Greensborough Outdoor Swimming Pool

The following article was contributed by Rachel Lowe, Community developer and ethical photographer who made a short film on DVD “Wet Feet Walking” – The People’s History of Greensborough Outdoor Swimming Pool. The pool was opened in 1964 and closed on about 2010.

Rachel can be contacted at: thebigbrassyvoice@hotmail.com

I was one of the thousands of people who learnt to swim in these pools. Reflecting on the memories I had of this old place, smack bang in the centre of the outer suburban town I grew up in, I knew there were so many stories waiting to be told. As the plans for closing the pool drew nearer, the feelings of nostalgia, of grieving, and the trepidation of watching things change were very real. The important stories of what was created here, and what it meant to generations of people in the community, needed to be honored before it was gone.

People form and hold their identity in the places where they have spent their lives. And so a local swimming pool is not just a hole in the ground with water in it.

An institution to the area, this old pool became an active community gathering point in Summer. School children from around the district learnt to swim here. And as one of the final hold-outs of the Greensborough that many of us remember from our childhood, it is a representation of the past.

Creating this respectful documentary was my idea from the beginning. It was my intention to stand still and listen, and to record the sounds, the stories, and the movement of progress shifting. With compassionate eyes, I wanted to make images of this pool, its quirks, the familiar landmarks that hadn’t changed in forty four years, and to remember some of the people who cared for this place.

We are the makers, and the owners of our stories.

Four Quotes from the Interviews

I have quite a good relationship with a lot of regulars that come here, because I work six days a week at least. So I know the people who come in the morning and people who come at night, and swim clubs that use the pool, as well as the students, because I am also working as a swim teacher. We have the same schools coming through every year, so you start to remember the kids that were here last year and they remember you. And then they come in on the holidays as well and they come up to the window and they see you and there’s a familiar face. That’s what I really like about working at this place, that it’s a such a good community development tool, that you’ve got all different parts of the community and all different types of people all coming together and having a good time. That’s also important to me to work somewhere where people come to enjoy themselves. -Sina, Assistant Manager
I’ve been swimming at Greensborough Pool for 33 years. First learnt to swim through the Herald Learn to Swim Program when I was 5, I’m now 55, from the Life Savers at the Anglesea River. I love the Greensborough Pool- it has a real community feel about it. I like being outside, I find indoor pools a bit claustrophobic and overheated. Wes the manager and past managers have done a brilliant job in keeping the pool clean. The clarity, the velvety smooth feel of the water is just something I think we all cherish. We feel so very lucky to have the pool swimming up and down early morning, in the dark looking at the day beginning with the commuters whizzing by in buses and cars. It’s time away. I do all thinking when I swimming up and down 20 laps.

We have developed some strong bonds from all the early morning swimmers. Some of us don’t even know each other’s names, but we are here every day. Our time together, you feel you are not alone. Swimming is quite a solitary, individual sport, but the group that come down every morning give it that sense of community, and we feel very lucky. – Lea
I’ve been swimming here for years. Members of the GB club, swim on the Sunday Mornings for the competitions, swim in the swim-a-thons, swim here just every morning, every second morning in the summer for recreation.

It’s a shame to see it go…they are a thing of the past the big old pools. This has always been a clean pool, always good water; always good to swim in…It’s provided a lot of enjoyment for a lot of people. Come down here on a hot day and you can’t move….. Part of an era changing- the old pool attendant with a whistle to stopping the kids from diving in the deep end. It will just be a shame to see it go. We’ll have to readjust to whatever new things come along. Wait until the new one is built, then it’s all the year round, which is very handy, if you can swim all year round better than just four or five months. School kids will miss it too because this was one of the big pools where all the local primary schools had their interschool competitions. You come down here when the school comp’s on, it’s a colossal day, particularly when the relay’s going and the kids are screaming their heads off. It’s a wonderful thing to see. Normal events don’t matter; relays are what it’s all about with kids, they cheering on their other supporters… So there you are. End of an era, and they call it progress I think. We’ll wait and see. – Tom
With the outdoor pool it’s the sound of the water, the gentle splashing laps swimmers, the rustle of the trees… it’s almost like being on the beach and hearing the sea lapping in and out.

I really enjoy the atmosphere of an outdoor pool, rather than an indoor pool, although I know it’s a waster during the winter times, but, I think you have to have some places you can go to, and enjoy the ambiance. The last time I came here there were blackbirds singing in the trees, and I just felt sad because I thought “This is the last time we are going to hear all this”.

-Woman from Lower Plenty

3rd February 2009. Due to the delay in the Greensborough re-development project and spate of recent hot weather Banyule Council has decided to re-open the pool

March 16, 2010 The Whittlesea Leader reports that the pool has closed to make way for the new aquatic centre.

May 2010 Jenny Macklin MP Federal Member for JagaJaga reports in her “JagaJaga News” Greensborough Aquatic & Leisure Centre Update Many will have noticed the huge excavation work underway at the pool site at Greensborough. Jenny officially opened this exiting project in March with Banyule Council. The Rudd Government has committed $5 million to this very important local assest, which has also resulted in more jobs for the community. The main buildings works will commence in the coming months. Once complete, the new centre will offer a fanstastic leisrue facility, with a state of the art health and wellness centre, a 50 metre indoor pool, a learn-to-swim pool and active leisure facilities.

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Wikinorthia is managed by the Local and Family History Librarian at Yarra Plenty Regional Library

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