Britannia Park, near Warburton, Victoria

Britannia Park in the Yarra Valley, Victoria, is a Girl Guides owned property. I went to some camps there when I was in Brownies, when we lived in Melbourne in the 1960s. Several years later (about 1976) I visited and discovered that they had built a pretty nifty swimming pool. 

I did a search today and found it referred to as "an old swimming pool full of goldfish....not for people to swim in any more."

Swimming across the Riverina

A summer road trip across southern New South Wales and northern Victoria, from Sydney through various towns was a great opportunity to check out a variety of local public pools. These are only places we swam: so many towns, too many pools! No time to stop and savour the pools of Boorowa, Ardlethan, Barellan, Ariah Park, Darlington Point, Balranald, Wentworth, Robinvale, Urana or Junee. The weather was decidedly pool unfriendly at Swan Hill. 

Summer is hot in the Riverina and Murray Valley, and there's nothing like the local pool to spend the long summer holidays.

Pool One: Young Municipal Baths (A)

Our first overnight stop. Young, like many country pools retains its diving board. They seem to have gone the way of work health and safety /litigation consciousness in the Big Smoke. But as my friend John points out - it can be a bit of a challenge to swim laps while the kids or backpackers are hurling themselves off the board on top of you! No lane ropes in Young when I was there - just full-tilt leisure. 

Pool Two: Barmedman Mineral Pool (B)

A detour to check out this mineral pool, which apparently originated in the 1880s after the flooding of the Barmedman goldmines from an underground river.

Barmedman Mineral Pool's 40th anniversary celebrations must have been a bit of a grand event, with Dawn Fraser officially opening ... something....a revamped pool, or fiesta, the plaque does not make it clear.


Pool Three: Temora Swimming Pool (C)

A short drive from Barmedman, and Temora's pool is a very handsome facility. There's a diving board again, a cute kids' pool, and a 25 metre indoor pool providing year-round swimming. I thrashed up and down there but then had a dip in the 50 m outdoor pool, and especially enjoyed the beautifully kept lawns. 

I was a little surprised that on a very hot Sunday afternoon there weren't more people using the pool. Perhaps they were away (this was the week between Christmas and New Year, or maybe the rise of the private, backyard pool is having an impact on country pools as well?

I liked Temora pool very much. There must have been a job-lot on mushroom water features for the wading pool - both Young and Temora boast them! 

Pool Four: Hay - John Houston Memorial Swimming Pool (D)

Hay's pool is pretty amazing. For a start, it is free, as the sign on the way into town attests. It was opened in 1967 after a decade of local fund raising and named after John Houston who was President of the Hay Swimming Pool Committee for the 11 years of its existence. 

I arrived at opening time (midday), and pretty much had the pool to myself. It is pristine clean, and exceptionally well kept, a tribute to Hay! 

Pool Five: Waves Mildura Aquatic and Leisure Centre (E)

A modern indoor complex has been added to this traditional outdoor 50 metre and diving pool centre.

At first  I thought the diving pool must only be available for official diving purposes, or had gone the way of the city diving pool. I was chuffed to see the 3 metre board opened up, under the supervision of a pool attendant, and lots of kids (and older) came flocking for a jump. I didn't see anyone actually dive.

 The indoor complex features a leisure pool which turns into a wave pool which revs up periodically, and a 25 m lap pool. Great - most people amused themselves in there. leaving the "proper pool: to we lappies.

Pool Six: Deniliquin Swim Centre (G)

Another great facility with relatively few people there. It was afternoon when I swam there, and there was a swim squad and some learn to swim lessons. There's a nice setting, a good toddlers pool and plenty of lap swimming availability.

 Pool Seven : Lockhart Swimming Pool (F)

A 33 metre pool! There are or used to be a heap of them across the Riverina - probably 33 yard, actually. My friend John used to co-ordinate regional school swimming carnivals and said they were running races with world record time swimmers: because the teachers would sometimes forget to convert the 33 yard times  from their school carnival into 50 metre equivalents before submitting the times for seeding in the regional carnivals.

We met up with a friend and her mum and children there, and had the pool to ourselves for most of the time we were there.

Pool Battles: Save Sunshine Pool

Photo from Save Sunshine pool

The Sunshine community in Melbourne lost their 50 m Olympic pool and had it replaced by a 25 m outdoor pool and indoor leisure pool.

The Save Sunshine Pool lobby maintains a website at www.savesunshinepool.com

Sunshine is in an area with one of the highest youth populations, and least swimming facilities in Victoria.

The following transcript is from a 2006 ABC Radio program

Suburban pools running dry
Tuesday, 11 July 2006

Reporter: (Online) Florenz Ronn

Presenter: Jon Faine


The Sunshine pool has been out of use for a number of years.

Lovely lazy hours by the local swimming pool might become a thing of the past around some suburbs in Melbourne. It’s the middle of winter, but the heat is currently on at two suburban pools. There are even some splashes of colour and a sprinkling of activity surrounding the two latest pool controversies.

If you happen to be driving around Oakleigh, you’re likely to see a lot of blue plastic bags and ribbons tied to fences, letterboxes and shopfronts, as a sign of support for keeping their pool. A 24-hour picket is currently operating at the Sunshine pool in protest of its council’s decision to cancel the proposed redevelopment of their Swim and Leisure centre.

Over the years, some suburban pools have been allowed to deteriorate to the point, where it is now claimed that they are unhealthy and uneconomical to repair. But if no money is spent on infrastructure, then it becomes expensive to maintain, after which time it’s not economically viable.

The Monash Council has recently voted in favour of closing their ageing Oakleigh pool and re-developing the site. Oakleigh is part of the Monash Council and the Oakleigh residents claim that the Monash Council is too Waverley centric, which has lead to the colourful, if unusual, display. And across the other side of Melbourne, the Brimbank Council is to demolish the outdoor pools in Sunshine.

When 774’s Jon Faine suggested to the spokesperson for the pool action group in Sunshine, John Hedditch, that it was a matter of money, he agreed, adding that: "I think it is money, but it’s also to do with culture and attitude. This community has got sixty per cent of its people on low income and petrol prices are through the roof, people are working, they haven’t got the time. School kids can’t get on trains and buses and travel to all these out of area pools to have a swim after school. These pools aren’t deep enough for our teenagers or our schools. We haven’t had a school carnival here for fifteen years."

Melbourne has seen several battles over swimming pools over recent years. In North Melbourne, Fitzroy, Oakleigh, Footscray, and now in Sunshine, ratepayers are saying that they value the community pools far more than Councillors seem to realise. Pakenham have just saved their 50 metre outdoor pool. "You don’t have to be Einstein to work out the community wants the pool open, it’s our job to open it," one Packenham Councillor has been quoted as saying.

"If you don’t provide community infrastructure and give kids something to do, it’s not surprising that they get up to all sorts of mischief. There’s a link and our council (Brimbank) just doesn’t get it," concludes John Hedditch.
In Oakleigh, for example, pool supporters say that their pool is the only place where teenagers can go in the summer - apart from Chadstone Shopping Centre. The group protesting the Sunshine pool closure quotes the affect it has on local businesses. The outdoor pool was once a summer bonanza for local businesses.

"When we are continually being warned about obesity in our children, I find it hard to believe that access to the wonderful exercise of swimming is being limited by the closure of public pools," commented one of our listeners. Another perceives more political reasons, saying that: "I can't help but think that the changes made to local government by the Kennett government are now literally changing the makeup of many local communities."

Pool battles: Fitzroy Baths

Photo 2010 by John Pratt

"There is nothing more democratic than the public swimming pool."

- Annette Kellerman, Australian swimmer whose life was immortalised by Esther Williams in the film Million Dollar Mermaid.

Under the Kennett government in Victoria, many public facilities wrre closed as cost-saving measures. Fitzroy Baths, which featured in a reasonably iconic Australian novel, Monkey Grip, by Helen Garner, was one thing which was saved from closure by a determined community campaign.

There was an ABC Background Briefing radio program about it. You can read the transcript here.

The opening of Fitzroy Baths, 1908, from Pictures Australia

Hotel pools Part 1 :Melbourne

From time to time I'm lucky enough to stay in hotels with really nice swimming pools.

OK, I admit it: I seek out hotels with great pools.

Here's a selection of some of the best, starting in Melbourne.

Crown Metropol, Melbourne

This wins, hands down "best rooftop" AND "best indoor" pool. It's light, airy, with great views. Who would have thought a rooftop city pool could be so glamorous, yet a proper, full 25 metres for some serious exercise.



Park Hyatt, Melbourne

Until I met the Crown Metropol, this one had my "best indoor hotel pool" award. I love the aesthetics, the Roman pool feel, and also that's it's a full 25 metres, so a real pool, for real exercise swimming. Open til late, and early, the perfect attending-a-meeting availability.



Melbourne Short Stay Apartments

Pretty good indoor pool here too.






When he was seven or eight, Ben thought the pool at the Saville Suites was pretty good!

Buchan Caves Pool

This is one of the coldest pools anywhere. On the hottest of summer days, when the dry crackling heat of a bush summer is accompanied by the slow orbit of dopey, bloated flies, plunging into this pool will guarantee instant cold-induced headache! The pool is fed by a mountain stream which rises to the surface within the Buchan Caves reserve. The same water I suppose (though I could be wrong) which has shaped the limestone cave formations of the Buchan Cave system. The caves are west of Orbost in northeast Victoria. Volunteers keep the Reserve in good shape. I visited here with friends and family in January 1976, when returning from Melbourne. Town pool at Orbost

"The Res", Macedon, Victoria

Roger Deakin's story-telling in Waterlog (see post below) inspired me to think of some of the more unusual places I've swum in Australia. Many of my father's maternal family, the Coggers, lived around the Mount Macedon area 60km outside Melbourne, and his sister Elizabeth returned there in retirement. We went to visit her in January 1982 - a rather hot summer. My cousin was also around. He took us to a number of local 'hotspots'.

My aunt lived a short walk from "The Res", which I believe was off Nursery Road. I suspect it may not have been legal to swim in this, one of the water reservoirs of the Macedon area. It forms part of drinking water catchment. Nevertheless, it was a great place to slip into, thanks to a bit of local knowledge about its existence.

I’m not sure of the name of this particular waterhole – we just called it “The Res”. According to maps I've looked at, it was probably a small dam on Middle Creek.

We spent a few afternoons down at The Res, and I recall swimming out to a dock or platform a hundred or two metres from the bank.

On February 16, 1983, bushfires, known as the Ash Wednesday bushfires devastated Macedon, and many other parts of Victoria and South Australia. When we revisited in September 1984 you could clearly see "The Res" where trees had previously hidden it. That strange smell of dampened ash was STILL in the air that much later.


Below: photo by Peter Smith from The Melbourne Age - the Mount Macedon bushfire from melbourne, 60km away.

[My aunt's house was spared, one of few in her street - the capricious fire just glanced off it, and moved on]