Council begins Anzac pool demolition despite heritage listing development

The Bundaberg council has officially begun demolition of the Anzac pool despite public protests continuing and a pending application to have the site heritage listed. VIDEO

Drainage of the Anzac Pool is underway with demolition expected to begin Thursday, the Bundaberg council has confirmed.

This is despite protests and an application to have the site, which would mark its centenary next year, heritage listed.

In a statement on its Facebook page on Thursday, the council said the site was being redeveloped as a “modern entertainment precinct with an adventure playground and zero-depth water play, a flexible outdoor event space and a memorial avenue commemorating the region’s service personnel.

Protesters have claimed, since rumours first began of the impending demolition, that no council records and directly outlined a demolition was to take place.

A representative of the Bundaberg Council told the NewsMail “the Anzac Park redevelopment project has been discussed with councillors over many months at consultation sessions.”

Save Our Swimmers member and protester Jann Edwards, claims community discussion never took place.

“They called it a consultation but it was basically ‘this is the plans for the aquatic centre, this is what we are building, this is where we are going to build it’,” she said.

How a redeveloped Anzac Park area will look.

“The Anzac pool wasn’t even mentioned.”

Mrs Edwards, alongside other protesters, has lodged an application to have the site heritage listed, and that application has validated.

While these applications can take up to a year Mrs Edwards said the high stakes of the situation may speed up that timeline.

“They (heritage listing committee) are aware of the situation here, and it may be fast tracked,” she said.

Mrs Edwards said the council was made aware of the application on June 15 with notice of the validation submitted to the council on July 7.

“They (the council) know about it, so there’s really no excuse as to why they are going ahead,” she said, adding she hoped the heritage application would be approved before any permanent damage was done.

The controversy around the demolition of Anzac Pool has been ongoing, with protests on Bundaberg streets happening as recently as June 29.

The Bundaberg Regional Council stated work cannot be delayed on the Anzac Pool demolition due to "inflation" impacting costs.

Protesters took to the Bundaberg streets to oppose the council’s plans to demolish the historic Anzac pool on Quay St despite promises it would remain standing until a new aquatic centre was built.

Campaigner Terry Kelly said was about holding the council to an early promise it made.

“After a fair campaign, the council assured us that they wouldn’t close Anzac pool until a new aquatic centre was built,” Mr Kelly said.

“They then reneged on that … and they have made the excuse that they have secured funding.

“Anzac pool is too important to Bundaberg to be destroyed.”

Protesters took to the Bundaberg Council officers to save the ANZAC Pool.

In 2021 $19m dollars was committed to the redevelopment of the area by the State and Federal governments to include an aquatic centre, outdoor entertainment area and an Anzac memorial work.

Bundaberg locals were informed at the time this development would be able to continue without the closing of the Anzac park; now that no longer appears to be the case.

In March 2022 Mayor Jack Dempsey shared a Facebook post outlining the changes that were coming to the area, and said that these changes were part of a domino effect of infrastructure the area needed.

“Anzac Pool isn’t closing just because there will be a new regional aquatic facility, it’s closing to enable revitalisation of the CBD and riverside,” he said in his post.

Mr Dempsey said the Anzac pool served a smaller percentage of Bundaberg swimmers than Norville and was “an ageing, deteriorating asset and can’t be redeveloped to an acceptable modern standard at the same site”.

Protesters began petitioning petitioned the council to keep the pool open, saying was it a shame to demolish a historic and unique Anzac memorial and a new centre was not needed for the town.

Terry Kelly (left) and Jann Edwards (right) were once again outside the Bundaberg Regional Council’s offices as protesters returned to continue fight to save the 99-year-old pool.

Save Our Swimmers committee member Jann Edwards said the backflipping on the pool came from broken campaign promises.

“When [Mayor] Jack [Dempsey] was going for the federal government, we received a statement that the pool was not going to be demolished,” Mrs Edwards said.

“We believe it was only to keep the heat off [Mr Dempsey’s] back.”

Six weeks later they were informed of the pool’s impending demolition, she said.

“That’s why we’re here today, we want to save our pool, it’s an Anzac memorial, it’s a living memorial and we don’t believe the council has the right to knock it down,” said Mrs. Edwards

“Why don’t they just spend a small amount of money and redevelop the Anzac pool instead of wasting $70m which our ratepayers cannot afford,” she said.

A spokesman for Mr Dempsey said “the tender process for the aquatic facility is still underway” however funding would not come at the burden of the taxpayers.

Anzac Pool, Bundaberg. Photo: Facebook

Councillor and finance portfolio spokesman Steve Cooper said a focus of the forward budget was infrastructure upgrades of the Bundaberg Regional Aquatic Centre and Anzac Park redevelopment.

“Our capital program for the next 12 months is targeted towards addressing infrastructure upgrades that take advantage of grant funding,” Mr Cooper said.

“Through borrowings we’ve ensured that today’s ratepayers are not shouldering the financial burden of generational projects like the Bundaberg Regional Aquatic Centre and Anzac Park Redevelopment.

“We’ve been able to access loans and borrow from our own cash surplus to share this cost into the future.”

Campaigners have launched an online petition which has so far secured 107 signatures.

Helen Blackburn, who started the petition says its about preserving local history.

“The pool that was there was first built by WWI Diggers for WWI Diggers to recover,” Ms Blackburn said.

She said the petition further represents the disconnect the council has with its own residents.

“It’s about the dissatisfaction that people have got with the way the council is ripping things down that might mean something to the community but means nothing to the council,” she said.

Mrs. Edwards said that an application was being lodged to place the Anzac pool on a Heritage listing, so that future generations may appreciate the monument to our Diggers.

Originally published as Council begins Anzac pool demolition despite heritage listing development