Goulburn Aquatic and Leisure Centre manager Belinda Hall and acting operations director Rob Hughes on the edge of the warm water pool, which is in high demand. Photo: John Thistleton.
The heat is on Goulburn Aquatic and Leisure Centre to meet the demand it has created for rehabilitation therapy and learn-to-swim classes.
Learn-to-swim classes have grown from 200 children a week before the centre opened to 1000 children a week now.
Older residents cannot get enough of exercising in the warm water pool, one of four pools in the $30 million centre which has become a popular social hub.
Aquatic centre staff are planning extended hours for the warm water pool, more permanent positions and career paths for lifeguards and multicultural classes for new arrivals to Australia who have never been in the water.
Pool attendance figures have skyrocketed. Averaging about 8500 people a month before the centre opened, about 14,500 a month are going through the gates in Deccan Street these days.
While the hydrotherapy pool at the Bourke Street Health Service has long closed, the warm water pool has helped fill its role. Aquatics manager Belinda Hall says the pool has capacity for 24 people who exercise in 34-35 degrees Celsius water.
“You can only spend a certain amount of time in that pool; you should not be spending more than an hour at any one time in there because of the humidity levels,” she said. “It’s 35 degrees [Celsius]; a lot of people don’t drink water while they’re in there, and they get dehydrated.”
Demand for the warm water pool exceeds what’s available. “We have to manage all the user groups coming in,” Belinda said. “We are looking at adding additional hours on each day.” Staff are drawing on admittance data including peak times and troughs, and aim to have 24 people, or as close to that number as possible for each session. The pool is also available for sporting teams for training sessions.
“The elderly generally come at 10 am; they like to come just before lunch and come back at 1:30 pm,” Belinda said. Health professionals are bringing in groups, as people recovering from injuries continue to improve their wellbeing. One man using the pool three times a week now walks independently of his walking frame following a car accident.
Another four classes have been added to the centre’s aqua aerobics and more people are using the gym and joining physio programs. Photo: John Thistleton.
Training in a squad program is also progressing well. From introducing babies into the water to lane swimmers, 150 squad members are in regular training, with eight to 10 students showing promise at an elite level. “We would love to have an Olympic swimmer instead of having to bring a James Magnussen here,” operations director Rob Hughes said. (The former Olympian visited in 2021).
“We have four kids that have qualified for state,” Belinda said. “We will build the squad first and then see what we can do,” she said, sharing Rob’s enthusiasm for nurturing champions.
Having overcome the challenge of limited lifeguards previously, staff are looking for longer-term solutions. “We’ve had a huge demand on casual lifeguards; we love having them here, from school, and we’ve had doctors, surgeons, you name it, other professionals,” Rob said. “We see this as helping them through their studies; we are providing an income. We are now making it more of a career and have increased the permanency numbers for the lifeguards, offering more career development across all our levels.”
Belinda said the centre was multi-skilling its staff of 40 people, including casuals, so each one could fill a lifeguard position as the need arose.
“We applied for funding through Rural Lifesaving and offered 20 spots for lifeguards and all were trained in the lifeguard course and we interviewed some, and ended up gaining quite a few from that process,” she said. “We went to the careers person at local high schools at Goulburn Mulwaree and Trinity College and recruited.
In the state-of-the-art plant room Belinda Hall monitors how the pool’s circulation and water temperature are tracking. Photo: John Thistleton.
Rob says the aquatic centre is operating within its budget. The council is unable to provide budget details.
The centre’s managers believe the working conditions and career path options for 16 and 17-year-olds are more attractive than what’s on offer at fast food outlets in Goulburn.
“You get taught safety, which is a big issue in any workforce, customer service – you are interacting with every demographic in the city. I tell everyone this is a great place to work,” Rob said.
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