Monarch Building Solutions will build the southside hydrotherapy pool at the Lakeside Leisure Centre in Greenway. Construction is expected to be completed in the first half of 2025.
Southside Canberra has been without a dedicated hydrotherapy facility for four years. The Canberra Hospital pool at Garran was closed in February 2020; built in the 1960s, it was deemed unsustainable and expensive to maintain. A new hydrotherapy pool for southside Canberra was an election commitment for both ACT Labor and the Canberra Liberals.
The ACT Government committed $8.5 million in the 2022–23 budget to design and construct the facility, and appointed global engineering and architecture firm GHD last April to design the facility.
Health minister Rachel Stephen-Smith said the turning of the first sod today will be a milestone.
“We are closer to improving access for people on Canberra’s southside who require hydrotherapy services,” Ms Stephen-Smith said. “This facility will complement the hydrotherapy pool at the University of Canberra Hospital as well as private facilities on both the north and southside of Canberra.
Marco Galeotti, director of Monarch Building Solutions, said: “Our team is excited and ready to dive straight into the construction of the new southside hydrotherapy pool and understand the importance of this facility to the local community.”
Hydrotherapy helps people better manage chronic pain caused by illnesses such as cancer, migraine, osteoarthritis and arthritis, or to recover from injury or surgery.
“Arthritis ACT welcomes the commencement of the building of this essential infrastructure,” CEO Rebecca Davey said. “For people living with chronic pain conditions which includes all types of arthritis, hydrotherapy is essential both to providing ongoing pain relief as well as a wonderful place to exercise, especially for those that get a lot of pain when exercising.
“As our city grows and matures, we need to ensure the number of hydrotherapy pools also grows to meet the needs of an ageing and growing city. Gone are the days when our older Canberrans left the city at the end of their career. They now remain with their families and friends, and we need to ensure that the infrastructure required to provide the services of these older Canberrans is in place to make this an enjoyable lifestyle choice. Our city benefits from the wisdom and experience of our older Canberrans through increased volunteering, family support systems as well as encouraging our younger families to remain where ‘mum and dad’ are.
“We look forward to there being adequate therapeutic hydrotherapy pools (that is, pools at run at a temperature of at least 34 degrees) in Canberra going into the future to meet the needs of our community.”
Canberra Liberals MLA Leanne Castley, Shadow Minister for Health and Wellbeing, commented:
“I asked the Minister when Canberrans could expect this project to be ready for use, and was told August 2024. How disappointing that they are now only just turning the soil to get it started.
“We see this time and time again with this Labor Government and the Health Minister, they haven’t lived up to their promises to the people of Canberra who took them at their word and voted them in.
“Now we see Canberrans who desperately need access to a hydrotherapy pool have to keep waiting in pain and longer than necessary.
“Canberrans just want health infrastructure delivered on time and on budget, something this Government is incapable of doing.”
