Arabic version: إغلاق مسبح واليغيت يترك البلدة بلا سباحة صيفية

According to ABC News, Walgett Memorial Swimming Pool in western New South Wales will remain closed for the coming swimming season after Walgett Shire Council deemed it unsafe and beyond repair. The closure removes a key place to cool off as the town prepares for summer days that regularly exceed 40 degrees Celsius.

The pool, which first opened to the public in the early 1960s, has deteriorated after about six decades of use. Council voted to decommission it in 2023, then patched it up and reopened it in late 2024. It closed again in April, before the end of the previous season, after being judged unsafe.

Mayor Jasen Ramien said closing the facility was one of the council’s hardest decisions, but the pool had reached a point where it could no longer operate safely. A NSW Public Works inspection indicated that up to $1 million in short-term repairs would not be guaranteed to last. Council will instead focus on a replacement pool, saying a small rural council cannot fund a new facility alone.

Walgett Shire Council has sought up to $420,000 from the state government for a free daily bus service to Collarenebri Swimming Pool, about 75 kilometres away. Member for Barwon Roy Butler has called for a state-wide audit of pools, noting that 54 per cent of public pools in New South Wales are in regional communities. A 2022 report commissioned by Royal Life Saving Australia found that 500 pools nationally would need replacement or significant pool-shell repairs within 10 years, at an estimated cost of $8 billion.

Former Olympic swim coach Laurie Lawrence warned that deteriorating pool infrastructure could leave country children without opportunities to learn to swim and stay safe in the water. The National Drowning Report 2026 found drowning rates were double for people in the most disadvantaged areas, nearly triple for regional residents and nearly quadruple for remote residents compared with major cities.