As a hot and dry Victorian summer nears an end, the local swimming pool has again proved a popular place to beat the heat. But research by the ABC has revealed more than half of Victoria's pools are past their end-of-life date. A number of pools have been forced to close in recent years, and with repair and rebuild costs soaring, the councils that run them fear more could follow.
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00:00It's 34 degrees in Beechworth and the locals have one destination in mind.
00:07It's just a nice place to refresh if you're hot.
00:11Another reason is you can get your mates to come over too.
00:15All ages love swimming at the local pool and grandparents love bringing the kids here.
00:21Despite being past the end of its life, the local council has installed a new liner to keep it running
00:27at a cost of more than $360,000.
00:31In the longer term, not just the outshore but right across Australia, we're going to have to say,
00:36can we keep operating these pools?
00:38But Beechworth is one of the lucky towns as cash-strapped councils across the state
00:43struggle to pay the soaring maintenance costs on their ageing pools.
00:47Victorian councils operate more than 260 swimming pools.
00:52More than half of them are over 50 years old, which is when they typically hit their end of life.
00:58And in the last five years, six pools have shut due to old age.
01:03Maryborough has now sweated through multiple summers without its pool
01:07and the local council is struggling to find the money to build a new one.
01:11Without this pool and programs like the Vick Swim program,
01:16there's a real chance that fewer people learn how to swim.
01:20Both state and federal governments say grants are available to help upgrade pools,
01:25but councils argue they're piecemeal and say competitive funding processes won't cut it.
01:31If it's competitive as well, that makes it really hard because some of the smaller councils
01:35may not have that capacity to do that grant writing.
01:38Trevor Irino says unless a solution is found, regional pools will continue to go under.
01:45If pools fail suddenly, we actually may never be able to open them again,
01:48and that's the reality we need to confront.
01:50We need our pools open.
01:52Hoping for a much needed cash flash.