An impressive crowd of over 120 people gathered at the pool on Monday evening, March 9 to attend the ‘Heat and Enclose our Pool’ rally run by the Bombala Chamber of Commerce.

The rally was designed to show the Bombala Council that there is strong community support for the project, with Council being represented by Mayor Bob Stewart, General Manager Ngaire McCrindle and Councillors Steve Goodyer, Brad Yelds and Diane Hampshire.

With the carpark overflowing, and locals to be found both in and out of the pool, the Chamber’s Michelle Peisley outlined the numerous benefits that extending our swimming season would bring to the community.

At the top of the list was the many health benefits, with an improved facility encouraging a more active lifestyle among locals, and allowing for more planned activities such as hydrotherapy and aqua aerobics.

Mrs Peisley pointed out that a very large number of families currently travel out of town for swimming lessons and other pool activities, spending their money in these larger centres rather than supporting local businesses.

There was also mention of better training facilities for our sportspeople and schools, business opportunities within an improved pool complex and the potential to attract more visitors to Bombala.

It was clear that the crowd agreed with each of Mrs Peisley’s points and, importantly, there was strong indication that locals would prefer to stay in town and utilise an improved facility while supporting our own area.

“There are more than 20 families travelling out of town weekly for swimming lessons alone,” Mrs Peisley said. “Imagine if we could keep them here.”

The Bombala Swimming Club’s Rhonda Stewart furthered the case as she stood and gave an account of the hit and miss training season that young members of the club regularly experience due to the area’s unpredictable weather.    

There was also mention of the positive changes that have come about in the community through the establishment of a gym in Bombala, with the improvement of the pool complex potentially going hand in hand with this.  

And while the crowd was of course on board, it seemed that the Council representatives were too - to a point.

Cr Stewart agreed with all of the benefits that had been outlined, and said it was very pleasing to see such strong community support behind the idea.

He also said that he felt Council had “gone down the right track with the pool” over the years, covering high costs to keep it operational each year, and making improvements both large and small to the overall facility.

“And if this is the next step, and the community wants to make this its number one priority,then it is achievable,” Cr Stewart said.

“However there will be challenges, and I think that opening the pool year round in Bombala is simply not realistic.”

Cr Stewart explained that even larger centres struggle to keep their enclosed pool facilities open throughout the cooler months, with high operational costs being difficult to cover.

Most within the gathering understood this point and seemed satisfied with extending the swimming season even by several months.

There were also indications that locals would be open to improving the pool in stages, ideally enclosing the pool first, and exploring heating options later if this was a more affordable option.

When asked if Council would give a commitment on the project at the rally, Cr Stewart said only that the next step was to have Council hear a formal presentation so a committee could be formed to progress the idea.

“Then we can head into the federal election next year with a detailed plan and cost estimates to try and get some funding,” he said.

“It’s a big challenge, and we need a good committee to get behind it. It’s not impossible, but we need to lobby as a community and a Council if we want to make this our number one priority.”

Fittingly, the rally closed to the music of a well attended aqua aerobics class, and with all shivering as the wind picked up, Bombala's weather helped make the case for an enclosed pool.