The shift to summer season hours will see the pool cleaned on Wednesdays
Key points:
- Repair works to the Continental Pool’s northern intake pipe remain ongoing as the summer season begins.
- The shift to summer hours will see the pool closed for cleaning on Wednesdays from 30 September.
- Council is trialling a three-hour opening window from 6-9am from Wednesday next week to try and maximise community access to the pool.
It’s something akin to bull riding underwater. That’s the task specialist divers contracted by Wollongong City Council to work on the Continental Pool’s intake pipes have tackled this winter.
It’s a local icon, but the Conti is showing its age after 98 years as a jewel in the Wollongong Foreshore’s crown. Built directly into the ocean at sea level, maintaining effective intake as part of its regular cleaning schedule has proven challenging in recent years.
It’s why Council has deployed divers to undertake works on the pool’s southern and northern intake pipes over winter. While maintenance works to the southern intake pipe have been completed ahead of the summer swim season, repair works to fix the broken northern intake pipe remain ongoing.
Carrying out the precise, detailed work required in a dynamic natural environment requires favourable conditions that change more by the hour than the week. Given the challenging conditions, determining a timeline for completion of the pipe works is not possible ahead of the new swim season commencing this weekend (26-27 September).
While the most recent summer cleaning schedule required a full-day closure on Wednesdays, Council will trial limited opening hours starting next week (first clean 30 September), with the pool to be open from 6-9am before being closed for cleaning.
These trial hours will determine whether maintenance works to the southern pipeline will allow for the pool to emptied, cleaned and re-opened by 6am Thursday. If the cleaning process disrupts Thursday openings, hours will revert to a full closure on Wednesday to limit disruptions to just one day of operation per week.
Lord Mayor of Wollongong Councillor Tania Brown said staff will continue looking at all options to maximise the hours the community can utilise the pool, while allowing for required regular cleaning.
“The weather’s getting warmer and there’s no doubt the Conti will be welcoming more visitors as our summer swim season begins,” Cr Brown said.
“It is a much-loved community asset and has been for nearly a hundred years. It’s been given a spruce up over winter and is looking marvellous, but a facility of its age and condition requires a lot of love and care to keep it safe and operational.
“We’re undertaking that work with repairs and maintenance to the intake pipes. Weather and conditions are a major factor in any project but there’s nothing more unpredictable than the ocean, particularly for work as intricate as what is being carried out.
“We are hopeful that when both intake pipes are working to their full capacity we’ll see limited disruptions, but in the interim we want to provide the opportunity for the community to enjoy their early morning swim each day without interruption.
“That’s why we’re trialling these Wednesday hours to see if this is workable. As always, residents are best advised to check Council’s pools website for opening hours and cleaning schedules at all our pools and ocean rock pools.”
The full schedule of opening hours for our pools is available on our Pools webpage , while the cleaning schedule for our ocean rock pools I available here: Rock Pools | City of Wollongong
A full rundown of pools and beaches with facilities for people with accessibility needs is available here: Accessible Beaches and Pools | City of Wollongong
