Community
23 July, 2025
Pool still treading water
AN advisory committee will be formed to assist members of the community and Cobdenhealth in navigating the future of the Rodney Grove Aquatic Centre.
A community forum was held last Friday to continue lines of communication between Cobdenhealth and the community.
As Western District Newspapers revealed last month, Cobdenhealth has been left in a difficult position as the much-loved aquatic centre has operated at a $1.1 million loss between 2019-2025.
While keeping the doors open has been a priority for Cobdenhealth, rising costs in healthcare and needs to meet standards under the looming Aged Care Act have forced Cobdenhealth to assess its financial position to protect the town’s vital healthcare services.
This led to a reduction in opening hours at the indoor pool, the only heated indoor pool in Corangamite Shire, which was met with frustration from users and the wider community.
Cobdenhealth chief executive officer Sue Fleming led discussions at last Friday’s community forum, saying she had been working with a team behind the scenes and was looking to put together an advisory committee with assistance from community member Lesley Brown.
“Lesley kindly offered to help coordinate the Friends of Rodney Grove Aquatic Centre which will form a committee,” Ms Fleming said.
“There has been some confusion and I apologise.
“As a cooperation, to operate that committee, we need it to be made up of paid members.
“If you want to be a part of the committee moving forward, you can fill in a form and we’ll take those applications to the board for approval.”
Among the early stages of stabilising the financial position was acknowledgement greater membership and patronage was needed.
To be a member of Cobden District Health is $10 for the year as a pensioner and $25 for a non-pensioner.
Membership allows individuals to be a member of the upcoming advisory committee and offers voting rights, which will mean the community will have a direct say in future developments of the indoor pool.
Ms Fleming said the introduction of the committee would push for decisions to be made with input from the wider community.
“What we’re hoping is there’s three core functions that ultimately the committee will have,” she said.
“That is, an advisory role, most importantly community and particularly a patronage advocacy role but also the opportunity to provide some assistance with fundraising.”
The next board meeting will be on Monday, August 4 and anyone interested in joining the committee can find forms at the Cobdenhealth Community Fitness Centre.
Some community members raised concerns at Friday’s meeting about the issue of finances not being brought up at an earlier time and feeling left in the dark.
Ms Fleming addressed these concerns, including key issues brought forward at the previous meeting in June – but reiterated Cobdenhealth needed to prioritise appropriate funding for its healthcare and aged care services.
“Cobdenhealth are very driven to see this centre remain open and operating in the way in which it does,” she said.
“It’s just the ‘how’ and that’s what we’re trying to work through.
“At our last meeting the general feedback was to increase patronage, increase membership fees, introduce sponsored gym and swim sessions and seek philanthropic and government financial support.
“We will also consider alternative workforces, such as a volunteer lifesaver model, stabilise the timetable to increase the likelihood of consistent patronage and enhance different marketing and promoting strategies that we have.
“One of the only costs we could look at reducing was our staff overtime.
“One of the first things we had to do was look at that timetable and reduce it down to Will’s (Elliott, general manager) contracted hours, which includes times the pool can’t be open to the public where it’s being prepared to be opened and then closed as well.”
Ms Fleming said exploring other funding opportunities was key in supporting the future of the facility.
“We’re looking at other revenue lines which includes an infant swimming program, which has a really good response rate,” she said.
“We’ve increased our membership fees and introduced some key performance indicators.
“For every change we make we’re going to upset people – it’s the natural course.
“We need to make sure that’s not having more of a major impact than making the change in the first place.
“It’s designed to make improvements, not reductions.”
Some of the other ways Cobdenhealth had tried to secure funding included through donation drives and seeking major donors – however the early attempts had not proven successful, according to Ms Fleming.
“We’ve undertaken a membership and donation drive,” she said.
“I’m very mindful that we’ve obviously got a drought and people are challenged financially as a consequence of that.
“We’ve had some really good donations in the past, but this year we’ve gotten absolutely no donations at all.
“We’ve contacted key donors but have come up with nothing so far.”
Some community members sought clarification on who could use the pool at the fitness centre and Ms Fleming reiterated it was an open, public community asset and no referral was required for use.
Ms Fleming urged people in Cobden and surrounds to make use of the pool as it was the only one of its kind in Corangamite offering a world of benefit to so many.
Fitness instructor Carole Manifold said she was constantly hearing from the people who attended her classes how great they felt after using the pool.
“I’m passionate about the pool,” she said.
“The number of people that come and get so many benefits from being able to use the pool, who exercise, who tell me how they feel after.
“There’s so many people ringing me to say that they can’t come to the pool because the gates are shut.
“They used to be able to come every day.
“It’s the only one we’re going to get in Corangamite.”
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