A key action of the Draft Active Ipswich Strategy 2021 - 2031 was to develop an Aquatics Facilities Action Plan to guide the planning, delivery and promotion of quality facilities and programs.

Community consultation was undertaken during 2021 on how you use swim centres and facilities and water sport and play needs.

The Action Plan is now complete and was endorsed by council in October 2022.

Council will now commence on implementing the actions contained within the Action Plan such as improved facilities and aiming to increase participation at aquatic facilities.

Ipswich City Council has developed the Aquatic Facilities Action Plan to:

• Enable more effective planning of current and future aquatic facilities assets and services. This will provide higher quality and diverse aquatic facilities to the community.
• Give an overview of the existing supply and distribution of aquatic facilities. This includes public and private facilities being available to the Ipswich community.
• Understand the patterns of use of Ipswich’s existing aquatic facilities. This will show how these patterns might change in the future.
• Estimate the anticipated demand for new aquatic facilities within Ipswich City over the next ten years.
• Provide a clear direction on the types of aquatic facilities and the locations which will best cater for the future demand.
• Develop a Desired Standard of Service. This would include desired provision standards, site selection considerations and design criteria consideration.

Outcomes include:

• Identifying benchmarks for council owned aquatic facilities compared with other local government facilities.
• Developing a Supply and Demand Analysis and Desired Standard of Service.
• Giving recommendations on a regional aquatic network and the development of existing facilities to meet current and future needs.
• Research industry and social trends affecting the provision of aquatic facilities
• Assessment of existing Council owned aquatic facilities in regards to
  - catchments
  - attendance
  - asset provision and condition and
  - performance

Results of the sustainability review of existing facilities:

• Replacement of the Rosewood Aquatic Centre (Western region) due to the age and condition of the facility.
• It is recommended that a new indoor pool be established at Bundamba Aquatic Centre
• There is no public pool facility servicing the southeast region of Ipswich. It is recommended that a new aquatic centre be established in the future to service this region.
• It is unlikely that Ipswich would need an additional artificial lagoon in the next 20 years.
• It is recommended that an additional two splash parks be provided in the next 10 years.

We wanted to know how community use council's swim centres, swimming lagoon and water play grounds.

Your feedback also provided us with information about your water sport or play needs which contributed to the detailed Aquatic Facilities Action Plan.

The information obtained from this consultation is completely confidential and will also be used to benchmark Council’s progress and support and encourage participation in water activities in our region. In particular, it will help us understand how we can make these recreation activities more attractive, convenient and enjoyable for Ipswich’s residents and visitors.

• 145 responses were received about current and future aquatic activities, travel habits to aquatic facilities and preferences for swim centres and water playgrounds
• 42 responses were received on the option for the construction of a new 25m heated indoor pool at Bundamba Swim Centre

Thank you for taking the time to help make Ipswich a more 'active' place.

A snapshot of the feedback received is below or you can read the engagement report for more detailed results.