Where you can get free swimming lessons for kids under five in Victoria through Learn2Swim Week
Hollie Dunn is urging parents to take advantage of free swimming lessons being offered across Victoria for under-fives after her 20-month-old daughter drowned in their backyard pool.
Lifestyle
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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.
He is now calling on Victoria’s Premier Daniel Andrews to reopen swimming schools as soon as possible arguing “COVID doesn’t spread in chlorinated water”.
Swim schools across Australia are now working with Poolwerx and Lawrence’s Kids Alive program to offer free swimming lessons to under-5s for Learn2Swim Week.
Swim schools in lockdown areas such as Victoria are also offering vouchers for up to 12 months.
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’.”
Lawrence, a coach for Australia’s swimming teams at the LA, Seoul and Barcelona Olympics, urged Premier Andrews to reopen swimming schools arguing with the right measures swimming was COVID safe.
“I believe that the Victorian Government should be opening up all the pools down there in Victoria, because you can't get COVID in chlorinated water, so if you’ve got the right plan, the kids have got to be in the water swimming,” Lawrence said.
“Get out there, get your voucher if you are in Victoria, and Dan open up the pools and let Victoria start making your children healthier and safer.”
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 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.
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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 VICTORIA HERE:
AquaZone, Warrnambool
Aqua hub Croydon
Swim Stars Swim School Pty Ltd, Hoppers Crossing
Splash Buddies, Gisborne South
Aquarena Aquatic and Leisure Centre, Lower Templestowe
Pelican Park Recreation Centre, Hastings
Swan Hill Leisure Centre
Yarra Centre, Yarra Junction
Monbulk Aquatic Centre
Thomastown Recreation and Aquatic Centre
Kilsyth Centenary Pool
Mildura Waves
BK’s Gym & Swim, Noble Park North
AQUA Schools, Sunbury, Keilor Park
Jump swim schools Berwick
Splash’s Learn to Swim, Berwick
The Little Swim School, Clayton South
Genesis Wantirna Swim School
Melton Waves Swim School
Knox leisureworks
Heather Reilly Swim School, Briar Hill
Kilsyth Centenary Pool
Gurri Wanyarra Wellbeing Centre, Kangaroo Flat
Jump! Swim Schools Pakenham
Jump Swim Schools Lynbrook