General News
31 January, 2025
More than 50 locals gather to discuss the Maryborough Outdoor Pool’s reopening
The community and some Central Goldfields Shire councillors came together Wednesday evening with a shared goal: reopening the outdoor swimming pool.
Over 50 community members and four councillors met at The Hub to gauge community interest in helping council reopen the long-shut outdoor swimming pool.
Duncan Bates, president of the Maryborough Swimming Club, led the meeting alongside Leonie Lomax, establishing expectations from the outset.
The group aims to work with council and offer them a way to work with the community.
“We do what we can to keep this positive because that’s the way we’re going to move forward,” Ms Lomax said.
From the outset community members flagged their confusion surrounding the pool’s condition and why it’s still closed.
Mr Bates was warned the meeting may be a “misinformed argument” but was pleasantly surprised by its tone.
While this initial meeting was to establish community interest and a possible committee Mr Bates hopes the advocacy group will help the community become informed, work with council, and long term get the pool open.
“There’s a lot of misinformation. We’re not sure why it’s closed, what needs to be done to get it reopened, what do we need to do to get it reopened, will it ever reopen, and when will it be open,” Mr Bates said.
Central Goldfields Shire mayor Grace La Vella said the outdoor swimming pool can’t be completed alone.
“Council’s only a small council with a small amount of money. Not a lot of staff in comparison to this big project, it’s huge. Eight to nine million dollars. There’s a lot of work so far been done, a great amount of work has been done,” she said.
So although the pool’s been closed for years Cr La Vella said “the wheels have been turning behind the scenes”. However, funding timing and the project’s complexity have slowed progress.
Discoveries such as a crack where the pool is leaking into the lake and vice versa alongside the plumbing being “all interconnected” has increased costs.
“That’s why it’s complex, there’s so many aspects. When you think it’s 84 years old a lot of things have changed, even regulation over an 84 year period. Councils are risk averse, so are state and federal governments. So they’re not going to give money to something they could be sued for,” she said.
Following an unsuccessful funding application to the Federal Government, council decided to withdraw a funding application to State Government which would require them to co-contribute $4 million to the project in future borrowings.
“The reason it was withdrawn is because we didn’t have the funding to match it,” Cr La Vella said.
Due to the cost of the project, councillors said funding from all tiers of government is required.
The overall feeling in the meeting was that it went well, both from councillors and members of the community.
Maryborough East Ward councillor Jake Meyer said it was fantastic to see so many from the community and council attending the meeting. To him it was a positive sign for the future.
“Should hopefully be good. We’re trying to build a relationship back with the community, that’s the major thing,” he said.
Now that interest has been shown from the community and the advocacy group understand their skill mix, another open meeting has been scheduled for Thursday, February 13 with more information to come.