Donation sees community swim for free this summer

A splash of funds in Thorpdale is giving community members free swimming this summer.

A generous donation from the Thorpdale Swimming Pool Committee aims to lift the community spirit by providing free access to the town’s pool.

The pool becomes a social hub for many families in the community over summer and the committee was keen to maximise its use.

With a healthy bank balance, the committee put a proposal to Baw Baw Shire to allow the committee to provide a donation enabling free swimming at the YMCA managed facility.

Committee president Natasha Hammond said the donation would cover free swimming for community members as well as the entry costs for Thorpdale Primary School’s swimming program and annual swimming carnival.

The pool was previously managed by the community-led committee until changes in legislation resulted in council taking over the pool in 2006.

Ms Hammond said all funds raised by community volunteers continued to be held in the committee’s bank account, earning interest and had remained unspent. 

She said a community meeting was called in 2017 to discuss whether the funds should be dispersed to community groups in the town or invested into pool improvements.

Ms Hammond said a small committee was reformed to assess options.  

“We’ve been desperately trying to get solar heating so the kids’ swimming lessons don’t have to cancel on cold days but it was a project that just got bigger and bigger and we couldn’t afford it.

“We wanted to put the money into something to benefit the community,” she said.

After a challenging year with COVID, the committee felt free swimming would be an opportunity to reward the community and bring people together.

“We believe by offering to donate to council to provide free swimming at Thorpdale would offer an exceptional opportunity to improve the utilisation and maximise the community benefit of council’s support towards the pool.

“Hopefully it will help to bring people into the town and while they are here they might support the bakery or the pub or even look at the small town and it’s lovely school and think about moving here,” she said.

Ms Hammond said the free swimming would be open to anyone that visited the pool, not just local residents, because they wanted to show off the town’s strength and community spirit.

Mayor Danny Goss thanked the committee for its generosity.

“I hope our community makes the most of this opportunity and continues to support this important facility. 

“This is a shining example of community spirit and is part of what makes Baw Baw Shire such a great place to live,” he said.

The pool is open when the temperature is forecast to reach or exceed 25 degrees Celsius as determined at 5pm the previous day using the Warragul forecast data provided by the Bureau of Meteorology. 

Opening times are 3pm to 7pm Mondays to Fridays and 1pm to 7pm on weekends and school or public holidays.