Hundreds of thousands of residents in fast-growing parts of Sydney will be without a local pool this summer, and some will wait up to seven years, as councils embark on ambitious projects to replace ageing aquatic centres.
A Herald analysis of Sydney’s 76 public swimming pools found it will cost a combined $531 million to rebuild 10 pools that have been closed for redevelopment. Many ageing pools built in the 1950s, ’60s and ’70s are reaching the end of their lifespans – about 40 per cent of Australia’s public swimming pools will require replacement in the next decade.
Almost all the shuttered pools are in north-west, south-west and western Sydney, meaning those who live far from beaches or ocean pools do not have second options nearby to take a dip.
But there are others, too. In south Sydney, residents have been waiting more than seven years for Kogarah War Memorial Pool at Carss Park to reopen after it closed in 2019 when old pipes were found leaking into waterways.
Georges River councillor Natalie Mort, who campaigned to save the original Carss Park pool, said an entire generation had missed out on learning how to swim in the seven years it had been closed.
She drives to Sutherland pool in a neighbouring council area to take her four- and six-year-old grandchildren swimming – something she said was a significant effort but non-negotiable.
“Unless you’re a passionate parent, and you really want to get your kids to have the life-saving skill of swimming, you’re really at a loss, aren’t you?” Mort said.
“You have to make it easy for parents to have a facility that’s reasonably close by.”
Mayor Elise Borg said rebuilding Carss Park pool was the “most divisive issue” faced by the council, and pointed to a Sydney-wide trend of reluctant councils fearful to embark on redevelopments due to soaring construction costs, project complexities, and high ongoing maintenance costs.
The new $62 million pool, jointly funded by the council and state government, will reopen in late 2027.
One of the most troubled revamps has been the $65 million soon-to-be-completed pool at Willoughby Leisure Centre, which has been overrun by delays and a $26 million cost blowout since it shut in November 2022.
It was slated for a mid-2024 reopening, but the council significantly revised plans after discovering widespread asbestos and inadequate supporting piers.
In south-west Sydney, the $70 million Canterbury Leisure and Aquatic Centre reopened on Saturday after missing its scheduled ribbon-cutting in 2025.
The postwar modernist pool, one of the last of its kind in the area, closed to residents more than three years ago in 2023, and is $25 million over the original $45 million budget.
Royal Life Saving Australia’s chief executive Justin Scarr said extended pool closures had significant impacts not only on recreational swimming, but also on children learning to swim.
“It breaks the chain: Schools that have been using a pool for generations, those bookings drop out, and we’re not sure whether they return. Swimming clubs lose members rapidly, and they might use a neighbouring pool, but we don’t know whether they can successfully return,” he said.
Research from the nonprofit found that without a pool, children were at greater risk of drowning. About 40 per cent of children leaving primary school are unable to swim 50 metres, while only 32 per cent could tread water for two minutes. It also showed having access to a pool improved the physical and mental health of the community.
Sydney’s ‘pool deserts’
Pools in Sydney are also a story of haves and have-nots: they are fewer and farther between in northwestern and western regions. This creates entire “pool deserts” in suburbs which are also shouldering much of the city’s population growth.
“So much of our decision-making in Sydney is focused on the coastal suburbs, which are spoiled for choice. But you close down a pool in western Sydney, and there aren’t many other options,” Scarr said.
For example, Hills Shire suburbs such as Baulkham Hills and Cherrybrook rank among the highest in Sydney for private pool ownership, but the only public pool is the Waves Fitness & Aquatic Centre, shared between the local government area’s 222,675 residents.
Nearby pools are a 20- to 25-minute drive away in Blacktown and Epping, but both have been closed for redevelopment. In Ryde and Parramatta councils, there is about one pool per 140,000 residents.
In contrast, many inner-city and coastal local government areas are well serviced: the City of Sydney operates six pools from 6am to 8pm year-round, while the Inner West Council has four aquatic centres. And while councils such as Randwick, Waverley, Hunters Hill and Woollahra do not operate any aquatic centres, they have ocean pools and several beaches.
Apart from being scarcer, more pools in Sydney’s outer suburbs tend to close for the winter months, or have shorter operating hours. Cumberland, Fairfield and Blacktown all lose a pool each in winter to seasonal closures. Wollondilly’s public pool is only open between October and March.
Blacktown Mayor Brad Bunting, who is president of the Western Sydney Regional Organisation of Councils, said extreme summer temperatures in the city’s west made improving swimming pool access even “more pressing”.
“Access to swimming pools matters to people. It matters particularly in growing communities and in western Sydney, where summer heat can be intense,” he said.
“We need pools that keep pace with population growth. That means upgrading older facilities and planning for pools within reach of our newer suburbs. Extreme heat makes that need more pressing.”
Cumberland Council Mayor Joseph Rahme said the disparity in pool infrastructure concerned him greatly.
The council in south-west Sydney is finishing an $18 million renovation of Guildford pool, which is expected to reopen in March after it closed in mid-2024.
“Our residents and kids of future generations shouldn’t have to leave our local government area to go to places like Bondi or the Bay Run, they should have those facilities here,” he said.
“We can’t invent a natural spring, but a good substitute to that is a state-of-the-art swimming facility.”
Royal Life Saving Society chief operating officer RJ Houston said cash-strapped councils could rarely deliver projects on time and on budget due to rising construction costs and delays in the planning process.
Houston said pools were often planned in silos, reflecting the “fragmented” nature of local government, and suggested an alternate method: building pools at a regional level, across council boundaries to cut costs and reduce duplication.
“The current model is not sustainable, it’s breaking already. For many councils, this is the only pool that they have worked on in the last 30 to 40 years.”
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Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: www.smh.com.au
