History Notes

The Phillip Island Aquatic Centre Fund Inc. was incorporated under the model rules of the Associations Incorporation Act 1981 on October 1st 1999.

The official launch of the program was at a Gala dinner in May of 2000 where Dawn Fraser AO agreed to become the Patron of the program.

The inaugural Committee of Management understood from the earliest days that a difficult task lay ahead there were numerous hurdles that had to be overcome, not the least of which was the common perception that all pools lose significant sums of money annually and there was very little interest from any level of government in the construction of an Aquatic Centre on Phillip Island.

From very small and frugal beginnings the Fund grew in membership and confidence, persistence and perseverance were the watchwords of the group there was little else in the arsenal in the beginning. As the membership grew the Committee of Management were able to develop the public profile of the Fund by taking part in a number of community activities on a regular basis and undertaking a program to heighten the awareness of the program within our community.300x100tube

It is very difficult for any community based organisation with little or no resources to grow sufficiently in stature that their public profile is such that it can influence individuals and large organisations that it has the where-with-all to make a success of it’s programs. This was certainly the case with P.I.A.C Fund until we were successful in gaining the support of the B-24 Liberator Memorial Fund Inc. One feature of this organisations community programs is the dismantling of former Australian Defence buildings for donation to not-for-profit organisations that require housing. In our case we were donated 2/3rds of a 3 thousand square metre aircraft hangar from the former R.A.A.F Base at Tottenham in Melbourne. The remainder of this hangar was donated to the Vietnam Veterans Museum and can be seen erected on the aerodrome at Phillip Island.

The donation of the hangar raised the profile of the Fund very effectively an increased our resource base by some $500,000.00. Having acquired the main structure for our aquatic centre we then needed to a) find a suitable model on which to build our aquatic centre and b) find a site on which to construct it; to determine a suitable model two major surveys were undertaken;
  • A survey of the whole of the community; in this instance the community within the triangle centred on Corinnela, Cowes and Kilkunda. To have the results of a survey accepted by the various government departments and the major organisations we hoped to gain our funding through the survey had to be prepared using a specific set of criteria and within a specific set of guidelines.
Our community is quite unique in that it is a major tourist destination and its mobile nonpermanent population falls outside the normal guidelines allowed for a community survey. What is quite a large geographical area is home to only a small permanent population and there is an abnormally large number of schools, camps and other entities in the area that attract a large number of people. Therefore the development of our survey plan required a significant amount of work to prepare and some 2 1/2 years to complete.
  • A second survey was carried out to find the preferred model for the construction of our aquatic centre. A number of aquatic centres across Victoria were visited and the pros and cons of each were compared to the model we had proposed for the Phillip Island Aquatic Centre. One particular aquatic centre was found to fit virtually all of the criteria we had established for our own needs (please see the photos attached) right down to the fact that it was also constructed in a recycled building of almost exactly the type of construction we planned.
Whilst the research into the various aquatic centres was underway a program was put in place to seek the most suitable site for our aquatic centre. A number of sites were considered and some research was undertaken to ascertain future development trends on and around Phillip Island. Some significant information was gleaned from the Community survey and much of the research showed that a site near the centre of Phillip Island would be advantageous to all members of our community. Discussions were held between ourselves and several land holders in the desired area and soon after we were made an offer by the management of the CYC Adventure Resort. After nearly 21/2 years of negotiation the proposed site on Adventure Resort land was confirmed at our Annual General Meeting in September 2005. A site plan can be seen on this web site.