Joyce and Gordon Newton left Sydney 20 years ago for a new life in Gulargambone, a quiet farming town 100 kilometres north of Dubbo. They might never leave.
“We love it,” Joyce says. “It’s the peace, the quiet, the open space, the fresh air … [and] the pool means a lot.”
Most mornings, Joyce and a group of half a dozen women descend upon Gulargambone’s Alan Walker Memorial Baths to swim laps and catch up on what’s been happening in town.
The sign welcoming visitors to Gulargambone (pronounced “Goolaa-gam-bone” but known as Gular to locals) says 503 people live here, but Newton says it is fewer these days. The town lost its cypress mill in the 2000s and, when the workers moved away to find other jobs, so did their families.
“A lot of the women are widows, and it’s their time that they spend with other people, instead of being home alone all day long,” Joyce says. “We just enjoy each other’s company and do whatever exercise we need to do.”
Just as Sydney flocks to its beaches and ocean baths, the public swimming pool sits at the heart of regional towns like Gulargambone. The Herald’s chief photographer, Kate Geraghty, has spent the summer travelling to these pools, documenting the daily routines of the people who rely on them for exercise, social connection and relief from the brutal summer heat.
In the shaded pavilion at the Dubbo Aquatic Leisure Centre, Lisa Burton helps her grandsons Maddox and Beckham Chapman apply sunscreen before their morning swim.
Already doing lengths of the Olympic-length pool are members of the Dubbo triathlon club known as the “Hippos”.
In Geurie, a 20-minute drive east of Dubbo, 18-year-old lifeguard Ella Hinchcliffe watches on as Sally Anderson and husband Ian enjoy the 25-metre pool to themselves. The couple swim a kilometre (40 laps) every morning except Wednesdays, when the pool is closed.
As the day heats up, two-year-old Kingston Hill and three-year-old Kruize Riley dry off on the sizzling concrete beside the public swimming pool in Peak Hill, a historic gold mining town between Dubbo and Parkes.
With the mercury hovering in the mid-30s and many of the old mining houses devoid of air-conditioning, the shaded area by the pool provides welcome relief. Others come for the slushies, ice-creams, and hot chips from the canteen.
When the school bell rings in Nyngan, a town of 2000 people between Dubbo and Parkes, its pool becomes the place to be: 15-year-old Sophie Walsh and her friends bathe in the afternoon sun, while 12-year-old Max Kennedy propels himself headfirst down the waterslide.
Back in Gulargambone, Joyce Newton’s swimming group has grown through the summer months. The school, which has about 60 students, uses the pool for learn-to-swim classes, and locals speak with pride about world champion ice swimmer Peta Bradley, who still trains there.
“It’s just a quiet, peaceful, pretty place,” she says. “I wouldn’t move back to Sydney, even if you paid me.”
Start the day with a summary of the day’s most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. Sign up for our Morning Edition newsletter.
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: www.smh.com.au
