Burringurrah pool more than just an aquatic facility

Residents of the small remote Aboriginal community of Burringurrah, in WA’s Upper Gascoyne region, often use the local pool as a meeting place to gather with friends and family, attend community events or just as a place to hang out and have fun.

Royal Life Saving WA manages the pool as part of the Remote Aboriginal Swimming Pools Project. If the pool is like a home away from home for the Burringurrah locals, then Pool Manager Jamie O’Donohue is like everyone’s favourite uncle – they all love visiting his place!

Along with the social and health benefits, the pool also plays an important educational role in the community. Locals have the opportunity to develop their swimming and water safety skills through a variety of programs made available to them.
Jamie was recently pleased to see regular pool user and young mum Bernadette taking on board the Watch Around Water message with her daughter Malaynah in the toddler pool. Watch Around Water encourages close parental supervision of children at public swimming facilities. “Bernadette leads the way in Watch Around Water supervision and is ALWAYS this close by Malaynah,” said Jamie.

Mums and their toddlers are also enjoying having the recently repaired shade cloth back in action. “The repaired shade cloth is back up and better than ever,” said Jamie. “It was down for a few weeks due to repairs but is now providing much needed shade over the toddler pool again.”

The community enjoyed a pool movie night on Saturday 13th March with around 25 people gathering at the pool for a barbecue and screening of Jumanji: The Next Level. Young resident Natasha even helped Jamie to clean up afterwards. 

“My little helper Natasha helped with the sweeping up – she was attached to the broom all night and would put up a fight if anyone tried to pry it from her arms,” laughs Jamie, adding that she was a "good worker – easily distracted though." Perhaps a future career in the aquatic industry could be in store for this young lady (with appropriate training on the dangers of distraction!).

We love hearing what our remote pool communities are getting up to as they make the most of these recreational facilities. Learn more about the Remote Pool program at the link below!