Elsie Lange
Last week, it was revealed how long children living in Hume had to wait to learn how to swim, due to ballooning waitlist times at council-run swim centres.
At the Sunbury Aquatic and Leisure Centre, the waitlist for children aged zero to three years old was 113, for kids three to five years old it was 48 and for five to 18 year olds, it was 134.
These are not just figures though, these are kids waiting to learn how to swim on a continent surrounded by water.
Sunbury mother of two Ash Moreland said she was “massively” worried for her five year old daughter, who will soon turn six and has never had a swimming lesson.
“I try and take them to the pool myself, but obviously that’s time consuming and I’m not a swimming teacher, so I have no idea what I’m doing,” Ms Moreland said.
“I just wanted her to be more confident around water, because she has no idea.
“If she fell in the pool, she’d have no idea what to do – so I’ve committed to taking her to the pool as often as I can,” she said.
She just wants swimming lessons as soon as possible at a council-run centre.
“The thing I find trickiest is there’s only one of me, and I have two children that have drastically different capabilities,” Ms Moreland said.
“My son is eight, and he wants to be doing jumps off the side and flips and all that sort of stuff, and my daughter is not confident enough to be in that of the pool, where it’s safe for him to do that.”
Last week, Hume council corporate services director Daryl Whitfort told Star Weekly there were a number of factors that contribute to the variation in waitlist and enrolment figures at aquatic centres.
“The programs within each council facility vary with pool space availability and swim teacher availability – which is experiencing an industry-wide shortage since the beginning of the pandemic,” Mr Whitford said.
Mim Stoermer, a former Sunbury resident now in Diggers Rest, said her three year old twins had been on the waiting list for the Sunbury Aquatic Centre for more than a year.
Ms Stoermer said while they had eventually been offered a place, she had in the meantime been accepted into a centre in Gisborne and now travels there for the lessons.
Ms Stoermer said there was a need for bigger facilities to account for population growth in the region.
“I think with all the new estates that are planned, towards the airport and then planned along the Calder, there’s definitely a lack of [swimming pools],” Ms Stoermer said.
At a meeting last week after hearing the figures, Hume councillor Trevor Dance asked officers to report back about what can be done to fastrack a reduction in waitlist numbers for swimming lessons.
