Sunshine's
3 outdoor pools were closed progressively
from 1994 with no community consultation
and no formal announcement, apparently
as the result of council's failure to
properly maintain and repair them
|
Our
50 metre outdoor pool cracked and
the Brimbank Council wants to bury it. |
|
Fitzroy's
50 metre pool cracked and it was repaired for approx $1.7
million dollar. |
A
local's viewpoint:
We have an olympic sized outdoor swimming
pool in Sunshine.
It
is laid out very much like Prahran
pool. It is ten foot deep at one end
and 3 foot at the other end.
Every
hot day during summer, from primary
school years right through to high
school years, me and 6 or 7 mates in
the neighbourhood used to walk 2 or
3 kilometres in our shorts, walking
in thongs and with towels around our
necks, and we'd spend the whole day
swimming, diving, racing in the pool,
and later sun baking and relaxing on
the lawns by the pool.
Hundreds
of other kids and families would be
there, young mothers and little kids
in the toddlers pool, primary school
kids chasing each other and laughing
in the huge square two foot deep pool,
old Greek mothers, Yugoslavs, Aussies,
lovers, young and old, wading or cooling
off and laughing in the huge pool.
In
the 100 times I went there, never once
did I see a fight there, an argument,
despite all of the different types.
The pool was great; the water was cool,
who needed to argue when you could
instead do a huge bomb off the diving
board into the ten foot.
I
also went there for swimming lessons
and did my primary and safety tests
as did countless of other teenagers
in the area. We went there for school
sports during primary school, and we
had inter-school competitions there
in high school. Sunshine Tech vs Sunnie
West High vs St Johns etc.
A
memorable moment was when Terry Coombs,
(who we all knew was training toward
serious swimming achievements), beat
the pack by more than half a pool length
in the breast stroke. For some reason
they decided breast stroke would go
across the width of the pool. Coombsy
(as the chant went up) was three quarters
across the width before he emerged
from his initial dive and touched the
other end after two hurtling strokes
while all the other competitors floundered
three metres from the start position,
trying to work out something resembling
a drowning butterfly. The Sunshine
Tech mob cheered and cheered while
we all looked on in amazement.
Years
later, perhaps 1984, in my early twenties,
I went to the pool weekly in the morning
and did laps to try and gain some fitness.
I did ten laps of the big pool each
time. One day I tried a few more. I
found a rhythm and did 33 laps. It
was the most I had ever swum and I
felt triumphant.
One
day they said the pool had cracked.
They drained it, said it was closed
and that they were not going to fix
it. It was a very sad day. That was
ten years ago...
The
alternative was the humid, chlorine
choked tiny indoor pool. Eeek. A few
times I drove all of the way to Prahran
so I could swim in a proper pool but
it was just too far away.
Since
then the kids in the Sunshine area
have very few places they can go. There
is no skate park, no pool, nothing.
The council spends all their time selling
real estate and collecting rates. No
money goes toward the pool.
One
wonders what would happen if the Prahran
pool 'cracked'. Would they shut it
down? Yeah right!
Our
problem is that because we have a majority
labour electorate the councilors and
local MPs are under no pressure to
please the community.
For
those of us who grew up at the Sunshine
Pool it is a tragedy. We know how many
people used to love this pool, how
the youth would have pride in their
physical natures, bodies on show, laughter
and water fun.
Now
the kids either stay at home playing
their Playstations, watching TV, or
walk around in the street despondent,
smashing bus shelters, no outlet, no
sense of community, no meeting place,
no fun.
A
few months ago my brother-in-law called.
"Hey, Simon. Check your mail box;
they are going to save the Sunshine
Pool!"
I
couldn't believe it. He was right,
there was a pamphlet in our mail box
a few days before council elections
titled: "WE HAVE SAVED THE SUNSHINE
POOL"
It
was from Councilor Ian Douglas.
I
was beside myself with joy. Finally
some sense.
I
looked at the plans on the back of
the pamphlet.
Here
is the rub: On close examination of
the new plans it showed the outdoor
pool (same size as Prahran pool) and
it was to be filled in and turned into
a car park!
It
then appeared to me as if Councilor
Ian Douglas had blatantly conned the
electorate a few days before the election.
My brother-in-law (an Electronics wizard)
saw the pamphlet and thought the pool
was saved. It was extremely misleading.
The pamphlet should have read : "SUNSHINE
POOL TO BE CONVERTED INTO A CAR PARK"
How
he tried to milk this as saving the
pool baffles me to this day. The plans
would basically increase the size of
the gym by a small percentage, make
some repairs to the undersized, and
stuffy indoor heated pool and destroy
the Sunshine 50 metre Pool forever.
Douglas
was voted in by the tiniest of majorities;
his leaflet had worked!
Another
false hope came up. After selling off
the huge Massey Ferguson land, council
told us that a new outdoor pool would
be built beside the new Sunshine Marketplace.
Brimbank
Council then proceeded to sell that
piece of land for $3.2 million and
have indicated that these funds will
'not' go toward redeveloping our outdoor
swimming pool. (Update
Sep2003: Council after mounting pressure
say now they will put the money toward
the pool but only on condition that
the State Government also adds another
1.4 million. If they State Gov doesn't
pitch in the council will not act.
The councils last submission to the
State Gov. was a one page stick figure
diagram (true) Why can't they just
put out a tender and fix the outdoor
pool now? (will cost approx 1.3 million
which they say they have) and then
do further prolonged 're-developments'
later. (This is what they are doing
with the Fitzroy
Pool)
The
outdoor pool is absolutely essential
to our community; particularly the
young kids who would find a physical
outlet, for young kids who would learn
to swim, for the community as a whole,
to those of all ages that would like
to lie down on their towels in the
sun or under the trees on the lawns
(all still there) and to go for the
big splash into the pool to cool off.
There is something absolutely corrupt
about the pool being closed for this
long and I can only assume that it
is the current councilors that are
now fully to blame.
A whole generation of teenagers have
missed out on learning to swim, to
mastering a 50 metre pool, of sun,
socialising and exercise in the sunny
Australian outdoors.
There
is still some hope however: people
power. If we can come together as one
large voice as a community, the citizens
of Sunshine, they will have to listen.
This has worked for the Fitzroy pool
which was actually closed. When the
people protested as a group, the Fitzroy
council listened, and their whole pool
(which also 'cracked') is now under
reconstruction!
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