’ swimming area, leisure swimming area, “program pool with relaxation area”, a steam and sauna room, café, and an outdoor water play/splash pad and entertainment area.
That’s not such a bad result. The sticking point is that there is no 50-metre pool. But if you swim at the other aquatic centres, the 50-metre pool is often cut in half for lap swimmers anyway.
The loss of green space is also a problem, and of course, there are those towers and all those apartments, also known as homes.
Geocon is committed to keeping Phillip pool open until it starts developing that section. Photo: Geocon.
There have been calls for the government to consider building a new aquatic centre somewhere else in Woden, such as Eddison Park, and the Chief Minister, Andrew Barr, flirted briefly with the idea during the election.
But why would the government spend millions on a public facility when Geocon will do it for you? And of course, having two in Woden would not make sense. The other point is that many new tower developments have their own pools, such as Geocon’s WOVA across the road.
The only aquatic centre that Mr Barr will be building will be the one in Commonwealth Park, which will enable the Convention and Entertainment Centre Precinct to be developed on the Civic pool site.
Save Phillip Pool petitioners may call on the government to intervene, but having stayed out of the market, and after a legitimate sales process and development application, it is now up to the independent Planning Authority to do its job.
The petition asked the government to “retain and upgrade the existing Phillip Swimming & Ice-Skating Centre until a new ice rink is built and a 50-metre pool and associated aquatic and green spaces are available in the Woden Town Centre”.
But Minister for Planning Chris Steel responded that Geocon’s plans met the site’s “recreational” lease requirements, and it would be up to the Planning Authority to sign off on the DA or not.
“There is currently no legislative avenue for the Authority to require the proponent to retain the existing 50-metre pool or ice-skating rink or require the development to pause until a new facility is available in the Woden Town Centre,” he wrote.
The site is also Geocon’s property, and it can do with it what it likes, subject to the lease and planning requirements.
Save Phillip Pool may not like it, but Mr Steel is right.
Of course, Save Phillip Pool and the Planning Authority could make life so uncomfortable that Geocon decides to cut its losses and offload the site.
If that happens, don’t expect the government to enter the market; a new owner will likely have similar development ideas.
Perhaps the best outcome would be for the Planning Authority and Geocon to sort out the issues it has with the DA, and Save Phillip Pool and the Planning Authority work to secure the best possible aquatic centre that can be delivered, so at least the Woden Valley has public swimming facilities that can be used during all of Canberra’s four seasons.
