Until the announcement of the pool’s closure, in July this year, Glenorchy was a city with a brilliant, fresh, outdoor swimming facility.

Glenorchy War Memorial Pool served the citizens of southern Tasmania as a regional multi-sport/muti-purpose facility for 60 years. The pool has had a rich history. Built by the people to honour the fallen soldiers of World War II, Glenorchy War Memorial Pool has held its position as a place of civic and community pride for generations.

During years of better management, Glenorchy Pool had been the hub of the community. The pool was impossible to attend without a coach trying to sign you up to their water polo or swim team. In those days it was nothing to see a hundred children attending squad training on a Wednesday night, training and competing and developing transferable life skills, followed by valued moments spent nurturing lifelong friendships. The pool had always been a draw card for living in Glenorchy, with the swimming facility in easy reach for every occasion, for training, exercise, health, even birthday parties.

As was the intention behind its development, Glenorchy Pool completed the KGV Sports Precinct. The pool had hosted numerous sporting events and carnivals and has seen the development of swimmers and distinguished athletes such as Olympian Scott Goodman and Anne Henderson, the first Tasmanian to swim the English Channel. Water polo was once popular in Glenorchy with an A grade water polo team that had dominated the podium for a decade.

Several high profile sporting events were held at Glenorchy War Memorial Pool including the 1986 National Championships and it is even rumoured to have attracted high profile celebrities – Dolly Parton is said to have patronised Glenorchy Pool in the mid-1980s around the time of her concert at the KGV!

For six decades Glenorchy Pool served the citizens of Glenorchy and beyond, not only as a central point of athleticism, health, recreation and socialisation but as a war memorial to honour the soldiers who fought and died in WWII. The pool held pride of place in the hearts of minds of its patrons and not only added value to the lifestyles of Glenorchy’s citizens but increased value of northern suburbs real estate simply by its proximity. $40billion value is created annually for homes in Australia situated within 1.6km of a public pool)

Glenorchy War Memorial Pool, an all-round enticement for living and investing in Glenorchy, is now gone.

On 11 July, 2023 an era came to an abrupt end when Glenorchy City Council mayor, Bec Thomas announced the permanent closure of Glenorchy War Memorial Pool.

The mayor released a statement that the pool had to be immediately shut due to safety concerns. These concerns listed faults with the electrical switch board and structural issues with the concrete grandstand. They also referred to the pool shell, leaking water at a rate of 35000 litres per day.

Interestingly, this last claim is not substantiated by the council sanctioned inspection report (Lacus Report), which states that the pool is in fair condition yet fails to mention a leak at all. Neither the Lacus Report (a mere sight inspection) mentions the water leak nor does the Consultant’s Presentation to Council (a damning vivisection that relies on referencing IPWEA benchmarks in order to condemn the pool rather than a thorough engineering investigation itself). Rather, the leak is presumed from water meter readings taken the day after the season close, i.e. 35000 per day was being used so therefore the pool must have required 35000 litres of topping up per day.

“We have water meter readings that were installed just before the 21-22 season and it was read the day after it was closed so we can verify that it is using that amount of water.” – Emilio Reale (Director of infrastructure) Community Yarn 17 October 2023  Page 7/11 here.

However, footage taken by drone in the months following the pool’s closure shows evidence of a pool which did not lose a substantial amount of water until the GCC decided to actively drain it on the 16 September 2023. Were the pool leaking the 35000 litres as GCC claims, the pool would have emptied long before it was actively drained. In fact, it is estimated that it would take 70 days to empty an Olympic size pool at a rate of 35000 litres per day, meaning that the pool would emptied itself by July.

On the strength of a ghost leak and a list of repairs that are essentially upgrades, cleaning and required maintenance, the Glenorchy Pool has been permanently closed, awaiting a federal commitment to funding for redevelopment. Repair, we are told, is not an option.

“Repair would not be a wise use of ratepayers money,” stated Mayor Thomas at the community Yarn on 17 October.

The repair option listed in the Consultant’s Presentation totals $1.35 million, an expense the GCC claim would only extend the life of the pool by 5 years. Without community consultation or due diligence to properly assess the condition of the pool, the repair option has been unanimously opposed by council.

Therefore, the only chance Glenorchy has of retaining a swimming facility is to procure state and federal government funding and hope that GCC will produce the required co-contribution. It is anticipated that a redeveloped aquatic facility will cost atleast $30 million.

Currently a study is being undertaken by MI Global Partners to assess the feasibility of an aquatic centre in Glenorchy (an aquatic centre that has already proven itself feasible for the previous 60 years!) The study is required to present a business case to government in order to apply for funding.

So what’s the problem, you say? If we just be patient and trust the process the government will come to our rescue and provide the citizens with a much needed swimming facility, right?

The writing on the wall appears to say otherwise.

From the very first press release the mayor has stated that the business case for the pool is not particularly strong.

“The business case for the pool, as it is, is not particularly strong. As an outdoor pool it has a limited season, with many people preferring to use Hobart’s Aquatic Centre which is a more modern facility just 10 minutes up the road. Last season, fewer than 100 people used the pool every day on average, with an annual cost to Glenorchy ratepayers of about $400,000” – GCC pool closure announcement

This statement has been made despite Glenorchy Pool having been heavily relied on to host school swimming carnivals. Schools from as far as Nubeena have now had their sports events displaced due the closure of Glenorchy Pool. Recently a school at Herdsman’s Cove was rumoured to have outlaid $3000 to host their end of year event at the newly opened Oatlands Aquatic Centre as the two remaining Hobart aquatic centres are already at capacity. Austins Ferry Primary have had to cancel their end of year event due to lack of pool availability.

Lack of pool availability is a reality confirmed in the Kingborough Council Pool Feasibilty Study. “Centre management has indicated potential aquatic provision at KSP would likely free up water space for other programs and initiatives at the Hobart Aquatic Centre that cannot be provided is at currently at capacity.”  — Angela Jenni, Manager Hobart Aquatic Centre, p.29 Feasibility Study of an Aquatic Centre with the Kingborough Sport Precinct.

 Clearly, there is need to retain this crucial swimming facility in Glenorchy for the use of Greater Hobart.

The mayor’s statement about low patronage also fails to recognise the culpability of Belgravia Leisure’s management of the facility over the last few years. Not only did Belgravia Leisure fail to run adequate sports programs and activities, often times patrons were turned away because of insufficient staff. Adequate alternate options to a public pool simply don’t exist in Glenorchy. For our youth the situation is dire, with no other affordable venue for supervised, unstructured recreation; there’s little else to do.

The convenience of local Glenorchy Pool, once a beautiful and supervised community hub for health, sports and socialisation, has been permanently closed with no firm commitment to reopen and no option to repair.

Glenorchy needs its own swimming facility. Data compiled by Royal Life Saving reveals that the cost of life saving swimming lessons is prohibitive particularly for those living in low socio-economic areas. Glenorchy scores a low 22/29 on the socio-economic index for areas and residents typically experience disadvantage in terms of access to material and social resources.

Disadvantage is also typically experienced by those from Glenorchy’s high proportion of culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds. Findings from the The Social Context of Childrens Swimming and Water Safety Education state “Children of participants who spoke a language other than English at home were significantly less likely to either be participating in swimming lessons, or have participated previously, than those who did not speak another language at home.”  

We live on an island interspersed with unsupervised waterways and for most Australians, swimming and spending time in and around water is an intrinsic part of Australian culture.

Glenorchy Pool, in happier times.

Conversely for our culturally and linguistically diverse citizens, barriers to participating in this prolific Australian pastime are becoming painfully more obvious. Drowning deaths are proportionally higher in people born oversees. The reduction in local, accessible pool time presents a reduction in the steppingstones from being non-swimmers to having proficient swimming ability. Access to neighbouring swimming facilties is unattainable for who may lack the means of reasonable, direct transport.

Taking away the only swimming facility in Tasmania’s biggest multicultural community does nothing to reduce the inequities faced by Glenorchy’s high migrant population for whom the immediate priorities of resettlement and the cost of swimming lessons are prohibitive factors in enjoying our many waterways. This inequity will compromise social cohesion in our rapidly growing city. Whilst the mayor talks of balancing the books the reality is that the citizens of Glenorchy cannot afford to lose this local swimming facility.

The Glenorchy City Council’s own Safer Communities Framework acknowledges the importance of community connectedness and services provided within the community, citing Walking With Communities; Local Government and Community responses to local are renewal.  Neighbourhood Renewal explicitly links place-based and people-focused initiatives in an approach that emphasises the importance of economic and commercial development, regeneration and construction of new physical infrastructure in addressing socio-economic disadvantage.

  • Safe, clean, welcoming spaces free from crime and anti-social behaviour.
  • Infrastructure to support community connectedness, fun and creativity.
  • A place for gatherings, celebrations, events and activities.

Glenorchy War Memorial Pool has always been a single venue to provide for all these necessities and more. The cost to our citizens for the loss of our multi-sport/multi-purpose faciltiy is immeasurable.

So what will the replacement of Glenorchy Pool cost us in monetary terms?

The mayor has made a statement exaggerating the cost to the community of the estimated $30million replacement facility.

“… if that is overwhelmingly what the community tells us they want, we will also have alongside that to present to the community what that’s going to cost over the life of the asset. That’s what we don’t have at the moment. If we present [hypothetically] that it’s going to cost this much and so there’s going to be a $500 pool levy on the rates notice every year, for every individual ratepayer, is the community happy with that outcome?” – Mayor Thomas P9/11 Yarn

Despite the staggering predicted annual $500 pool levy estimated by Mayor Thomas, the anticipated ongoing cost had been previously minuted at the October GCC meeting as totalling about $64 per household per year.( P12/31 Glenorchy City Council October meeting). An upfront cost to ratepayers of $1363 to build a $30 million dollar facility would only be required if council failed to obtain Government funding. Funding, depreciating and operating cost would be incurred by any alternate option that replaced the pool.

The benefits of aquatic centres, which clearly surpass the actual estimate of $64 per household, have been quantified by Royal Lifesaving Australia.

The aquatic industry in Australia annually contributes $9.1billion annually in combined economic, health and social benefits, supports $2.8 billion of economic activity, $2.5 billion of health and wellbeing benefits, $3.8 billion of social benefits and created $40 billion of value for homes located within 1.6km of a council owned pool.

For every dollar spent on aquatic services the social return is more than double.

 Why is the GCC so averse to apportioning part of our rates to support a multi-purpose community hub? The expenditure on Glenorchy Pool over the past few years at $400K (which includes non-ongoing expenses) for an estimated 100 daily patrons (excluding schools groups and private bookings) has been almost commensurate with Moonah Arts Centre, which operates to the tune of half a million per year but attracts less than 80 per day.

The case for the pool is clear. The pre-eminent experts in health, safety and social cohesion support investment in social infrastructure. For the community outraged by the potentially permanent loss of our valued swimming pool, the case couldn’t be clearer.

Nowhere else does there exist an affordable, accessible, local facility that can be used in such a variety of ways by people of all ages. Disparate options should not even be considered.

Despite this, the GCC are undertaking a study that will consider alternate options for the Glenorchy Pool site leaving the possibility that Glenorchy will emerge from this process without a pool and having to rely on neighbouring facilities, which are already at capacity, a factor that GCC may well have planned for.

In September 2022, 6 months before the GCC concluded the pool had to close, the GCC released a draft of their Strategic Asset Management Plan, which states that Glenorchy Council intends to “reduce the level of the service and educate customers to accept appropriate asset failures and to use services from existing infrastructure including aquatic centres which might exist in other areas.” (p.31/64 GCC Strategic Asset Management Plan)

At the end of the day we have a council that claim to be unable to depreciate and operate a swimming facility and who planned to run it down, undertaking a feasibility study to assess ‘alternate options’ for the Glenorchy Pool site.

Glenorchy War Memorial Pool has been a valued community hub for decades, built by the people of Glenorchy for the betterment of all. The pool is a monument to the spirited community who toiled to create an enviable self-standing city yet the future of our significant city centerpiece may now be irrevocably cancelled. Glenorchy’s aquatic sporting and recreational future is at the mercy of a handful of individuals. Desisions made now will impact health and lifestyle outcomes of our rapidly increasing population, ongoing.

The people of 1950s Glenorchy had the persistence and courage to build a vibrant, livable city. Upon our shoulders is the responsibility to continue that vision. Glenorchy War Memorial Pool, the heart of our city, must beat again.