Time running out for Cairns' Tobruk Memorial Pool

Uncertainty surrounds the future of Cairns' 50-year old Tobruk Memorial Pool with media reports suggesting that community facility is so dilapidated that it can only stay open in its current state for four more years.

Cairns Regional Council's Community Services Committee voted this week to proceed with a feasibility study that will look into the cost and benefits of upgrading the pool.

The upgrade was one of three options put to the Committee, the others being a minor refurbishment, or closing and decommissioning the facility.

The Cairns Post reported that the facility is the most costly council pool to run and maintain, but it attracts the fewest visitors each year.

Cairns Council spends $373,312 on the facility each year, which works out to about $15 for every swimmer. There were fewer than 6,000 users of Tobruk pool between January and March this year, compared with more than 16,000 for the same period in 2011.

Cairns Regional Council Sport and Recreation Team Leader Tim Dendle told councillors "that's not really sustainable (and) the Band-Aids that we're continuing to put on are getting more and more expensive."

If approved by the full council at a meeting later this month, the study will investigate upgrading Tobruk pool to FINA standards a transformation that could cost about upwards of $17 million.

The study will be undertaken in partnership with local stakeholders including a local wellness health centre, James Cook University and local sport associations.

However, Cairns Regional MayorBob Manning wants to inspect the condition of the pool before he agrees to fund the feasibility study.

The Cairns Post reported that Mayor Manning was uncomfortable about funding the study before taking a tour of the pool, stating "it's very easy to take $100,000 and flush it down the drain just to have a great report that sits on the shelf."

Federal MP Warren Entsch believes that the project deserves Commonwealth and Queensland Government funding.

Suggesting that at upgraded Tobruk Memorial Pool could be part of plans for an Australian Institute of Sport campus in Far North Queensland, Entsch stated "this is not just a stand alone facility, it's a critical part of the (plan for a) tropical campus of the Australian Institute of Sport.

"I just hope the feasibility study is inexpensive and quick because we all know that what we need is an Olympic-standard aquatic centre."

7th September 2010 - ENTSCH WANTS SPORTS FACILITIES IN CAIRNS CULTURAL PRECINCT