Northcote Aquatic and Recreation Centre officially opens

City of Darebin’s long-awaited, new innovative Northcote Aquatic and Recreation Centre (NARC) officially opened today, Monday, 13th November 2023.

With doors opening at 6am, and members queuing to enter the centre from 5.30am, the new home of health and fitness in Melbourne’s north is already on its way to achieving its mission to create improved health and wellbeing outcomes for everyone in the local community.

A Community Open Day was held yesterday to mark the opening of the new centre and saw 4500 people attended throughout the day for a first-look of the facilities while enjoying food, live music, entertainment and a first swim.

The Community Open Day was headlined by an exclusive appearance by Australian freestyle swimmer and Olympic gold medallist Mack Horton, who hosted a training session for the Northcote Swim Club, participated in activities in the pool with the Swim Bright team and took part in a wide-ranging Q+A session with Clublinks Chief Executive Anthony Lawrence. The new Centre will be operated by Clublinks.

Horton said the new Northcote Aquatic and Recreation centre was “world-class” and added “the pool outside is amazing, the (indoor pools) are incredible. There’s a gym, Pilates. This is literally a one-stop shop for sport.”

Outdoors, NARC offers a 10-lane 50m heated pool and nature-based splash pad. Indoor aquatics features an eight-lane 25m heated pool, learn to swim pool, warm water pool with integrated spa, aquatic play area with water slides, and steam/sauna facilities.

Fitness and wellness facilities include multi-purpose spaces for group fitness and reformer Pilates, an 800m2 fitness centre, and consulting rooms for allied health professionals. To cater to all members of the community, change rooms include female, male, gender neutral, family, school groups and dedicated spaces for accessibility including a Changing Places facility.

Lawrence said the venue was an incredible asset to Darebin, with innovative activities, programming and events created to attract people from across the community and shared “we have been overwhelmed by the support and interest from the community. It was incredible to see so many happy faces among the thousands who joined us for the Community Open Day and we can’t wait to welcome everyone to NARC now it’s officially open.

 “It’s a beautiful facility, and we are thrilled the whole community within Darebin and beyond can now create new memories here.”

Images from top: NARC outdoor pool; NARC opening. Mack Horton, Darebin Mayor Cr Julie Williams, Clublinks COO Anthony Edgar; Mack Horton with Clublinks CEO Anthony Lawrence; NARC indoor pool; NARC aquatic play