Stories from my seven-pool Saturday

By Rohan Aldous

Feb 7, 2022

TONGALA 6.32pm, 28ºC, 13 people: Sam Davie is a Tongala nine-year-old who, unchecked, would spent most of his spare time on his computer playing *Team Fortress 2* (a popular role-playing game). A visit to Tongala’s outdoor pool, only a couple of blocks from his house, is an almost nightly ritual since his family relocated to Tongala at the start of the summer. He also made some friends over the summer before starting at his new school last week.

KYABRAM 6.08pm, 29ºC, six people: Patricia Harrison is a 70-plus-year-old who uses the Kyabram outdoor pool as her major means of exercise. She swims a kilometre every time she visits, several times a week. “I’ve been a member here for a long time, when I was a teacher (at Kyabram P-12). I spent a lot of time here teaching infants to swim. I see it as a necessity and I was an active campaigner to keep it operational. I understand the expense, but I see it like roads: costly, but an essential service,“ she said. She said with the Campaspe Shire drowning rate so high it made no sense for the pools to be closed. She did, however, indicate a new facility — possibly half the size but that runs all the year around — would be something that could work for the Kyabram community. ”The attendance varies a lot, but people that use it love it. There are quite a few for laps in the morning,’’ she said.

LOCKINGTON 5.20pm, 31ºC, 17 people: Alex Oakley grew up swimming at the Lockington pool and has recently introduced the fun of water to his two-year-old son, Flynn. “I’ve been coming here since I was a kid. I grew up here, went to primary school at Lockington and then Rochester,” he said. One of five children, he and siblings Megan, Jodie, Sarah and Shane spent many summers at the pool, where the family always had a membership. “The only difference between then and now if there is no diving board. I can still remember the school sports every year and my mate Daniel Shaw, who also still lives here, winning everything.’’ Half a dozen families were at the pool facility when I called in, almost as busy as the Rochester site.

ROCHESTER 4.58pm, 32ºC, 21 people: Saturday was only the second time that Rochester’s Barbara Cheatley had been to Rochester pool, but she was certainly glad for its existence when she was given the job of babysitting six grandchildren. The pool was pumping at Rochester on Saturday, among the swimmers were cousins from Hillston and Pyalong, along with a friend from Wodonga. “There are three from Hillston and three from Pyalong, and another one from Wodonga. This is a day out for everyone,” Barbara said. Three of her son’s children and three of her daughter’s children were staying with her while their parents attended a musical festival in Bendigo. “It was a good chance for the cousins to catch up in the school holidays. All the parents have gone to the musical festival in Bendigo,’’ Barbara said. Regan, Milla and Ayla Robertson are with cousins Sam, Lily and Grace Cheatley, with ring-in Beau Johnstone. Their grandparents, Barbara Cheatley and Wilma Hill, are in the background. “We have been friends for a long time. If they didn’t have the pool all they would want to do is play on tablets and computers,” Wilma said disapprovingly.

COLBINABBIN 4.14pm, 30ºC, four people: One thing is for sure about the Colbinabbin pool: the locals love it. By far it had the most “Save our Pool” signs of any of the seven community facilities I visited on Saturday. It was a little unusual, however, that just four people were in the pool when I arrived. Claire Tuohey and her three grandchildren, Maisy, 8, Seth, 5, and Saxon Masterson, 9, were the only ones splashing about at the recreation reserve when I was clicking away. “The kids live in the town and I am on the farm. This is a little strange to have no-one here but us, because we come a lot and between 4pm and 6.30pm, it is never just us. Actually, I have never been to the pool when it is just us,” she said. According to Claire, there are usually 20 to 40 people on a Saturday afternoon and after school.

RUSHWORTH 3.46pm, 31ºC, nine people: Rushworth is a pretty little town and the same can be said of its pool facility, set on a hillside location overlooking the bowling club green, and an attractive proposition on a hot summer afternoon. For Matt Barlow, it was an unusual afternoon, because his other half usually takes the kids to the pool. He had his three children, 18-month-old Teddy, four-year-old Poppy and eight-year-old Aliesha, jumping in and out of the pool on a constant basis and I got the feeling he could have done with a second set of hands.

STANHOPE 3.25pm, 31ºC, two people: Michael Wanless and his Kyabram P-12 student daughter Cerese are at the Stanhope pool most days. “We would be here more days than we aren’t,’’ the 16-year resident of Stanhope said. ”We have been members for the last seven or eight years. We usually get here early (soon after the 3pm opening),“ he said. Michael grew up swimming at the Rushworth pool, so understands the importance of a pool to children. ”We moved to Rushworth when I was seven and we used that pool a lot,“ he said. He and his daughter were the only people at the pool, but the lifeguards assured me more would be on the way in the afternoon.

I’ve had a ringside seat to the debate on the proposed closure of the Campaspe Shire’s seven outdoor pools, which most people will realise ended up being delayed for further debate in May 2023.

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Having spent a lot of “hot summer nights” at the Tongala pool through December and January I felt qualified to make an assessment of just what they meant to the community, but I didn’t have a real fix on the other six locations.

I recently moved back to Tongala and one of the first things I did was purchase a season ticket to the Campaspe Shire Council’s outdoor pool — the same pool where I contested the Tongala Consolidated School sports and learned water safety in the summer.

Knowing how much I enjoy the pool, as do my tag-a-longs (the six- and nine-year-old children of my partner), I thought it might be worthwhile spending a few hours “testing the waters” of the other pool locations.

So I plotted a course and set sail for Stanhope, Rushworth, Colbinabbin, Rochester, Lockington, Kyabram and then finished off with a dip, when it was still 29℃, at Tongala.

Both my partner’s children sing the praises of the Tongala pool consistently enough to suggest it has a future.

Interestingly they have made friends at the pool (during the school holidays) with kids with whom they started at their new school last week.

It got me thinking there are probably intangibles, things like social interaction and a feeling of belonging, that go beyond the cost factor of the pool.

After speaking with seven different people from all pool venues, I realised the reasons for going to the pool were many — and varied.

At Stanhope it was a father and daughter who get some quality time together; at Rushworth it was a father with the challenge of controlling his three children; Colbinabbin was a grandmother and her three energetic “tadpoles”; for grandmothers Wilma and Barbara it saved them an afternoon of heartache in the form of bored grandchildren; while Lockington was a father repeating the history of his own first pool experiences; then Kyabram had me speaking with a former teacher who swims a kilometre every time she visits the pool.

But it was Sam, the son of my partner, who probably epitomises what the pool can offer.

The self-confessed “gamer” rarely turns down an opportunity to “go to the pool” and without the interference of a screen I can often see a different side to his personality.

Long live the Tongala pool.

By Rohan Aldous

Kyabram Free Press and Campaspe Valley News editor