Victoria's ageing aquatic facility infrastructure in need of resources

With more than half of Victoria's public swimming pools aged over 50 years and considered beyond their end-of-life date, a report from the ABC has highlighted the financial pressures this ageing infrastructure is imposing on local governments.

Building on studies undertaken by the Royal Life Saving Australia, the recent report from ABC Goulburn Murray highlights that most of the state's more than 260 council-run pools are more than half a century old, which Royal Life Saving sees as the point at which they typically hit their end of life.

As previously reported by Royal Life Saving, the costs of repair and replacement are becoming prohibitive.

Examples include Beechworth's swimming pool, which was opened in 1978, which has an estimated replacement bill of $14 million while the Bass Coast Shire says that it needs at least $45 million to replace its aquatic and leisure centre in Wonthaggi, which was also built in the 1970s.

As of this week, Hobsons Bay City Council has announced it has paused plans to replace its Laverton Swim and Fitness Centre as costs for its proposed Western Aquatic and Early Years Centre rose from $40 million to nearly $100 million.

The Indigo Shire Council in the Victoria’s north east is another local government impacted by this trend having experienced a 56% increase to operational costs for its five outdoor public swimming pools this financial year.

Advising that some pools could be closed indefinitely if more support cannot be secured, Indigo Council Chief Executive, Trevo Ierino told the ABC “the challenges of keeping a pool going forward are just going to get harder and harder.

"In the longer term, we are going to have to look if we can keep them open."

On a national level, Royal Life Saving’s State of Australian Aquatic Facilities 2025 report indicated that, across Australia, up to 40% of local government-run public pools would likely need serious refurbishment or outright replacement at a cost of more than $8 billion within a decade.

Royal Life Saving General Manager of Capability and Industry, RJ Houston, said that, apart from cosmetic transformations such as upgrading change rooms or kiosk renovations, many facilities had had limited to no life-expanding work done to underground pipes and the pool tanks, since being built.

Houston told the ABC “there's very, very few pools in the regional areas with those old ageing pools where they have had a serious renovation to the pool tank itself.

"It's very, very rare that it's happened. So, the majority of those pools built in the 50s, 60s, and 70s, are very much coming to the end of their life."

Among pools that have close, Rochester in the Shire of Campaspe has been without a pool since 2022, and is awaiting funds to build a new one while, last year, the Southern Grampians Shire Council decommissioned its pool at Glenthompson.

In addition, the City of Ballarat closed its Brown Hill Pool in 2023 while Yarra Ranges' Kilsyth Centenary Pool, built in the 1960s, was closed permanently in 2023 due to significant defects.