Bidyadanga bids summer farewell

It’s hard to believe that as quickly as summer arrived, it’s now over! Children and families in the remote Aboriginal community of Bidyadanga weren’t going to let summer leave for another year without a celebration, so they recently held an end of summer pool party and barbeque at our Bidyadanga Remote Aboriginal Swimming Pool.

Even though summer is officially over, it’s still very hot in Bidyadanga, a remote Kimberley community 180kms south of Broome, so the pool is a great place to be! The night of the party was perfect with an almost full moon and some lightning putting on a show in the distant clouds - all to the beats of a fabulous music soundtrack.

Bidyadanga Pool Manager, Bernie Egan, says the turnout was fantastic! “Around 140 people came out to swim and have a feed. As always the inflatables in the pool were a hit with everyone.”

Bernie has been the pool manager at Bidyadanga for a number of years and always works hard to ensure adults in the community are well aware of their responsibility to supervise children in and around the pool. She says the night of the party saw the children being well looked after in the water! “Good supervision is always important, so it was fantastic to see so many teachers from Lagrange Remote Community School come out to spend time with their students outside of the classroom. Together with the kids they created the biggest whirlpool I have ever seen!”

Events like these can’t happen without help from the local community, and we’d love the thank the volunteers from the WA Police, who manned the BBQ, and the local Youth Hub team who helped with supervision and COVID sign ins.

Summer may be over, but the fun at the Bidyadanga Remote Aboriginal Swimming Pool continues until the end of the season in April. We look forward to seeing all the fun and vital swimming and water safety education still to happen there over the next few weeks! You can read more about our Remote Aboriginal Swimming Pool program at the link below.