The Adelaide Aquatic Centre requires up to $15 million for ‘major refurbishments’

The Adelaide Aquatic Centre requires a big investment to get it up to standard. The council wants to keep it running, but are wary of how much they can invest.

Adelaide Lord Mayor Sandy Verschoor at the Adelaide Aquatic Centre’s dive tower, which is closed due to damage. Picture: Matt Loxton

Up to $15 million is needed to bring the ageing Adelaide Aquatic Centre up to standard as the future of the 49-year-old building again comes under scrutiny.

The Adelaide City Council is losing $700,000 a year operating the parklands facility which is losing water and has sections closed to the public due to concrete damage and rust.

Options include spending $3 million to $5 million on short-term repairs or between $10 million to $15 million for a major overhaul.

Lord Mayor Sandy Verschoor told The Advertiser that there was no immediate or short term need to close the centre, which attracts patrons from as far south as Sellicks Beach and as far north as Balaklava.

The Adelaide Aquatic Centre was built 49 years ago.

But she said the council must think about what it wants from a future aquatic centre.

“With ongoing routine and preventive maintenance (it can keep operating in its current state),” she said.

“(But) the future uses and scope of the centre will need to be considered by council and we’ll also regularly seek extensive community input as discussions about the centre’s future continue.”

The last significant investment by the council in the centre, the home of the state’s elite swimming programs until they were moved to Marion, was about $8 million in 2014.

The dive tower and eastern concrete terraces have been closed to the public because of danger posed by cracking concrete damage, rust and corroded fixtures.

Crumbling concrete steps.

The dive pool is considered structurally sound, but it does require resealing and retiling, while the roof structure and cladding is periodically monitored for any movement.

The centre is also losing water, but engineering assessments haven’t been able to locate specific leaks.

To keep the centre open to the public the council is losing $700,000 a year on it, and this is expected to “rise significantly” in the upcoming financial year because of rising gas and electricity costs.

Despite the issues the ageing facility faces, it continues to be well patronised by the community.

The main 50m lap pool and grandstands in the centre’s early days. Picture: Adelaide Aquatic Centre

It experiences around 750,000 individual visits a year, while the swim school has its highest ever number of enrolments.

Just over 10 per cent of these patrons are Adelaide City Council ratepayers, but Ms Verschoor said she didn’t view the centre as just a city facility.

“I see it as a role of a capital city to have it as a regional facility,” she said.

“But we know we have to do some investment to bring it up to standard and we are mindful about how much we can invest in it.

“So we have to talk to and engage with our community on what sort of facility they want to see the centre be in the future.”

The centre is still visited 750,000 times a year despite its age and condition.

Nic Cox, president of the Norwood Swimming Club, one of the centre’s biggest tenants, said it was a vital community asset.

“Without that facility we don’t have another 50m enclosed pool north of the CBD until you get to Playford,” he said.

“School carnivals are held there, people use it for training when there are events at the SA Aquatic Centre.”

No proposal has been made to the council by the Crows for the site, with Ms Verschoor describing the talks as “preliminary and broad in nature”.

She did say that any proposal would have to ensure the site would be able to be accessed by the public.

“We would always put the community first in any decision we make,” she said.

“That is the most important thing for us, community access … a community facility maintaining a swim school and a gym.”

Cr Phil Martin said he would propose at the council’s next meeting for the council to release any details it had about its negotiations with the Crows.

“This is too important for council to draw a curtain of secrecy around it,” he said.

“The Aquatic Centre is not a business, it’s a community asset.”