Thebarton Aquatic Centre

Thebarton Aquatic Centre
Torrensville- South Australia

In the leafy suburb of Torrensville, you’ll find Thebarton Aquatic Centre, a facility that has been teaching the local community to swim and water safety for at least 40 years. But after its $8.7 million renovation (full facility), you’d be forgiven for thinking it was brand new. In the wake of Adelaide Aquatic Centre closing for a once in a lifetime rebuild, surrounding aquatic facilities needed to be ready for additional patronage and ensure they were meeting local government requirements for commercial pools and aquatic facilities.

Thebarton Aquatic Centre – comprised of 3 pools: a tiled 25m lap pool, a fibreglass learn-to-swim (LTS) pool, and a fibreglass hydrotherapy pool, had fallen into a state of disrepair over the years. Tiles were drummy in the 25m pool, and the concourse was slippery and always wet due to inadequate drainage which created safety concerns. Discolouration of tiles on the 25m pool walls and hob were visually unappealing and the 25m pool floor was almost bare concrete as the paint had fully eroded. Extensive fibreglass delamination in the LTS pool rendered it unusable, not to mention the aged and failing plantroom infrastructure.

Images: (left and center) Thebarton Aquatic Centre before extensive renovation showing the state of disrepair the circa 1980 facility was in prior to renovation and (right) afterwards. The concrete floor was showing through eroded paint (left); discolouration of the hob tiles were aesthetically unappealing (middle); the safe and refreshed facility ready to welcome patrons for at least another 40 years (right).

Due to strict budget constraints, critical works were prioritised. The inclusion of an accessibility ramp into the 25m swimming pool, as well as traditional ladders was created, and some of the essential infrastructure in the plantroom was able to be reinstated post renovation to save money. Key safety issues, including drainage in the scum gutters which was making the concourse slippery as well as creating a blind spot for life guards was replaced with wetdeck which vastly improved drainage and improved the overall visual appeal of the facility.

“The Thebarton Aquatic Centre is an integral facility in the Department for Education’s Water Safety program… (and) we anticipate that the Thebarton pool program will once again be at capacity with the upgraded facilities enabling an expansion of educational opportunities in this great new learning environment.”        –SA Minister for Infrastructure and Transport, Tom Koutsantonis

As part of ongoing support for Thebarton Aquatic Centre, Hydrilla provide regular monthly commercial pool servicing. This is in addition to daily monitoring that the centre performs but is more specialised in nature. Preventative maintenance is in the form of, media changes for sand filters, UV servicing, probe calibration, servicing of chemical dosing pumps and anything else that can support the facility to maintain excellent water quality.

All images of Thebarton Aquatic Centre post renovation are courtesy of YMCA

You can find much more information about our project at Thebarton Aquatic Centre in our project fact sheet. Click the button below to read more and save.