Keen local swimmers work their way around public pool closure

An enthusiastic group of local swimmers have cleverly worked their way around the current closure of public pools by revisiting one of Greensborough’s original swimming spots. The group has been meeting early each morning to swim laps of the Plenty River location, alongside Greensborough Park and just under the Main Street bridge.

Naming themselves the Plenty River Fatbergs, and adopting an abandoned shopping trolley as their talismanic mascot, the keen swimmers claim this is their best chance to keep fit for the upcoming summer season of competitive swimming – especially considering the current 10-kilometre travel limit means they can’t travel to Port Phillip Bay to meet their sister group the Port Melbourne Icebergers. And the chosen location actually has some serious swimming credentials, with a plaque on the Main Street bridge documenting that swimming has been taking place there since the 1930s.

One of the swimmers, Ian Lochie, told The Watsonia Bugle, “It’s actually not that bad, to be honest. Warmer than I expected. Wide enough to fit two lanes of socially distant swimmers. We get a bit more rain this week and we might be able to squeeze a third lane in. And I haven’t seen one single band-aid on the bottom yet.”