The following article is reproduced from the Phillip Island Advertiser 9.12.15

Phillip Island Aquatic Centre Fund secretary Peter McMahon is a determined man. He has no doubt that a pool can be achieved on Phillip Island by the Year 2018, a date which marks 150 years since the island was settled, but it will need Council to rethink their current ideas. He is appealing to the community to get behind a pool appeal, and has outlined the positive changes that have eventuated this year which can enable this to happen.

First and foremost, the fact that the Bass Coast Shire Council has at long last approved the construction of a pool on Phillip Island, representing a major shift from their 2014 stance, whereby they decreed council would look at developing a pool on Phillip Island in another fifteen years.
“The situation 18 months ago was that council resolved to build a pool at Wonthaggi, and look at Phillip Island fifteen years hence,” said Peter this week.

Thanks to the dedicated and intensive work being undertaken by Peter and the PIACF committee, that, has now changed. “The current Bass Coast Shire Council resolution is that two Aquatic Centres can be built in the shire. One at Wonthaggi and a second on Phillip Island.”

It remains the case that Phillip Island residents have to raise 50% of the cost of their facility, which Peter estimates overall to be in the vicinity of $10 million. As opposed to the agreed Wonthaggi pool redevelopment, this has a current estimated price tag of $22.5 million, but comes with no similar community contribution rider. Nevertheless, says Peter McMahon, we can do it.

Bass Coast Shire Council has approved a site for a Phillip Island pool, on land behind the Cowes Cultural Centre. “Now that the land has been secured by council resolution, it’s all systems go for us,” Peter said.“We will need to raise $2 million to make it happen. We understand a grant is available from Sport and Recreation Victoria for $ 3 million which means we can do it.That will give us our $5 million.

The PIACF has also established a partnership with the Australian Sports Foundation (ASF), which is able to accept donations on behalf of PIACF. All donations made to ASF for PIACF are tax deductible.
The Foundation sources donations from philanthropic organisations. “They have agreed to help us and are very much on side,” Peter McMahon comments. “This group raised $24 million for sporting groups in Australia last year.”

PIAFC will be seeking community support over summer, and are soon to launch a fund raising program. “For the first time in the 20 years this community has been working to build a pool, there is now a real chance of us achieving this facility by 2018,” he says. “We very much want it to coincide with the island’s 150th celebrations.” And here’s a thought, he adds.“If 20,000 people donated just $100 each, we would have our $2 million in a heartbeat.’

Full details of the partnership with the Australian Sports Foundation are contained in a PIACF advertisement in this edition.To donate, go to the Australian Sports Foundation website, and click on to the Phillip Island project pointer. For further information and a question and answer format page, go to www.piac.org.au

We can do it, a very enthusiastic Peter advises. Many of the obstacles faced at the council level for the last decade have all now been cleared. “We’re on the way. Come with us.”

PIACF will publish a regular column in the Advertiser in 2016, keeping the community closely informed, and showing the progress of the PIAFC quest to raise $2 million.
 
 

Twenty years on, pool crusaders counting the days  
By Catherine Watson
May 10, 2014

DON Turner has a dream: in November 2018, the island’s residents celebrate the 150th anniversary of European settlement with the opening of a new swimming pool.

The president of the Phillip Island Aquatic Centre will find out in 11 days if his dream has any chance of coming true when councillors consider a report on whether the shire can afford two swimming pools.

This time last year the dream looked remote. In June 2013, councillors voted to put a Phillip Island aquatic centre on the backburner for another 15-20 years in favour of a $10.6 million rebuilding and extension of the Bass Coast Aquatic and Leisure Centre in Wonthaggi to meet the shire’s needs.

It was a crushing blow for Mr Turner's committee, which has worked for almost 20 years to get a public pool on the island. 
“I know in Leongatha they started campaigning for a pool in 1925 and it was 1949 before they got their pool. That was an outdoor pool and now they have a beautiful indoor pool.” 
Don Turner, president of the Phillip Island Aquatic Centre
Leongatha got its first public pool in the late 1940s. Wonthaggi got its pool in the early 1970s after the community raised $40,000 in a couple of years. Korumburra, Mirboo North, Foster all followed. Even Poowong, population 610 at the 2011 census, has a swimming pool. But somehow Phillip Island’s efforts have always floundered.

Rather than spit the dummy, the committee regrouped last year and have worked hard since then to overcome the obstacles to a pool and to shorten the time frame.

Their perseverance paid off in September when councillors unanimously backed a proposal to investigate funding and construction options for a pool in Cowes.They voted to use $75,000 from the design budget for the Wonthaggi pool for a study to assess the financial viability of operating two aquatic centres in the shire, funding options and delivery models, including a private public partnership under which a company would build, own and operate a centre. 

The aquatic centre committee made a detailed submission in February. Meanwhile, a working group has identified a council-owned site next to the Phillip Island Leisure Centre in Cowes as a potential site for a new pool. 

At their meeting on May 21, councillors will consider the financial report and the results of a survey of residents on whether the community would be prepared to pay for a second pool.

Next month, the council is expected to release a master plan for the use of land purchased on Ventnor Road for recreation and sports facilities

Mr Turner says everything is coming together at last. “Our submission has been very well received by the council. The community support not only on Phillip Island but throughout the shire has been overwhelming.”

He says they have tried to avoid the hostility, anger and even threats that characterised two recent polarising debates within the shire: about dogs on beaches; and a Cape Paterson special charge scheme. 

“We have tried to be more constructive, more rational. We have talked to councillors and tried to convince them. I reckon we’re pretty close to getting four councillors to support it.”

Most of the funds raised for a pool over the past 20 years have gone on feasibility studies and consultancy reports, but there’s about $70,000 in the chest. 

Once they get the nod – “whether that’s two months or 15 years” – the committee will start looking for donations and financial support from organisations such as Bendigo Bank. 

Mr Turner says they’ll be aiming to raise up to $1.5 million from the community, and he doesn’t think that will be too difficult given the number of wealthy people who holiday or have business interests on the island. 

What about Phillip island race track owner Lindsay Fox?

“We have approached Mr Fox recently, and he said he’s not interested at the moment because he’s fully committed. Lindsay Fox is on the backburner as far as we’re concerned.”

Lack of progress on getting a pool has been one of the major drivers of the discontent behind the Phillip Island Stand Alone campaign. Asked if getting a swimming pool would be easier if Phillip Island went it alone, Mr Turner is circumspect.

“We hope to pursue it through the current council but we’ll work with whoever is around. And we’ll work with the federal and state governments whether they’re Coalition or Labor.”