Historic Coburg Olympic Pool Foyer to be redeveloped

How important is the retro sixties modernist design of the Coburg Olympic Swimming Pool Foyer and the landscaping of the pool to you?

Moreland Council is planning to upgrade the foyer of the Coburg Olympic Swimming Pool.  A representative of Friends of Coburg Olympic Pool met with City of Moreland planners and the architect to go over possible plans for the renovation.  While FCOP is pleased that the City of Moreland are planning to improve the usability of the pool entry foyer, we are very concerned about the way that the proposed remodel interacts with the unique 60s modernist entry.  The heritage significance statement for the Coburg Olympic swimming Pool (see page 109) identified the swimming pools, the landscaped setting and the ‘modernist entry building, including the interior’ as features of Coburg Olympic Swimming Pool that should have heritage controls. There is still scope within the proposed heritage overlay to allow for the pools and buildings to be used and for modern amenities to be incorporated.

The Coburg Olympic Swimming Pool complex was recommended for inclusion on the local heritage overlay by a series of experts in 2011. The experts included a heritage consultant hired by Moreland Council, council planning staff, and the Planning Panels Victoria tribunal. However the Moreland City Councillors removed the Coburg Olympic Swimming Pool from the list to be included in the heritage overlay and therefore the pool does not have the recommended legal protection.

While the Friends of Coburg Olympic Pool support the aims of the planned upgrade to the foyer - to facilitate more staff in the entrance and kiosk, improved storage to offer a wider range of food for sale – the Friends are in the process of providing feedback to Moreland Council about retaining as much of the heritage fabric as possible. This includes the importance of retaining the retro 1960s ambience of the entrance and not distracting from the distinctive modernist design. We believe that Moreland Council should obtain advice from the council Heritage Advisor on the Coburg Olympic Swimming Pool project to enable the usability aims of the foyer redesign to go ahead without compromising the heritage significance of the site. We will keep the wider group up to date with discussions and welcome comments on the proposed re-design of the foyer.

Please let us know what you think by commenting below, on our Facebook page or by email to savecoburgolympicpool@gmail.com.

Coburg Olympic Pool excluded from heritage overlay

A recent report has recommended that Coburg Olympic Pool be subject to a Heritage Overlay. However as reported in the Moreland Leader on 13/06/2011 Moreland City council did not accept those recommendations in relation to our pool.

You can read the North of Bell Street Heritage Study here or at the planning desk at the Moreland Civic C. The pool is mentioned on pages109-113. Page 110 states that Coburg Olympic Pool is one of only a few municipal swimming complexes dating from the 1950s and 1960s in Victoria to survive largely intact. The conservation guidelines allow plenty of scope for modifications of the complex to allow the important objective, ie the use of the complex as a public pool to continue.

Read the Friends of Coburg Olympic Pool letter to Moreland Council below.

FCoP Letter to Councillors Regarding Heritaqge Study 15/06/2011

Heritage Significance of the Coburg Olympic Pool

The Coburg Olympic Pool is part of a long history of swimming on the banks of the Merri Creek in Coburg. The history of Coburg by Richard Broome (Between Two Creeks) describes the banks of the creek as an Aboriginal feasting site – in the 1920s a shell midden was discovered in Pentridge. After European settlement the Merri creek and later Coburg Lake which was dammed in 1917, became important swimming holes. Coburg lake had a series of pools, changing rooms, a diving board and champion swimming teams, also a water polo team. Locals continued swimming in the creek even after the Lake pools were closed due to pollution. In the late 1950s two children drowned in the creek at East Coburg and a campaign to build an Olympic Pool began. The pool was explicitly built to replace the lake and creek for swimming, and until these are clean enough to swim in again, the Olympic Pool provides an important opportunity to socialise and swim in a natural setting beside the Merri Creek.

The pool is closely linked with the history of community activism in Coburg. The push for the pool in the 50s and 60s came from the close knit community in the Newlands estate,which now has a local heritage overlay. Prominent Newlands local Frank Cox played a part in campaigning for the pool. The campaign for the pool involved a massive community fund raising effort including art shows, baby shows etc.  Later waves of activism in the late 1990s kept the pool going and the pool was fixed and re-opened in 2008 after being closed for two years. The latest campaign was generated by a new wave of young families moving into Newlands and  the campaign connected with a wide range of community members, including older residents. Frank Cox, now in his 90s, spoke at a Friends of the Coburg Pool event in 2008.

Coburg Olympic Pool is a site of shared memory for thousands of locals who grew up spending hot days at the pool when the local population was so big ‘you couldn’t find a spot for a towel’ on the massive grounds. Many locals learnt to swim at the pool– the students at Newlands High used to go over with a teacher at lunchtime, and students from Coburg Priamry School would walk to swimming lessons before the Coburg Leisure centre opened,.

The pool is an excellent example an increasingly rare example of a 1960s suburban Olympic pool (1965) architecture, with all 4 pools operational and featuring an unusual gravity fed system. The architecture is virtually intact and features a high modernist entranceway which is a local icon. The site has had buildings added – a multipurpose space currently used for a disability support program, and a table tennis centre, but apart from the removal of the diving towers in 2008, the site is intact; the stadium seating, the toilets and kiosk are all original and the Lions Clock is still in position (donated by the Lions Clock shortly after the pool opened so kids would not have an excuse to come home late for dinner). The grounds have established peppercorns and other leafy trees that have provided shade for over 40 years. The view over bush regenerated parkland toward Merri creek is an unusual natural feature for an urban outdoor swimming pool.