Region’s swimmers deserve better, says coach Dylan Muir

THE Bass Coast Aquatic and Leisure Centre in Wonthaggi is Bass Coast’s only indoor aquatic centre, putting pressure on the region’s swimming clubs.

According to the shire, the centre has aging infrastructure with a limited range of facilities and is no longer meeting the needs of the community.

The Sentinel-Times spoke with South Gippsland Bass (SGB) swimming club head coach Dylan Muir on the matter recently.

“From a club perspective we outgrew the size of that pool years ago, we’ve got demand, but we can’t get people in because it’s a six-lane pool, and it’s the same with the community,” he said.

“The recent study said there’s a 30 per cent increase (in population), yet that pool’s been there for 40 years so even if they built an eight-lane pool the day that opens there’d be no space left.

“So were in desperate need for facilities in Wonthaggi and Phillip Island.”

The current facilities or lack of facilities is a huge issue Muir’s club, which has experienced great growth in membership, participation and success in recent times. 

“Well, I mean at Phillip Island there’s nothing, but Wonthaggi is only a six-lane pool so from a club perspective we can’t use that for racing, there’s no blocks, it’s too small both the pool and the pool deck area,” said Muir.

“So, we have to run competitions at Leongatha and even then, we’re limited, our swimmers have to travel.

“We’ve got kids trying to aim at the performance end, they’re travelling to Leongatha to get the required amount of sessions in our national squad they train seven plus times a week.

“We can’t offer that at Wonthaggi because we don’t have the space, so if we’ve got kids living in Phillip Island or Grantville for them to train the required amount to be competitive it’s a two hour round trip to Leongatha on top of all the travel already to Wonthaggi.

“There’s no blocks, so our kids get to competitions and they’re behind from the start, the pool is shallow, so they have trouble with turns, so facility does effect results.”

Muir explained his solution to the issue and how it would assist the whole region.

“We have people coming from Phillip Island, Bass, Grantville, Leongatha, Inverloch, Wonthaggi, Korumburra all coming to Wonthaggi to use that facility, it’s a lot of travel,” he said.

“So, ideally we need two new pools, and they need to be adequate size for a growing population that’s on the coast.

“I think that’s something that is often overlooked, because in coastal areas everyone wants to learn how to swim, it’s important on the coast that everyone’s getting the opportunity to learn how to swim and to have those facilities there to allow them access to do so.

“If they built a proper facility, we’d have the option of hosting major championship meets, there’d be 600 to 700 hundred swimmers the amount of money they bring in to not just the centre, but the community is massive.

“We don’t have that option, we can’t even hold a day meet, so our swimmers have to travel, we’re not bringing back to the community so to have a top facility and be able to hold those kinds of meets is great for the community as well.”

As Muir mentioned, large competitions attract massive crowds as hundreds of competitors and their families travel and stay in the host community, something that would be invaluable for the region to hold.

“We’re constantly for the last five years trying to create ways to get more kids in, but our program in Leongatha and how we’ve expanded in the last 12 months, we can’t run at Wonthaggi because there’s no space,” he said.

“Our kids are training mornings because we can’t get access to nights, so they’re training mornings, our top swimmers at Wonthaggi they train five mornings a week which puts a lot of stress on them.”

Muir also encouraged the community to come together and join the conversation to fix this issue.

“The biggest thing is making noise about it, from my perspective there’s a lot of demand, but sometimes that isn’t shown because people don’t know the right avenue to express it,”

“So, I guess, anything that can be shared amongst the community to say, ‘well if we want one this is what we need to do’ would be fantastic.”

Council’s Aquatic Strategy 2015 recommends that the existing facility be replaced with a new centre and that a new district aquatic leisure centre at Phillip Island is developed.

Due to the size of the shire, travel times, population spread and catchment indicators, there is an identified need for two aquatic facilities to service the Bass Coast Shire.