Where you can get free swimming lessons for kids under 5 in Queensland via Learn2Swim Week
Hollie Dunn is urging parents to take advantage of free swimming lessons being offered across Queensland for under-fives after her 20-month-old daughter drowned in their backyard pool.
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EXCLUSIVE: Legendary swimming coach Laurie Lawrence fears COVID-19 lockdowns will lead to a spike in summer drownings with Australian kids missing out on lifesaving swimming lessons.
Swim schools across Queensland are now working with Poolwerx and Lawrence’s Kids Alive program to offer free swimming lessons to under-5s for Learn2Swim Week.
Lawrence, founder of the Kids Alive swim safety program, said in its seven years of operation the program has never been more important than now.
“This year I think it’s going to be a bigger drowning season because of COVID, everyone has been locked up, kids haven’t been getting their swimming lessons,” he said.
“It’s amazing what you can teach little kids in a week. They learn respect for the water because they start to know the difference between deep and shallow water.
“They learn through experience that ‘I can’t hold my breathe for longer than 10 seconds’, ‘I better get back to the side’ or ‘I can’t swim without an adult’.”
His comments come after the Royal Life Saving National Drowning Report revealed 19 children under five drowned in Australia with 12 of these in backyard pools last year.
Hollie and Craig Dunn, who lost their daughter Aria after she drowned in their backyard pool in 2016, say they will never heal from losing her at just 20 months of age.
But they are determined to do everything they can to stop the tragedy from happening to others.
They are backing Learn2Swim Week as part of Smiles 4 Aria, a charity they founded in her memory to raise awareness and lobby the government for free kids swimming classes and adult CPR lessons.
Mrs Dunn said it’s never too early to teach children about water safety.
“Teach them that you can’t be around water without an adult by a certain age because it can be dangerous and we don’t want to scare them but we need to get them to understand about the dangers of water,” she said.
Aria was meant to be asleep that tragic summer day on December 11, when she squeezed through a dog door and climbed over the pool fence.
“It was a summer day; it was going to be our first summer in the house. The kids loved the water and that’s one of the reasons we bought the house, for the pool,” she said.
“She was meant to be asleep. My husband had gone to check up on her and that’s when he found her ted bunny on the carpet near the back door on the ground and he went outside and that’s when he found her in the pool.”
The family had welcome news with the arrival of Noah a year ago – a little brother for their eldest son Jett, 8. But the pain of losing Aria will never go away.
“I’ll never be healed, I’ll just learn to live with what has happened and just make sure that my kids are well aware of (water safety), especially my eldest son Jett, because he was at the event,” she said.
Learn2Swim Week starts September 25 to October 4. Sign up at
FIND FREE SWIMMING LESSONS IN QLD HERE:
Murrumba Downs Swimming Pool
Peter McMahon’s Swim Factory – Ipswich
Aquajets Swim School
YMCA Victoria Point
Coomera Rackley Swimming
Mackay ARC
Coolum Peregian Aquatic Centre
Caboolture Pool & Fitness
Gullivers Coomera
Jump! Swim Schools Browns Plains
Jump! Swim Schools Jimboomba
Flying Fish Swim School
Cleveland Aquatic Centre
Swimming for Life
Rainbow Swim Therapy
Rackleys Southport
WIRAC YMCA
Joyous Swim School
Nerang Aquatic Centre
Colmslie Aquatic and Health Club
Wet Swim Schools Dakabin
Duckland Swim School
Focus on Movement
Hampton Swim School
Noosa Aquatic Centre
Mudgeeraba Aquatic Centre
Cooktown Swimming Pool
Albany Creek Leisure Centre
Lawnton Aquatic Centre
Alpha War Memorial Pool
Ferny Hills Aquatic Centre
North Lakes Acquatic Centre
Seahorse Swim School
Superfish Swim Schools Benowa
Electric Eels Swim Club
Peter McMahon’s Swim Factory
Laurie Lawrence Swim School-Logan North
Chermside Aquatic Centre
Francis Swim School
Gould Adams Park Aquatic Centre
Kawana Aquatic Centre
Laurie Lawrence Swim School Burleigh
Rackley Runaway Bay
Rackley Swimming Deagon
Rackley Swimming Hibiscus
Rackley Swimming Robina
Superfish Swim Schools Pacific Pines
Superfish Swim Schools Sunnybank
Superfish Worongary
Swim Fit Cotton Tree
Swimfit Chinchilla
Rackley Swimming Redbank Plains
Aqua Kidz Ormeau
Airlie Beach Swim School by Danielle
Whitakers Swim School
Logan West Aquatic and Fitness Centre
Miami Aquatic Centre
Originally published as Where you can get free swimming lessons for kids under 5 in Queensland via Learn2Swim Week