660,000 Brisbane residents make use of $2 swimming program through summer

Brisbane City Council’s initiative to charge a flat rate of $2 for both adults and children using its aquatic centres through the summer, has proven to be a significant success with more than 660,000 residents taking advantage of the program between 1st December and 29th February.

Announced in June last year, and running for the entire three months of summer, ‘$2 Summer Dips’ applied at all of the Council’s 22 public pools.

Among the visitation, 88,000 people made use of the Newmarket Olympic Pool - increasing its summer attendance by 85% from 2022/23. Pools at Jindalee, Carole Park and the Emily Seebohm Aquatic Centre also saw a doubling of attendance rates - and entry numbers across the 22 pools doubled in the month of December alone.

Buoyed by the success of the program, Brisbane Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner has pledged to reintroduce it for 2024/25 as part of the city’s local government elections.

Commenting on its success, Lord Mayor Schrinner described it as a “simple and effective way council is helping reduce residents’ costs”.

Going beyond this, Brisbane’s Greens have announced a plan to make entry to all council pools free while also building another five pools and investigate three sites for outdoor swimming spots.

Greens mayoral candidate Jonathan Sriranganathan said the goal was for “everyone in Brisbane to have access to a local swimming spot.”

He noted “summers are getting hotter, and it doesn’t seem fair that so many people can’t afford to cool down.

“Household budgets are tight, so we want to make it easy to keep cool by making city council pools free.”

The Greens estimated it would cost $11 million a year to make entry to council pools free and about $80 million over four years to deliver and maintain five new pools.

Image: Newmarket Olympic Pool. Credit: Brisbane City Council.