Have your say about our pool!

Now is the time to have your say about the Coburg Olympic Swimming Pool we all know and love. Read the comments too - I think a lot of us have similar concerns, opening times, water temperature, shade, how fabulous it is... Please speak up and ask your friends to have their say too.

Moreland City Council is developing and Aquatic and Leisure Strategy to help guide the future of the service for the next 10 years and beyond. This will provide a strategic document for the planning, provision and direction of Council's six aquatic and leisure facilities.

This will help guide:

• How we prioritise planned maintenance/ renewal works

• How we prioritise future investment in to facilities

• How we provide health and wellness services

• How we provide safe and accessible facilities

• How we provide cost efficient and finacially sustainable facilities.

Throughout the development of the strategy there will be a number of opportunities for everyone to have their say.

More info here.

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.

Pool food

by Kitty Owens
Dinner at the pool is the newest coolest social occasion in the Northern Suburbs for the summer of 09. This is the start of some recipe sharing for pool foodies - and an invitation to dine for those who haven’t tried it yet. Coburg Olympic Pool is open until 8pm on very hot summer nights and there’s a free BBQ on site. Picnic/takeaway/BBQ dinner at the pool is THE ANSWER for hot families from the Republics of Moreland and Darebin, who can be seen nibbling and chatting in the generous shade of the noble pool trees.

Pool food I have noticed on nearby picnic rugs and towels

• Thai takeaway – spring rolls, rice dishes etc. Overhead leisurely discussion of Thai restaurants in East Brunswick – all good.
• BBQ snags and skewers, all kinds of salad, rolls – this is a popular choice
• Cold soy chicken wings with pasta salad – very organised 
• Quiche from a fancy bakery
• Leftover Indian curry
• Tinned baked beans with sausage rolls from the kiosk
• Home made caramelised onion frittata 
• Home made icy poles in an esky!

Pool food possibilities
Take away options nearby include

• Fish and chips or pizza from the shops further along Murray road - on the corner of Elizabeth Street.
• The best choice of kebabs in Australia – surely - from Coburg shops (Kebab Station for best bread, Half Moon Café for best dips).
• Good Vietnamese from the pho shop near Preston Market (on High street) – Rice Paper rolls anyone?
• Lovely modern Indian food from Café Sarabella in Coburg mall – buy it in the day when shopping and shove it in the fridge to take to the pool for dinner.
• Veg to Go in East Brunswick has great vegetarian take away
• Zaatar pizzas and cold salt yoghurt drinks from Al Alami on Waterfield St, Coburg

BBQ suggestions

• Coburg Meat supply in Coburg mall does prize winning snags, and have organic, free range and halal options too.
• Coburg market – for mushrooms, capsicums, eggplant, zuchinni to BBQ – and haloumi from Elli’s deli
• Preston market has it all including a great range of fish
• Tasty Rooster in Waterfield Coburg - barn raised not cage raised chicken – they really are tasty - and you can get cold ones from the day before.

Here’s Something I Prepared Earlier (more ideas for dinners to bring from home)

• Gazpacho – mm lots of fresh tomatoes whizzed up with stale bread and olive oil and a little good vinegar. Icy cold in a thermos,Tortillas warmed on the BBQ with lots of fresh salsa (tomato, onion, fresh coriander, chilli, lime juice - mango optional – not traditional but good if you like mango).
• Iced water with lemon slices in a glass bottle
• Smoked trout with bread and salad
• Tropical fruit skewers – with marshmallows optional for kitsch kid spoiling

Dream Pool Café menu – to be continued
The pool has a kiosk selling classic retro pool fare – icecreams, chips and sausage rolls, but many people muse wouldn’t it be great to have a café …apparently Prahan pool has a nice cafe. Suggested items the café could sell

• Coffee frappes like they sell in Greece (instant coffee, evaporated milk and heaps of shaved ice) – this suggestion from the glamorous Greek women on the bench the other night
• Decent coffee! ‘Isn’t it too hot’? I said ‘NO’ said Gina ‘I had to ring a friend who was on their way to the pool to get them to bring me a take-away coffee’.
• Frozen bananas coated in chocolate and coconut – they sold these at Ceres for a while
• Fruit smoothies
• Those yummy Turkish salty yoghurt drinks (addictive)

PLEASE SEND IN YOUR IDEAS AND RECIPES – and pictures of pool food would be good too.