	{"id":117817,"date":"2025-11-30T04:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-11-29T17:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/ballarat\/?p=117817"},"modified":"2025-11-28T15:20:48","modified_gmt":"2025-11-28T04:20:48","slug":"swim-for-free-this-summer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/ballarat\/news\/swim-for-free-this-summer\/","title":{"rendered":"Swim for free this summer"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>ENTRY to the Buninyong and Black Hill pools will be free for residents of the City of Ballarat this summer.<\/p>\n<p>The measure was part of the City&#8217;s 2025 to 2026 budget and was introduced as a cost-of-living relief measure.<\/p>\n<p>Previously, entry cost $7.40 per adult, $4.50 per child and $19.40 for a family pass.<\/p>\n<p>Entry prices at the Eureka Pool and Ballarat Aquatic and Lifestyle Centre will remain the same.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The decision to make Buninyong and Black Hill pools free this summer was a key incentive when we created a budget that focused on the cost of living,&#8221; mayor Cr Tracey Hargreaves said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;For people who might not have ever visited these pools, or even for those who are regulars, this is a great way to beat the heat this summer without blowing the budget.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>To receive free entry, residents must sign up for a free season pass via the BALC online portal and collect it in person at the Buninyong or Black Hill pool before swimming.<\/p>\n<p>Registration forms are also available at the pools and proof of identification and residency is required.<\/p>\n<p>The pools will open tomorrow, Saturday 29 November, and will open every day forecast to be 24 degrees or higher.<\/p>\n<p>The Eureka Pool, along with the Midlands Reserve and Sebastopol splash parks, have already opened.<\/p>\n<p>The Brown Hill Splash Park works are expected to be finished in early December.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>ENTRY to the Buninyong and Black Hill pools will be free for residents of the City of Ballarat this summer. The measure was part of the City&#8217;s 2025 to 2026 budget and was introduced as a cost-of-living relief measure. Previously, entry cost $7.40 per adult, $4.50 per child and $19.40 for a family pass. Entry [&#8230;]<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"btn btn-secondary understrap-read-more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/ballarat\/news\/swim-for-free-this-summer\/\">Read More&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":211,"featured_media":117821,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"post_folder":[],"class_list":["post-117817","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Swim for free this summer - Ballarat Times<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Ballarat free pools offer residents complimentary entry to Buninyong and Black Hill pools this summer to beat the heat.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/ballarat\/news\/swim-for-free-this-summer\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Swim for free this summer - 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