General News
18 February, 2025
Pool discussions continue
The second pool meeting showed strong and growing community support while bringing clarity to the group’s changing relationship with council.
Just shy of 50 community members and three councillors met at The Hub on February 13 to learn what comes next for the municipal outdoor swimming pool advocacy group.
Old and new faces made up the crowd which Duncan Bates, meeting lead and president of the Maryborough Swimming Club, said was great to see people keen to act rather than just talk.
“There’s interest and there’s interest in doing something rather than just turning up to have a chat. So that’s very reassuring,” he said.
Central Goldfields Shire mayor Grace La Vella, councillor Jake Meyer, and councillor Anna De Villiers were present once again for the meeting.
However, by meeting close it seemed unclear if councillors faces will be in the crowd going forward due to ‘conflict of interest’ concerns.
During the meeting, Mr Bates said initial conversations with council surrounded a small advisory group that would allow the community to remain independent without compromising councillors’ ability to vote.
“In my head what we need to do is we need to be independent from council. We have our own structure, which is an incorporated association, so the council can’t disband us, they can’t dictate what we do, we are our own entity,” he said.
“What I believe we’re going to try and set up with the council is a structure, an advisory group of two or three, that involves councillors, council officers, and someone from our group that acts like a telephone if you like: back and forth. So that way we can speak to the council and they can speak to us.”
The community were encouraged to get involved with expressions of interest wanted for various roles and subcommittees.
“We’ve all got to stand up. We want our pool back,” a member of the public said.
Mr Bates shared they already “knocked back” some seed funding from the Community Bank Avoca, Maryborough and St Arnaud until the group is formalised.
“For short term I’ve said no, we don’t really want it. Which I’m sure is out of the ordinary to ask for it and then turn around and say no I don’t want it,” he said.
According to the community bank’s executive officer Julie Driscoll, while the offer remains, they respect the advocacy group’s considered approach.
“What the community bank model does in general is we invest profits from the community bank back into the community,” she said.
“We’re also having conversations with council as well to know hypothetically is it something we can do to support council’s bid when applying for funding.
“Congratulations on what you have achieved so far and keep us in the loop.”
Once the advocacy group is formalised Mr Bates hopes their presence will stop the pool being pushed into council’s “too hard box” for projects.
“What we want to do is help the council build up the case for getting grants, give them the information they need to support that, and also to be blunt give them pressure,” he said.
Leonie Lomax, moderator of the meeting, closed the evening by saying everyone should talk positively about opening the pool.
“If all of you can go out and start talking about it there’s going to be a groundswell,” she said.
“As the elders of this community it’s up to us. We’ve got to drive it and we’ve got to get it in a really positive format and it will happen.”