Regional council abandons $36 million aquatic centre plans
Due to exorbitant costs, Quilpie Shire Council has had to postpone plans for a new state-of-the-art aquatic centre.
A regional Queensland council’s plans for a new aquatic centre have been parked, after a surveyor estimated the cost of the new pool facilities would exceed $36 million due to rising building industry costs.
Instead, the council will undertake remediation works to extend the useful life of the existing Quilpie Aquatic Centre in John Waugh Park.
Quilpie Shire Council Mayor Ben Hall said the almost $40 million project was an eye-watering amount.
“Five years ago, the aquatic centre could have been built for around half that amount – the doubling of costs in a relatively short amount of time is impacting councils across the country for community infrastructure,” Hall said.
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The remediation works do not include upgrading the shade structures, which are important in the summer months when temperatures are regularly higher than 40 degrees.
Hall said the existing pool facilities lack features that the new aquatic centre could have provided, including a hydro pool, shaded kids’ pool, splash park, a 25-metre swimming pool, new showers and kiosk facilities, adequate shading, a new pump filter room and infrastructure for year-round use.
Recent figures from Royal Life Saving Australia show that 48 per cent of Year 6 students cannot swim 50 metres or tread water for two minutes. Additionally, 84 per cent of 15 to 16-year-olds cannot swim 400 metres or tread water for five minutes.
Hall said that without adequate pool facilities, these numbers were expected to rise in Quilpie, a town that experiences flooding and has access to many rivers and creek waterways.
“It feels particularly unfair that we are left with no choice but to remediate existing facilities rather than build a fit-for-purpose aquatic centre, given how essential these services are – particularly during our scorching summer months,” Hall said.
