‘Non-core’ services at Geelong’s seven aquatic centres affected by a lifeguard shortage

As Geelong braces for three days of warm weather, the City of Greater Geelong is grappling with a shortage of lifeguards that is impacting services across the region’s seven aquatic facilities.

Ishy Falzon of Geelong cooling off at Eastern Beach swimming pool. Picture: Alison Wynd

Geelong council is warning residents that a shortage of lifeguards will see “non-core” services at the city’s aquatic centres significantly impacted over the long weekend.

As the region gets set to swelter over the coming days, City Hall issued a statement to warn that numbers might also need to be capped at its seven facilities across the region, including at the new Northern Aquatic and Community Hub.

Executive director of community life Anthony Basford said the combination of a long weekend and an extreme heat event outside of summer had created challenges.

He said while council anticipated a busy three days and planned accordingly, there were likely to be some services impacted.

“The safety of swimmers is our highest priority and we will focus on keeping our core services – that is, the main pools at each of our centres – open with appropriate lifeguard supervision,” he said.

“This may mean that some parts of our facilities, such as water slides and splash parks, will need to close for periods of time.

“We may also need to implement reduced capacity at times to maintain required lifeguard ratios.

“We apologise in advance to anyone inconvenienced by this situation and thank you for your understanding.”

Mr Basford urged people to monitor the social media accounts of individual centres for regular updates.

The City of Greater Geelong operates Splashdown, Leisure Link, Kardinia Aquatic Centre, Northern Aquatic and Community Hub, North Bellarine Aquatic Centre, Bellarine Aquatic and Sports Centre, and the Lara pool.

Geelong to swelter through long weekend heatwave

Geelong is bracing for a three-day heatwave during the long weekend with the mercury set to reach the high 30s.

Up to 10,000 people are expected to head to Geelong’s waterfront and Eastern Beach each day during the Labour Day long weekend to cool off.

Geelong is forecast to reach 39C on Saturday, 37C on Sunday and 38C on Monday, before dropping to 24C on Tuesday.

V/Line has implemented extreme heat timetables for the Geelong line for Saturday, Sunday and Monday.

Trains will run at slower speeds to reduce the risk of train and track faults.

Commuters should check the V/Line app to see if their travel will be impacted.

More council staff will be working during the long weekend to clean public facilities more frequently, such as bathrooms and park areas, as well as monitoring crowd safety.

Residents are warned to not flush wet wipes down public toilets which don’t break down in the sewerage system.

In January, sewage flowed onto the Eastern Beach concourse after the system was clogged by wet wipes.

Geelong deputy mayor Anthony Aitken encouraged everyone to soak up the warm weather this long weekend.

“We ask visitors to use the bins provided in toilet facilities, including for ‘flushable’ wipes which don’t break down in the sewerage system and cause blockages and overflows,” he said.

Police will be targeting speeding and fatigued drivers across Geelong and the Surf Coast, as new data shows 40 per cent of crashes on the state’s roads this year were single vehicle collisions on rural roads.

Excessive speed and fatigue have been the most common factors leading to drivers veering off the road, police said.

Road Policing Acting Assistant Commissioner John Fitzpatrick said the new data was “extremely concerning”.

“That’s why we are focusing on speed and reminding drivers to take breaks this long weekend,” he said.

“We could be anywhere, anytime this weekend.”

Drug and booze buses will be out in force, as well as a large police presence around Golden Plains music festival.

Originally published as ‘Non-core’ services at Geelong’s seven aquatic centres affected by a lifeguard shortage