Orange Aquatic Centre lifeguards threatened with abusive behaviour during free entry period

An end of season report presented to Orange City Council on 19th March detailed a steep increase in the amount of abuse suffered by staff at the Orange Aquatic Centre during a free admission period during the Christmas holidays.

Orange City Council suspended entry fees to its aquatic centre for five weeks from late December until the end of January this year during which staff at Orange Aquatic Centre were subjected to personal threats and abusive behaviour.

The free entry attracted record visitors with the number of patrons visiting the pool during this time period more than doubling from 12,423 to 28,992.

During the five-week period, 250 people were ejected from the aquatic centre for bad behaviour.

Council advised that the biggest issues were the refusal to follow instructions, abuse of staff or other patrons and a higher-than-normal rate of theft with a number of phones and watches being stolen from bags. A patron’s car was stolen from the car park after keys were stolen from his bag.

Orange City Council community, recreation and cultural services director, Scott Maunder said many of the lifeguards on the receiving end of the threats were aged in their late teens and early 20s and noted that even for more experienced staff, it was very confronting.

Police were engaged a number of times to report poor behaviour and to request patrols through the centre.

Council engaged security guards to manage behaviour at a cost of about $30,000 over the second half of the free entry period.

Council also received an increase in complaints from regular patrons. Anecdotal complaints included “ruined by small minority (of users)", “very unsafe”, “scared” and “out of control”.

The report also found the number of patrons who took up the free entry would have generated $210,000.