“We owe it to the community”: Moyne council approves $100k investigation into Port Fairy pool

Moyne Shire Council has voted to spend up to $100,000 on a comprehensive technical investigation into the closed Port Fairy pool, after councillors spent the most recent council meeting fighting over costs, community expectations and whether the ageing facility is worth saving.

What happened: Port Fairy’s Belfast Aquatics facility was first closed in November after it was discovered to be affected by significant mould growth, including within structural elements. Further inspection revealed potential defects in the pool shell and wider building integrity issues. 

• At Tuesday’s council meeting, a motion to commission a condition assessment of the facility was carried 4-2. 

• Councillors will also continue with ongoing community discussions following a petition delivered in December that attracted more than 2,000 signatures, calling for the council to work with the community to come to a solution. 

Pool investigations: The investigation will expand on earlier inspections carried out late last year, bringing them together into one comprehensive assessment.

• The investigation will include structural, mechanical and aquatic engineering analysis as well as cost forecasts to repair, renew and operate the facility over the next 10 to 20 years. 

• Officers said an $100,000 allocation was a maximum cap estimate, not a guaranteed spend.

The investigation is expected to take about three months, returning findings to councillors by May.

The background: As previously reported by the Brolga, council initially said responsibility for repairs sat with Belfast Aquatics, the committee that operated the pool under a lease arrangement. 

• Back then, it was estimated by the council that remediation costs could exceed $2 million, a figure the committee said it could not afford.

Belfast Aquatics’ long-term lease expired on November 30 last year, and on January 16 this year, the month-to-month lease of the pool expired, returning full responsibility for the facility back to the council.

The abrupt closure of the pool triggered intense community backlash, including petitions, rallies and open letters calling for transparency and action.

Councillors debate: “Up until January 16, we did not own that facility, and it was not our place to be speaking on behalf of the committee of management that did own and operate it at the time,” Councillor Karen Foster said in support of the petition.

• “There has been a vacuum of information, and I absolutely share the frustrations of our community and also share in the grief at the loss of such a much loved community asset.”

Foster also supported the investigations, acknowledging the council was still in the dark on the “extent of the damage” of the pool.

• “We don’t know whether it’s feasible to reopen the pool, we don’t know if it just needs to be demolished. We need to know all of this, and the only way we can do that is through hard data and technical information.”

An expensive promise to make: Councillor Susan Taylor opposed the motion to agree to the petition’s request to continue talks, warning the language of “continuing engagement” risked giving the impression “that reopening or redeveloping the pool is an outcome the council is actively working toward”. 

Councillor Lloyd Ross argued further investigation was a waste of money.

“There’s enough in my mind to say that building is not worth spending $100,000 of hard-earned ratepayers’ money,” he said, predicting repair costs would come in “well north of $2 million”.

Report needed regardless: Councillor Jim Doukas, while acknowledging the expense, supported the investigation on strategic grounds.

“With a project that’s going to cost this much money… the government being the government, they’ll want every fancy report going before they’ll even think of looking at donating, granting, etcetera," he said.

Doukas said that whether council chose demolition, rebuild or repair, a comprehensive report would be unavoidable when seeking state or federal funding.

Mayor Jordan Lockett said the assessment was about certainty: “we owe it to the community to know if it can be repaired”.