Southern Grampians Shire residents can enjoy a free dip this summer with all outdoor pools set to open from 1 December.
Pools in Dunkeld, Penshurst, Coleraine, Glenthompson, Balmoral and Hamilton will open their doors from 3pm on Saturday and with a high temperature forecast, it’s set to be a perfect start to what promises to be a great season.
Southern Grampians Shire Mayor Councillor Mary-Ann Brown said following a successful 2017/2018 pool season with only five days where closures impacted on three pools in total, Council are confident of another bumper season. “We did a lot of work on our outdoor pools prior to last season and the results speak for themselves. In most towns, attendances increased on the previous year and having sorted out issues with lifeguards, we had very few days impacted by closures,” Cr Brown said.
“This season we are trialling free entry to our outdoor pools for casual swimming and we are really excited to see what that does for attendance numbers. We’ve invested into our infrastructure and now we want to see more and more of our community members getting active and using these fantastic assets!
“We know that our residents love summer and now with no entry fees, there really is no better time for people to get back into the water and have fun while also looking after their health and fitness,” Cr Brown said.
All pools will be opened from 3:00pm to 7:00pm seven days a week, when the temperature is greater than 21 degrees for heated pools and 23 degrees for unheated pools. All pools will open 12.00pm to 7:00pm when the air temperature forecast by the Bureau of Meteorology at 4:00pm for the next day is more than 35 degrees (weekends and all of January only).
Supervised early morning swimming will be offered regardless of temperature at Hamilton and Coleraine three mornings a week. Community or Sporting groups can request special use of the pools outside these dedicated service levels during the nominated season but a fully accredited volunteer lifeguard must be on site at all times.
Keep up to date with all the opening times on the Greater Hamilton Outdoor Pools Facebook page.