Taylah Eastwell
Swimmers in the hills will dust off their goggles and don their bathers on 5 December, when Olinda Community Pool reopens the pool gates for the beginning of the 2020-21 Summer Season.
The pool is excited to be offering early morning lap swimming for the first time, with brand new lane ropes and a new opening time of 6.30am until 9am weekdays from Monday 7 December.
President of Olinda Community Pool Association, Duncan Brown said the pool committee pushed hard, with help from Yarra Ranges Council, to begin offering lap swimming.
“With Covid, pools were originally only going to be open for lap swimming so we worked hard as a committee, with help from the shire,” he said.
With keen morning swimmers having to travel to Belgrave or Croydon in the past, Mr Brown is certain the early morning sessions will be popular in Olinda.
“There’s a lot of people that have requested the lane rope swimming so it’s a benefit to the community and with a lot of people working from home it will be beneficial for them to get them up and going for the day,” Mr Brown said.
The pool committee is also excited for toddlers to try out their newly upgraded toddler pool, complete with new steps and an extended toddler slide for that extra bit of fun.
The State Government has allowed outdoor pools to reopen from 28 September, with strict social distancing and Covid-safe measures in place.
The Olinda Pool is capped at 300 people due to restrictions, and are hoping to get close to those numbers over the summer period.
The pool is open on weekends from 12pm until 7pm, and on weekdays during the school term from 2pm until 7pm.
