The Isis War Memorial Swimming Pool.
Putting back into the Community James Croll investigates how the Isis War Memorial Pool was converted from an outdoor seasonal pool to an indoor facility offering year-round swimming
T
he Isis War Memorial Swimming Pool has long been an important part of day-to-day life for the Childers community in Queensland’s Bundaberg Region. Possibly the last 33.3 metre pool in the state, the pool was opened in 1966 by the then Isis Shire Council having been financed partially by public subscription, backed by a subsidy from the Queensland Department of Education. Since that time, it has been an integral part of the family community. However, from the turn of the millennium it became apparent that the pool needed bringing into the 21st century. It had not just dated as a venue intrinsically but was certainly far from profitable. The pool itself had no roof cover and was open to the elements while the existing heating was far from efficient.
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Bundaberg Regional Council subsequently advertised a Request for Tender (RFT) for the construction of a solid shade structure and installation of an energy efficient heating system to cover and heat the existing pool. In essence, they wanted to convert what was essentially an outdoor seasonal pool to an indoor facility offering year-round swimming to its patrons. They also wanted a minimum swimming temperature of 27280C and a solar heating system. There would be an issue however in that any new solar heating system would be limited to a proposed new roof structure of 700-800m² and had to minimise whole of life costs of the installation. While the RFT had its challenges, it turned out to be tailormade for one of Australia’s leading pool heating specialists, Supreme Heating. Established in 1990, Supreme Heating is Australian owned and specialises in innovative, energy efficient pool heating across Australasia. Anthony Denahy, Business Development Manager at Supreme Heating, explains “the Isis Memorial Pool RFT was a particularly exciting challenge for us. “The limitations of the roof structure along with the need to heat a fairly large pool of 700,000L called for a particularly sophisticated solution.” Assessing both the Council’s pool heating requirements and energy concerns, Supreme Heating proposed a two-in-one solution to meet the heating performance of the swimming pool together with responding to the facility’s energy needs, all while minimising rooftop surface requirements. Denahy explains “we designed a solution consisting of a 33.60kW
