Urgent works needed to fix Dawn Fraser Baths
Urgent works will be carried out at Dawn Fraser Baths after an investigation found the nationally significant heritage site is so rundown it poses a public safety risk.
Inner West
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URGENT works will be carried out at Dawn Fraser Baths after an investigation found the nationally significant heritage site is so rundown it poses a public safety risk.
A walk through revealed the Southern Pavilion is tilting perilously towards the sea and its top decking is so deteriorated it’s been restricted to two people at a time.
On Tuesday, Inner West Council signed off on a plan to spend $6.7 million carrying out “urgent works” after staff warned “the baths may need to close due to major risks of structural failure and flood water inundation impacting sewer and electrical safety”.
Council backed Mayor Darcy Byrne’s proposal to transfer $2.1 million set aside for an indoor sports centre — but knocked back his attempt to take $1.1 million from the Balmain Public Square project — to help pay for the project.
Other projects such as the Callan park skate facility, town centre works and upgrades at the Ann Cashman and Shields playgrounds could be delayed or axed to help plug the remaining $2.2 million funding shortfall if a grant application to the State Government fails.
Cr Byrne said the “Dawnie”, Australia’s oldest amateur swimming pool and water polo club, is “at risk of being condemned in a few years if we don’t do a proper refurbishment”.
“Because of sea level rises and the deterioration of the timber, the whole pool needs to be lifted up which is a very expensive exercise,” Cr Byrne said.
“The simple fact is if we don’t undertake the works to keep the doors open, within a couple years Dawn Fraser pool will be lost.”
Balmain Water Polo Club stalwart and former Olympic gold medallist Bronwyn Smith said the upgrade was imperative to the club competing in the Australian Water Polo League.
“We just had 500 members register for the winter competition and by summer that will double,” she said.
“We have 20 kids who’ve made it into NSW teams and we are thriving at the moment and Dawn Fraser Pool is our heartland.
“I owe everything to that pool for enabling me to play the sport I love and to succeed.”
The $9.86 million Dawn Fraser masterplan, which will be placed on public exhibition for 28 days, is part of $56.58 million of pool upgrade works being undertaken by the council.
The tender process for the Ashfield Pool redevelopment, for which $31 million has been budgeted for, is almost finished
At its September 11 meeting, the council is due to put the $15.72 million masterplan for the Leichhardt Park Aquatic Centre, where both the 50 metre pool and dive pool are past their life expectancy, out for public comment.
Independent Cr John Stamolis said it wouldn’t have been fair to snatch money away from the Balmain public square project — which has been on the cards for 35 years — to fund the pool and accused the mayor of trying to “take control of the budget”.
“Dawn Fraser pool is a priority; it will be funded and it will be restored,” Cr Stamolis said.
“Inner West Council has a $60 million budget on pools and the Dawnie is part of this.
“An additional $1 million is very small in the scale of this huge program.
“For goodness sake, we have a $60 million pools program and (Cr Bryne) can’t find $1 million without tearing other important parts of the budget to shreds or threatening to shut down the pool. That’s absurd.”
Cr Byrne challenged other councillors to pinpoint where the money could come from to plug the funding shortfall.
Independent Cr Pauline Lockie questioned why the works at Dawn Fraser weren’t undertaken earlier.
“When I went down there it was obvious to me these weren’t new problems and if they’d been addressed sooner we may not be looking at such a substantial bill of works,” she said.