Katoomba Sports and Aquatic Centre - outdoor pools

Update: December 2022

The outdoor pools at Katoomba Sports and Aquatic Centre will not open before Christmas 2022.

Despite great effort from our contractors and staff, the more than 70 days of inclement weather that have occurred during construction of the pools, together with ongoing, industry-wide material and supply shortages, mean we have been unable to complete some parts of the work required and open the pool gates to the community.

Given the time of year with contractors, suppliers and consultancies breaking over Christmas and the New Year, we anticipate works to recommence in late January 2023 with the outdoor pools still expected to open towards the end of the current summer swimming season.

Council’s Leisure and Aquatic Centre staff, together with all the staff working on the project, share the community’s disappointment that the outdoor pools will not be open this year as anticipated and apologise for the delay.

The indoor pools and facilities at Katoomba Sports and Aquatic Centre remain open, together with our swim centres at Lawson, Blackheath, Springwood and Glenbrook.

We appreciate your patience as we work to complete the outdoor pool upgrades at Katoomba as quickly as possible in 2023.

We have $2.6 million to put towards design and construction of a new inclusive children’s pool, an accessible pathway down to the outdoor area, and family friendly accessible toilet and change facilities. These improvements have been made possible with funding from the Western Parkland City Liveability Program, which is part of the Western Sydney City Deal (WSCD).

Pool users told us how important this space is when we undertook the community consultation in 2018. This upgrade is an important step in being able to retain the pool for future use and ensure that our community has a modern accessible pool to use.

For information about the Katoomba Sports and Aquatic Centre in the Open Space and Recreation Strategic Plan 2018 to 2028, please see pages 69 and 70 of the document https://www.bmcc.nsw.gov.au/documents/open-space-and-recreation-strategic-plan-2018-2028

Construction will commence in spring 2021 and take up to 12 months. As such the outdoor pool will be closed over the 2021/22 summer period.

The new children’s pool will be up to 60cm deep with a curved wheelchair friendly beach entry and water play for families. There will be two accessible unisex family change rooms with toilet and shower facilities as well as four outdoor open heated showers. The pathway from the entrance of the Centre, down to the outdoor area will be accessible to Australian Standards.

There will be some minor landscaping to provide more grassed seating. There will also be new housing for essential pool infrastructure with modern low maintenance cladding on the outside.

It's early days and we are currently doing investigative works onsite at the pool. This will help us to work out the way forward and guide the concept designs which we will show you in the first half of 2021. We expect construction to get underway in the second half of 2021 but to stay informed of the progress and have the most up to date information, simply click on the subscribe button to the right of the screen.

We are excited about the improvements towards the Katoomba outdoor pool area. You told us how important this space is to you when we undertook community consultation in 2018. We now have $2.6 million to put towards design and construction of a new inclusive children's pool which will include an accessible pathway down to the new pool.

To make your time at the pool easy and convenient, there will be family friendly accessible toilet and change facilities located close by.

We will also look at how we can improve shade cover for everyone given how busy it is over the summer period.

This Open Space and Recreation Strategic Plan provides strategic policy for managing open space and the provision of sport and recreation facilities in the City of Blue Mountains. The time frame of this strategic plan is 10+ years. It focuses on Council owned or managed open space and recreation facilities.

For information about Katoomba Sports and Aquatic Centre, please see pages 69 and 70.

Katoomba Sports & Aquatic Centre is located in The Gully, and Council understand and respects how significant The Gully is to Traditional Owners and the community.

All works will be in line with The Gully Plan of Management, and will respect the site’s history.