For the third summer in a row, a landlocked regional Victorian town where summer temperatures can soar above 40 degrees Celsius is without an outdoor pool.
The cost to rebuild the decaying Maryborough pool has jumped by more than 50 per cent to an estimated $14 million.
The pool in central Victoria was deemed at “end of life” in 2022 by an independent assessor hired by the Central Goldfields Shire Council.
The assessor recommended the pool be demolished and rebuilt at a cost of $9 million.
Funding included $3 million from the state government, a proposed $1.5 million council loan, and a $4.5 million federal election pledge.
The community was under the impression that the funds were locked in and a new 50m pool would be built soon.
But the pool gates remain shut, and the site sits idle.
Duncan Bates is worried local children have nowhere to learn to swim. (ABC News: Sarah Lawrence)
Community frustration
About 8,000 people live in Maryborough.
With the town pool closed, residents have to travel an hour to access the nearest Olympic-sized pools at Ballarat or Bendigo.
The closest beach is two hours’ drive away.
Maryborough Swimming Club president Duncan Bates said the pool closure meant children were missing out on vital swimming lessons at a time when drownings in Victoria were on the rise.
“We have nowhere suitable to train, we can swim in the 25 metre indoor pool, but it’s very shallow so we can’t dive in it,” he said.
“My concern is people won’t stop going to the beach or stop fishing from boats, or messing around in reservoirs or creeks, because they will have never fallen into cold water or gone into deep water because our nearest pool is 3 foot (90cm) deep and nice and warm.
“It’s been a very frustrating process. The community is devastated they don’t have a pool over the summer.”
Central Goldfields Shire CEO Peter Harriott said the initial estimates were likely incorrect due to the complexity of the site, heritage considerations, and rapidly increasing construction costs.
“It’s really until you’ve got detailed designs that you can [have] good confidence in the estimates that you’ve got in front of you,” he said.
Peter Harriott says the Central Goldfields council is already carrying too much debt. (ABC News: Sarah Lawrence)
Political football
Maryborough sits in the Victorian electorate of Ripon, a seat that will be highly contested in next year’s state election.
“I thought this issue was done and dusted and we got the full amount to get the outdoor pool back this year,” sitting Labor MP Martha Haylett said.
“I hope to sit down with Peter [Harriot] and go through line by line what this $5 million extra is due to.”
Maryborough is not the only regional Victorian town where the pool remains shut.
A rebuild of the 25m outdoor pool at Maryborough will start in the second half of next year. (ABC News: Sarah Lawrence)
South-east of Bendigo, the Heathcote swimming pool has been closed since last summer after swimmers started to receive minor “electric shocks”.
At Rochester, the Campaspe Shire Council needs $8 million to rebuild the town’s pool after it was destroyed in the October 2022 floods.
Monash University lecturer in urban planning, Liz Taylor, said Australia’s vast network of ageing outdoor pools represented a cost liability that many councils simply could not meet.
But Dr Taylor, who also chairs the pool committee in her regional town of Elmore, said pools were crucial “community third places” to promote social connection, swimming skills and fitness in the post-COVID era.
“Building local pools is a way of keeping people safer, to learn and practise swimming,” she said.