Across the city, the suburbs and country, people have rediscovered the joy of a cool-down in their local pool or baths, with both the Sydney Pool & Spa Expo and Victorian Pool & Spa Expo reporting visitor numbers up by a claimed 24 per cent this year. The figures mirror a surge in pool-related searches on Google, proving that Australian families are eager to make the most of summer.
Sydney sdy pools
At dawn, before the surfers or soft-sand runners arrive, pilgrims clutching towels and swimmers cut their way through the spray of crashing waves to patches of tamed ocean. They swim, float or sit, drawn by the same beauty that has lured artists for generations.
Nestled on the edge of the city’s coastline and harbour are a beloved collection of ocean pools and baths. Each year they are visited by 333m people, including many who learn to swim there. Yet, despite their importance to our community, they are under threat.
Council infighting, state government funding cuts and increasing maintenance costs are threatening their future, particularly for those outside of the inner city. The NSW Government is committed to reopening all public pools by 2020 and there are plans for new aquatic centres, but local councils have their work cut out.
For many, the reopening of Dawn Fraser Baths in Balmain has been a watershed moment. Its Victorian elegance, corrugated iron and painted cream and green wooden pavilion tucked beneath Balmain’s sandstone cliffs has been a reminder of the city’s heritage and is a reaffirmation that public pools are treasured assets.
But for some, the reopening of the pool has highlighted the need to address its ageing infrastructure and high operating costs. The pool is still plagued by leaking roofs, outdated filtration and heating systems and an aging management system, which has prompted calls for a comprehensive review to determine what should happen next.
The pool has also become election fodder for the battle royale brewing between the city’s Labor and Liberal candidates to run Town Hall. Clover Moore, aiming for her 17th term in office, has put the restoration of harbour baths on a pedestal and is spruiking them as part of her city-wide plan. But her rivals in Blakehurst – Sam Elmir and Sandy Grekas – have called for the pool to be razed and replaced with green space.
Despite the fact that Sydneysiders visit public aquatic centres at an astonishing rate of 333m each year, western Sydney communities are some of the worst-served in terms of their access to these facilities. The former Marrickville and Ashfield council areas, for example, have just one public aquatic centre for every 178,960 residents. In contrast, the inner city has six outstanding aquatic centres.