Wollongong City Council release: 18 September 2023
This week there’s a hive of activity at our beaches and pools as we prepare to reopen our beaches and pools for the summer swim season.
While this week’s unseasonable heat wave has had many temped to take a dip in the 18-degree waters at North Wollongong Beach or one of our nine rock pools, many of Council’s supervised pools are continuing their scheduled maintenance checks and pre-opening routine.
Here’s a snapshot of what’s what for now, and what changes this weekend.
Right now:
North Wollongong beach is open and the flags are up daily between 9am and 4pm.
From Saturday:
The flags will go up on all 17 beaches. Lifeguards will watch over swimmers Monday to Saturday, with volunteers from Surf Life Saving Illawarra on patrol on Sundays and public holidays.
Right now:
During the winter season, the Continental Pool is open 6am-2pm from Tuesday to Sunday. Mondays are its scheduled cleaning day to keep it in tip-top shape. Corrimal Pool is open from 6am-6pm Monday to Friday and weekends from 7am-2pm with the main 50-metre pool open to swimmers. Dapto Pool is open from 6am-6pm weekdays and weekends from 7am-2pm.
From Saturday:
On Saturday many of our pools will return to operation for the summer swim season. However, ongoing maintenance works means that there will be some tweaks to service at some facilities.
For our saltwater pools Port Kembla Pool and the Continental Pool will open as normal. We’re working to have Thirroul Pool open as soon as possible but its reopening date is subject to ongoing works on Thirroul Beach Reserve to the replacement of the ageing stormwater infrastructure as the pool’s intake pipes are impacted by the worksite.
Our rock pools are open year-around, although swimmers need to be mindful there are no lifeguard services at these facilities. The cleaning schedule for the rock pools is published on Council’s website on the pools pages so you can stay up to date with which has been most recently spruced up. The cleaning schedule is dependent not only on low tides, but also low seas and swell conditions.
Our freshwater, chlorinated pools will reopen on the weekend. Across this week, works, maintenance and final checks are being carried out at Berkeley, Helensburgh and Western Suburbs pools. Shade structures are removed over the winter months to protect against damage from the strong winds we often get in winter, and these are currently being re-installed.
Helensburgh and Western Suburbs pools will reopen as normal, from Saturday. Some of the winter works at Berkeley on the pool’s balance tanks (which play an important role in the pool’s filtration), may mean its reopening could be delayed until early October and we’ll have further updates by the end of the week.
Our heated pools at Corrimal and Dapto have remained open across winter. The shade structures at both will be reinstalled over this week. At Corrimal, the toddlers and 25 metre pool are closed while we address a pipe issue, and a timeline for these reopening will be confirmed as soon as possible. At Dapto pool, fee collection has been temporarily paused while we investigate the pool’s heat pump system, which is failing.
“We know many people in our community are looking forward to the chance to use Council’s pools and swim at our beaches over the summer months,’’ Wollongong City Council Acting General Manager Kerry Hunt said.
“This week we welcome 131 seasonal lifeguards into the team who will work across our beaches and pools this summer. They join all our permanent lifeguards including the 21 staff currently working at North Wollongong Beach, the Continental, Dapto and Corrimal Pools over the winter months,'' she said.
"These additional lifeguards will significantly bolster our workforce and keep our community safe over what is expected to be a busy time. Over the next few days, the new team members will be picking up their uniforms, completing their induction processes and training and getting to know the team they’ll be a part of for summer. We’ll also have more staff join the team later in the year ahead of the peak swim season in December and January.
“We know some people have asked why we didn’t open more beaches last weekend. Council is currently operating with our winter levels of lifeguards and ahead of the shift to spring/summer staffing levels this coming weekend. The unseasonable heat wave is out of character for this time of year – with beach numbers traditionally quite low in September and October.
“To fast-track the opening of our beaches was not an option as the level of staffing required to do so is not in place, yet, and it could potentially cause confusion if we were to only open selected beaches, which could encourage swimmers to take unnecessary risks at other locations if they assumed they had additional patrols. Longer-term, climate change predicts that such weather patterns will continue to be a trend. It’s something Council is mindful of as a potential need in the future.’’
Ms Hunt said that while the majority of the pools will be online from the weekend, there are a few with outstanding maintenance issues that need to be resolve.
“Some of our chlorinated pools are showing signs of their age and the 40-plus years they’ve been keeping people cool over summer,’’ Ms Hunt said.
“We do schedule maintenance of these pools for the winter months and do our best to minimise disruption. This year, due to this week’s extreme heat, we’re seeing an interest in swimming at these facilities that we don’t often experience at this time of year. We’re working hard to have all our services operational as soon as possible and thank the community for their patience.’’
Council’s dedicated beach and pools website page is updated regularly with operational hours, and any changes to pools services.
