Pool celebrates 10 years of survival

GOLDEN Square volunteers, residents, and pool visitors celebrated the successful Save the Pool campaign’s 10-year anniversary over the weekend.

To commemorate the achievement, the group held a free pool party with live music, food trucks, as well as speeches by members of the Save the Pool campaign and local politicians.

An honour roll of volunteers from the decade and a timeline telling the pool’s 100 year long story was also unveiled.

In 2012 the City of Greater Bendigo looked to permanently decommission the swimming pool, but Golden Square residents came together to campaign to retain it.

In the years since the group has gone onto save the pool from closure another two times in 2018 and 2020.

Golden Square Pool president Sam Kane said it was a great effort to reach the 10-year milestone.

“When our pool was first saved in 2013, we were given just one year,” he said.

“The team worked incredibly hard to make the pool compliant, and from that moment, it’s gone from strength to strength.”

There are 255 volunteers, community partners and patrons all involved in the pool and Mr Kane said they are the reason the pool is still in use today.

“The place is unrecognisable today,” he said. “It has become the centre of summer in our community, getting more popular every year.

“Ten years on, our vision for what this place could become is a reality.”

Linda Howell was part of the initial Save The Pool push and still volunteers there today. She said the facility and its community has meaning to her and her family.

“It’s a second family here, you walk in and see all these people you know,” she said.

“It’s so much fun over the summer, the community is amazing and you come down with your kids and they play and grow up with the other kids here.”

Since being saved in 2013 the Golden Square pool has had over 152,000 visitors come through their gates.