For many elite athletes, the question of what to do once your time in your sport is over is an overwhelming one. That was the reality for Kurt Herzog, a professional swimmer who made his debut for the Australian swim team in 2015 and went on to represent Australia at various world cups. After retiring from swimming in 2018, Kurt has taken on a really cool challenge.
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00:00Performing at the highest level against the best swimmers in the world is hard to beat,
00:07so yeah, definitely a very special part of my life and something that I'm going to remember
00:11for a very long time.
00:13And the peak of that was getting a medal at the Worlds, was it?
00:17Yeah, the 2015 Worlds, I was a member in the 4x200 freestyle relay team, so I was very
00:23fortunate enough to come away with a bronze medal at that championship.
00:27And then what happened over the next couple of years?
00:29Yeah, look, it was pretty tough, you know, there's plenty of stories out there with elite
00:35athletes and injuries, and unfortunately I was one of them.
00:39Had a bit of an injury leading into the 2016 Olympics, but actually missed that Olympics
00:45by about 0.3 of a second, so yeah, a bit of heartbreak there, but yeah, you know, it's
00:51part of life, so it's all good.
00:54The injury was from mucking around on a skateboard, what were you doing mucking around on a skateboard?
00:58Yeah, that came a bit later on actually, when I was making my comeback, so I was trying
01:02to make the home Commonwealth Games in 2018, and during those years of getting shoulder
01:07surgeries the only thing I could do that was fun was jumping on a skateboard, so yeah,
01:13stupidly I came off and dislocated my shoulder and that was the end of my career.
01:18Yeah, and so you'd put so much into swimming over the years, and so you get to that point
01:25where you realise that your swimming career is over, but what was that challenge like
01:31and what came up?
01:32Yeah, look, I suppose for me when my career ended I couldn't really do much, I couldn't
01:39work, I still was at uni, I didn't have much money, one of my mates just suggested, look,
01:45you've got to be grateful for what you've got and do some volunteer work, so I went
01:48out bush to a remote community called Uju and ran a swimming carnival out there and
01:53then haven't left since, so yeah, it's a big part of my life being out bush here now
01:58in the Territory.
01:59Yeah, and where did you grow up, Kurt?
02:02I grew up in the Hills District in Sydney, so north-west of Sydney, yeah.
02:06So had you seen much of the outback before?
02:09No, I hadn't, and that's why I did it, because representing Australia, I didn't know much
02:15about Australia, I hadn't seen much of Australia, and I was particularly curious about our First
02:20Nations culture and, you know, we swim with Indigenous artwork on our swimmers and do
02:27Welcome to Countries and it was something that I didn't know much about, so I was curious
02:31and to head out bush and learn and listen and understand, yeah.
02:35And so how was it when you arrived at your first community, Uju there, and you mentioned
02:41like, I think it's 200km west of Alice Springs, realising just how remote it was if you're
02:47a Sydney boy?
02:48Yeah, very different from growing up in the suburbs of Sydney, that's for sure.
02:53But I love it, you know, it's a bit old school, there's no phone reception, so you're forced
02:59to jump off social media.
03:02But yeah, it's just raw, it's life taken back and, you know, some of the most beautiful
03:08people out there that are so friendly and welcoming to invite me in their remote community
03:12and teach me about culture, it was just, yeah, it was just amazing.
03:17And so was that a temporary position, that first position at Uju, and was that kind of
03:22at a pool that was already established or not?
03:26Yeah, yeah, so I got the call up to come over and cover and actually open up a swimming
03:31pool.
03:32So I did that volunteer stint, and then the local regional council called me up after
03:36that and were like, hey, you know, we can't find any staff to open up our pool, do you
03:40want to come and help keep it open?
03:42And it sort of played in my mind, in the back of my mind for a while, and I thought, you
03:46know, here I am representing Australia and, you know, I think to give back, it's really
03:51important to make sure that the people and these people out bush need these pools more
03:56than anyone.
03:57It was to ensure that this pool was kept open for this community, that's, you know, a really
04:01important thing for me is to be able to give back to people that need it.
04:06And so, yeah, after a little bit of thinking, I went out there and worked for six months
04:11and then returned the following season and, yeah, just loved it, yeah.
04:14And now you're essentially going from community to community, are you?
04:18And sometimes it's not to pools that are established and operating, it's pools that have kind of
04:23fallen into disrepair?
04:25Yeah, that's right.
04:27So look, we started with two pools in Central and then since had a lot of other local regional
04:33councillors knocking on our door, asking if we can come around to their pool and bring
04:37it back to life and, you know, some of these pools haven't been running or have been running
04:43consistently, inconsistently, sorry, for the last decade.
04:47And they've just, yeah, seen what we've done in our Central pools and asked if we can help
04:52out and do the same.
04:53So it's been a big process over the last six months.
04:56We operate out of seven pools now and run them consistently.
05:00We have consistent learner swim programs.
05:02We've got a lot of local employment at one of our pools.
05:06We've got about almost 20 locals working on a rotating roster.
05:09So the idea is to put these pools back into the hands of community, ensure that they never
05:14close again.
05:15Yeah.
05:16And what's it like making those connections with locals?
05:20Yeah, really good.
05:22Like I said, they're so welcoming, you know, and they've got every right not to be.
05:26You know, a lot of these communities have been stuffed around by people over the past
05:31and, you know, to come in there and the important thing for me to do is to listen and understand
05:38and try and understand in that short amount of time that I've got their way of life and
05:43then trying to operate or help facilitate them to operate their pools to run it the
05:47way that they want to.
05:48So, yeah, it's been I've got incredible friendships out there now and I've learned a lot about
05:53culture and hunting and a lot of skills that you don't learn in the suburbs of Sydney.
05:57So, yeah, a lot of close friends that, yeah, we hang out a lot now, which is really fun.
06:03And how to fix your car when your tyre just rolls off into the outback?
06:07Yeah, exactly right.
06:10We're getting lift off locals back into town when the car stops working.
06:14Yeah, it's all the fun without you.
06:17And you're kind of essentially an Alice Springs boy now and has the, what have you, has kind
06:23of the beauty of the outback captured you too?
06:27Yeah, it has.
06:29You know, like being in Sydney, the hustle and bustle and, you know, you drive an hour
06:34to Sydney, you're still in the suburbs, but here you drive an hour and you're at the Larra
06:37Printer Trail, which I heard that you've done, Joe, and you've done a pretty good job of it.
06:41I've struggled pretty badly.
06:43It's a lot harder than I thought.
06:45Have you done it?
06:46Yeah, I tried.
06:47I tried to do the whole thing straight.
06:49I was a bit ambitious a few years ago and tried to do the whole thing straight and only
06:53made a hundred K in.
06:54But yeah, it's definitely one of the difficult, most difficult thing I've ever done.
06:58And it beats a lot of swimming races that only go for a minute, 47 seconds.
07:02But yeah, the lifestyle out here and the people and, you know, Alice Springs gets a bad rap
07:07in the media.
07:08But, you know, there's a lot of people doing a lot of good out here and trying to do a
07:12lot of change and make a lot of change.
07:14And I like being around that positive energy and I love the challenge and I love the outdoors
07:20too.
07:21So it's all good.
07:22And so it's the Remote Pool Project is the actual business name, is it?
07:27Yeah.
07:28So it's a YMCA Northern Territory initiative.
07:31So when these pools started shutting down, there was an issue with one of the pools in
07:35a local regional council, the two CEOs got together and then gave me a call and I'd been
07:40involved working for that particular council before and then just sort of jumped on.
07:45So yeah, it's a YMCA initiative.
07:48It's called the Remote Pools Project.
07:50If anyone out there is curious about what we do, jump on our socials and follow us and
07:55give us a bit of support.