Phillip Pool will be back in action this summer. Photo: Phillip Swimming and Ice Skating Centre, Facebook.
Phillip Pool will reopen in November after being closed for the past two summers due to a backlog of maintenance work.
Geocon managing director Nick Georgalis has confirmed in a letter to the Woden Valley Community Council that the outdoor pool complex would open from 1 November through to the end of March.
It will open every day except Christmas Day. Hours will be 6 am to 7 pm Monday to Friday, and 7 am to 6 pm on weekends.
Woden Valley Community Council president Fiona Carrick had written to the construction giant after ongoing speculation about whether the pool would be in action this summer.
In December 2022, Geocon bought the Phillip Swimming & Ice Skating Centre, opposite its massive WOVA development. It is expected to develop the site once the new ice sports facility is built in Tuggeranong.
The lease will still require a pool but that is expected to be an indoor 25-metre pool as part of any new development.
Ms Carrick welcomed the news that after two years of closure, Woden would again have a pool this summer but called on Geocon to upgrade the amenities around the pool as well.
“We would love to see some investment in the surrounding amenity such as a cafe, some shade sails, bindie-free grass, barbecues and fun stuff for young people,” she said.
But Ms Carrick feared Geocon would have little incentive to spend much on amenities given its long-term development plans.
Ms Carrick, who has campaigned relentlessly for more social amenities in Woden to support its growing population of apartment dwellers, said there would still be a need for a new aquatic centre in the Town Centre.
She said an indoor 25-metre pool, presumably at the bottom of a Geocon residential tower, would not meet the community’s needs.
“[Building an aquatic centre] shouldn’t be done piecemeal. It should be done in the context of a social infrastructure plan for Woden,” Ms Carrick said.
Despite Sport and Recreation Minister Yvette Berry’s claim that Woden had run out of vacant sites, Ms Carrick said there was still land available for the government to build and own such a facility.
A possible site was the 3-ha piece of land north of the athletics track, which was within walking distance of the interchange.
Mr Carrick suggested an aquatic centre could include a 50-metre indoor pool, a 25-metre outdoor pool, a hydrotherapy pool that Canberra Hospital patients could access and a cafe that would open out to Eddison Park and bring life to that area.
Ms Carrick has previously dismissed suggestions that the new Stromlo Leisure Centre in Wright also catered for Woden, saying the town centres were designed to provide their own social infrastructure.
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