My seven-pool Saturday

thought it might be worthwhile spending a few hours “testing the waters” of the other pool locations.

So I plotted a course and set sail for Stanhope, Rushworth, Colbinabbin, Rochester, Lockington, Kyabram and then finished off with a dip, when it was still 29°C, at Tongala.

Both my partner’s children sing the praises of the Tongala pool consistently enough to suggest it has a future.

Interestingly they have made friends at the pool (during the school holidays) with kids with whom they started at their new school last week.

It got me thinking there are probably intangibles, things like social interaction and a feeling of belonging, that go beyond the cost of the pool.

After speaking with seven different people from all pool venues, I realised the reasons for going to the pool were many — and varied.

At Stanhope it was a father and daughter who get some quality time together; at Rushworth it was a father with the challenge of controlling his three children; Colbinabbin was a grandmother and her three energetic “tadpoles”; for grandmothers Wilma and Barbara it saved them an afternoon of heartache in the form of bored grandchildren; while Lockington was a father repeating the history of his own first pool experiences; then Kyabram had me speaking with a former teacher who swims a kilometre every time she visits the pool.

But it was Sam, the son of my partner, who probably epitomised the average young pool-goer

The self-confessed “gamer” rarely turns down an opportunity to “go to the pool” and without the interference of a screen I can often see a different side to his personality.

Long live the Tongala pool.

6.08pm, 29°C, six people: Patricia Harrison is a 70-plus-year-old who uses the Kyabram outdoor pool as her major means of exercise. She swims a kilometre every time she visits, several times a week. “I’ve been a member here for a long time, when I was a teacher (at Kyabram P-12). I spent a lot of time here teaching infants to swim. I see it as a necessity and I was an active campaigner to keep it operational. I understand the expense, but I see it like roads: costly, but an essential service,” she said. She said with the drowning rate so high in Campaspe Shire it made no sense for the pools to be closed. She did, however, indicate a new facility — possibly half the size but that ran all the year around — would be something that could work for the Kyabram community. “The attendance varies a lot, but people that use it love it. There are quite a few for laps in the morning,’’ she said.

5.20pm, 31°C, 17 people: Alex Oakley grew up swimming at the Lockington pool and has recently introduced the fun of water to his two-year-old son, Flynn. “I’ve been coming here since I was a kid. I grew up here, went to primary school at Lockington and then Rochester,” he said. One of five children, he and siblings Megan, Jodie, Sarah and Shane spent many summers at the pool, where the family always had a membership. “The only difference between then and now if there is no diving board. I can still remember the school sports every year and my mate Daniel Shaw, who also still lives here, winning everything,” he said. Half a dozen families were at the pool facility when I called in, almost as busy as the Rochester site.