Ms BADGER (Lyons) – Honourable Speaker, I rise this evening to speak on the Bushy Park War Memorial Swimming Pool, which I am sure all members have received an email about in the last couple of days. I drive past that pool pretty much every other day and it is sad to see what is usually a hive of activity over summer without the usual anticipation of being open for the season. The pool has been closed for the last two years while the Styx River Bridge upgrades have taken place, but this summer it won’t open as there are upgrades to the pool facility itself to be done. If these works are not invested in, the pool won’t reopen at all. Like many small rural community pools, the Bushy Park infrastructure has reached that point in life where it requires some not insignificant, but neither unattainable investment.
The Maydena community has just made a decision to fill in its closed pool, while conversely, the Mole Creek Community Association sourced the funds to upgrade their infrastructure. They even went on to go and get their bronze medallion so that they could volunteer as lifeguards over the summer. Their pool reopened last November. These two pools are under different management models to that in Bushy Park, but they offer examples of the decisions to come if the Derwent Valley community choose and the work to be done.
One issue for the Bushy Park pool is that the backflow waste does go into the river. That’s fixable. Indeed, all aged pools in Tasmania need to be upgraded so that is no longer happening. Similarly, the new filtration pump equipment can readily be replaced. I am told from those in the industry that a modest state grant can keep this irreplaceable community asset up to scratch on that front. Other issues include safe access around the new Styx Bridge. That simply requires some creative logistical planning and rethinking. It’s not an insurmountable issue. Historical parking arrangements, including those at the Glenora School, remain a workable option and I note that if the pool is decommissioned and it were to become a park, car parking and access are still matters that would have to be planned for. However, this is not just a pool; it’s a war memorial built by and for the community honouring those who served. That’s a really special history for this community to have, and that in itself should attract greater funding and grants to maintain the facility. At the end of the day, whatever decision is made, it must have a social licence.
The Derwent Valley councillors are the present custodians but the state government can, of course, help. Fundamentally, community must be at the heart of the decision-making process. I acknowledge the Derwent Valley Council for empowering community to have their voices heard on the issue at local forums, albeit after the community saw a motion to close the pool and acted for a more democratic decision-making process so that all options and opinions could be heard and considered.
I thank everyone in the upper Derwent Valley who has been reaching out about the Bushy Park Pool. In particular Tamara, who put together the petition to save the pool which gathered over 900 signatures. The community, they have chosen and they’ve shown overwhelming support for saving the pool – one of the few facilities available to the upper Derwent Valley community. I call on everybody in this place to support any reasonable level of state funding that can be devoted to helping to keep this facility, be it a grant for an independent audit of the upgrades required and the associated costs, or a sum assisting either the council or local community to assist with the repairs.
Should the present community determination persist, and I suspect it will, then I look forward to a swim at the Bushy Park Pool in the summer of 2026‑27.
