Budget deficit could sink historic pool’s opening hours
An eastern suburbs council is worrying locals as it looks to reduce the opening hours of a much-loved community pool.
Councillors at the City of Norwood Payneham and St Peters are considering shortening the opening hours and season length of the heritage-listed Norwood Swimming Centre at a meeting tomorrow night.
A projected deficit of $577,000 in its 2026-27 budget has prompted recommendations to reduce the swimming season from 26 to 21 weeks and remove early morning and early evening opening hours.
Council projects that this will achieve a net saving of about $103,000 per season.
Swimming Centre’s latest season was held from October 11, 2025, to April 12, 2026, with weekday opening hours from 6am to 7.30pm, while it was open from 8.00am to 7pm on weekends and public holidays.
Trish Hansen, who has been a regular user of the Norwood Swimming Centre over the past 25 years, planned to lobby councillors at the meeting, raising concerns about the news and saying her son used to wait in line for hours to use the pool’s diving board.
She said it was a key community asset and feared there had not been enough investment in the pool, calling on the council to increase resources to make it thrive.
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“The pool is more than a piece of infrastructure – it’s where memories are made, it’s where childhoods are made,” she said.
“I had the reality of raising a child who saw the pool as a summer – as a family, we’d count down the days before the pool opened, and you could measure the quality of your summer by how many times you got to go in the pool.
“We had several birthday parties there. You just pay a small fee, kids would turn up, and they all had a great time, and it was so much part of our local place.”
Hansen said the pool was also important during her recovery from breast cancer a decade ago.
“I had breast cancer almost 10 years ago, and the pool became a place of sanctuary and recovery. I used the pool to swim, to recover from a bilateral mastectomy,” she said.
“It’s really lovely, it’s relaxing, and those big red gums are just so incredible, and it’s such a privileged place to swim, but it doesn’t seem to have the same meaning, and that has come from young people, particularly, not using it as much.
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“It does raise the question around, ‘Have we sufficiently paid attention to the conditions that help it come to life, to really nourish its vitality culturally?’”
Roger Bryson, who is president of the Kensington Residents’ Association, said the Norwood Swimming Centre was “one of the few council jewels in the suburb of Kensington”, adding that he thought the removal of the pool’s diving board in 2015 contributed to its decline.
Although not a regular swimmer, he called on the community consultation before a decision was made on the pool’s future.
“It’s not heritage listed for nothing – it has been an important part of the community,” he said.
“Kensington has five schools in this suburb, so the pool to those schools and to the families and the children is a key feature.”
According to the council’s meeting agenda, the redevelopment of the Payneham Memorial Swimming Centre, the Burnside Swimming Centre and the Adelaide Aquatic Centre was expected to impact the number of people using the Norwood pool.
Council documents also said that reducing the hours and season length would help it achieve its goal of net-zero corporate carbon emissions by 2030, with the Norwood Swimming Centre “the second largest consumer of electricity across the council’s facilities, and the largest consumer of natural gas due to the water heating requirements”.
The documents propose that multi-visit swim pass holders can use their pass at either Norwood Swimming Centre or Payneham Memorial Swimming Centre – both owned by the council – to reduce the impact of reduced hours on swimmers.
The 50 metre, six-lane pool opened in the 1950s and will celebrate its 70th anniversary next year. It is the only full-length swimming pool on a heritage register in South Australia, and in the 2025-26 season, it was used by 31,823 people.
A City of Norwood, Payneham and St Peters spokesperson said that “with the upcoming opening of the newly redeveloped Payneham Memorial Swimming Centre, the council is working to optimise both swimming pool facilities for their varied uses”.
“The proposed options for seasonal opening hours of the Norwood Swimming Centre consider opportunities to consolidate service offerings with Payneham Memorial Swimming Centre, for example, by utilising the dedicated learn to swim pool at Payneham, as it provides a fit-for-purpose location for all swimming lessons,” she said.
“The council has been provided with a number of options it can select from, including retaining the existing arrangements.”
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