The new facility is to be built on Council-owned land, within a precinct bordered by Bald Hills and Springs Road, Mount Barker. The site already contains Stage 1 of the Summit Sports and Recreation Park, linear trail, heritage barns and will include a planned adventure playground.

In addition to this, there is interest for other complementary leisure and tourism activities to be developed within the precinct, creating a unique destination for community and tourists alike, while generating significant local employment.

The Regional Aquatic and Leisure Centre will be delivered through a staged approach. Recognising that Mount Barker is at the beginning of its major population growth, future expansion is likely as our population grows. Key elements of Stage 1 of the indoor facility include:

• 25m x 10 lane competition capable lap pool
• Learn to swim pool
• Shallow entry leisure pool/water play
• Warm water therapy pool
• Gym and fitness rooms
• Crèche
• Kiosk/café
• Toilets/change rooms
• Meeting rooms

The design will allow for future expansion, subject to funding, to include elements such as:

• Outdoor 50m competition/lap pool
• Expanded aquatic leisure facilities (splash pad, waterslides)
• Indoor sports courts

The financial sustainability of operating an aquatic and leisure centre is directly linked to ensuring it is scaled/sized appropriately to the population it is serving.

To overinvest in a facility such as this, creates a substantial financial burden for community, in that the revenue (fees paid by people visiting the facility) falls significantly short of the costs to operate.

Council is proposing a stage 1 that caters for community need now and that anticipates the forecasted population growth across the next 20 years. It will be designed however, to allow expansion once demand has reached a level that justifies additional facilities being developed.

This approach to staging satisfies the financial sustainability objective, particularly around the operating expense but also allows Council to expand in the future off a foundation of operating viability and success.

During the 2019 consultation there had been advocacy for a 50m indoor pool, however the significant capital and operational expense of building and running a 50m indoor pool could not be warranted when benchmarked against the forecast number of  users.

To ensure the financial sustainably of the facility it must be scaled to appropriately match the size of the population catchment that it will serve. In community aquatic facilities, the lap pool is the least used but most expensive to build, operate and maintain. Conversely the learn to swim, leisure and warm water therapy pools generate greatest use and income.

Our design has been supported by SwimmingSA who has confirmed that the proposed 25m pool is capable of holding competitions such as the Courier Cup and Regional Short Course Championships.

An outdoor, 50m pool can be accommodated in a future stage of this facility and would be fully integrated with the indoor aquatic and leisure elements. This is regarded as the optimal design and staging solution.

Yes. The scale and diversity of pool types proposed will ensure this facility has capacity to accommodate the forecasted population growth across the next 10-20 years. Future expansion of the centre is best positioned off a foundation of financial success, from a well-scaled and operated stage 1 facility.

They are not part of stage 1, but like other elements, the design will enable them to be added as part of a subsequent stage.

We know there will be continued demand for indoor sports courts as our population grows. They are not included in stage 1, however the design will enable them to be added as part of a subsequent stage.

The existing Mountain Pool facility is over 60 years old and is at the end of its asset life. The existing pool site is not big enough to accommodate the new facility, particularly when future expansion is considered.

Given the condition of Mountain Pool and the need to cater for increased population growth, Council has pursued external grant funding for several years and has been successful in obtaining $22.3million in funding. With these external funds committed, Council is now obligated to commence the delivery of the new facility.

Early works commenced in May 2023 and final construction is forecasted to be complete mid to late 2025.

The Council is investigating a number of options for the operation of the Aquatic and Leisure Centre. To examine the different external operator models the Council plans to engage with the market through an expression of interest process.

In addition to operating the aquatic and leisure centre, Council is looking to capture the interest to develop additional recreation and tourism uses within the broader precinct.

Council will consider the responses received from the market before making a decision on the preferred operating model/operator.

There are two key reasons that these non-aquatic elements are included.

1. It responds to user expectations for a facility of this scale. A quality café that serves patrons and supports the use of the overall facility, adjacent linear trail and future adventure playground is essential. The associated gym also provides an integrated leisure and wellness opportunity and ensures these complementary functions are integrated.
2. Elements such as a café and gym will be operated commercially so that they have the ability to help subsidise (offset) the expenses associated with operating the loss-leading elements of the aquatic centre, i.e. the lap pool.

Environmental sustainability will be an integral element of this project from initial concept design (of the aquatic centre itself, and across the broader precinct), through to the centre’s operating model, energy efficient design into the heating / cooling systems for the pool(s) and buildings, and recycling of water where possible.

The building’s energy requirements significantly contribute to the operating expenses of the facility. We will draw on relevant expertise from key technical consultants, together with recent experience of energy-efficient aquatic facilities around Australia and further afield.

Existing trees are to be retained on the site.

The project has sought community and industry expertise and advice throughout the development of the project that commenced with the 2015 Needs Analysis that was followed with the Business Case in 2019 and detailed concept designs in 2022.

Broad community engagement occurred in 2019, whereby significant community feedback was received and support provided for the development of a new aquatic centre in Mount Barker.

To ensure that we maintain focus on community outcomes through this project, a Community Reference Group has been established with members from both the broader community as well as representatives from key user groups of the facility.

With the expanding population of the district, the provision of an aquatic and leisure facility needs to cater for the whole community with each of the aquatic spaces designed to be flexible and allow for different types of use, depending on the need.

1. Recreation and social users
   • families and friends
   • fun and/or social gatherings such as birthday parties
2. Fitness and competition users
   • club members
   • competitive swimmers
   • users that swim to keep fit
   • participants in aquatic fitness classes
3. Education users
   • swimming lessons
   • school carnivals
   • first aid, surf lifesaving and CPR courses
4. Therapy users
   • rehabilitation
   • elderly
   • disabled

Fundamental to the facilities design and consistent with the latest design trends, there are a number of different pool spaces proposed, Varying pool depths throughout the facility ensure that all major user groups are catered for and water temperatures will be tailored to meet the intended use of each pool.

25m x 10 lane lap pool (including 250 seat spectator areas and marshalling room)

• recreational lap swimming
• short-course competitions
• swimming club training
• aqua aerobics
• advanced learn to swim
• leisure play including use of inflatable aquatic obstacle course/play
• rehabilitation
• school use (DECS swimming)

Learn to swim and beach entry leisure pool

• learn to swim lessons
• leisure play and recreational swimming
• shallow depth toddler play/introduction to water
• social events and school activities
• warm up/cool down associated with large competition events

Warm Water Therapy Pool

• group/class rehabilitation
• individual rehabilitation and movement
• learn to swim (over-flow)
• casual use for elderly
• cognitive and sensory needs (adjustable light/sound environment)

The design principles endorsed by Council embrace the community need for a multi-functional, flexible and suitably sized in-door facility to serve the growing Mount Barker population.

The design and construction of the aquatic facility is subject to compliance with Australian Standards, National Construction Code (Building Regulations), Disability Discrimination Act, Royal Life Saving South Australia (RLSSA) guidelines, Swimming SA policies and best practice.

The 25m indoor pool will be competition capable.

The 25m lap pool will have 10 lanes that are 2.5m wide (as required by FINA standards).

At the shallow end the pool will be 1.35m deep which complies with SwimmingSA and RLSSA standards for shallow diving.  The diving blocks will be removable and only available during a competitive event.

At the deep end, the pool will be 1.8m.  Increasing the pool to 2.0m or more results in an increased build and operational cost which is not financially viable.

All pools will have an accessibility ramp in accordance with disability and building code regulations.  The ramp into the 25m pool will allow for all members of the community to be able to participate in lap swimming and during competitions additional lane ropes can be deployed to minimise wave deflection.

SA regional competitions are limited to using outdoor 50m pools (summer only).  As such, regional short course (25m) competitions have not been run recently in SA due to the lack of suitable facilities.

As the most modern 25m competition capable all-year round 10 lane pool outside of the Metro area, the Mount Barker Regional Aquatic and Leisure Centre will provide Swimming SA, Mountain Swim Club and other local clubs with a modern, high quality centre for training and competitions that is sufficiently scaled to provide for a growing community and anticipated club membership.

The facility cannot cater for all aquatic sports due to commercial and project constraints.  For example, water polo, artistic swimming, and diving are not specifically catered for as these sports all require deeper waterbodies (2m+ with diving requiring 3m minimum).  The business case and technical project reviews all concluded that the cost of building, operating and maintaining large deep water is incompatible with a community facility and is provided at a State level for these sports.