SEA pool proponents now have their sights set south of Cottesloe for the first of the shark protection, seniors-health and child-friendly enclosures in WA.
“After 15 years and five Cottesloe mayors it’s time to move on because of the conservatism and the council being influenced by a few people, like surfers, and those who said ‘put it on the south side of Cottesloe Groyne’, which is an inappropriate, exposed site,” pool proponent Tom Locke said.
Mr Locke saw the shark attack that killed Ken Crew at North Cottesloe in 2000.
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READ NOWAfter that he and a small band of older, non-political daily sea swimmers lobbied and argued for a sea pool comprising several designs on the north, sheltered side of the groyne.
The campaign included links with another group advocating a pool on the beach’s grassed terraces that failed several years ago.
A pool under the artificial cliffs at Mosman Park Beach and Fremantle’s Bather’s Beach are now being mooted for an Olympic-sized seawater pool potentially heated by bores reaching hot underground rocks.
Mr Locke said the pool could be similar to that being redeveloped at Austinmer Beach in Wollongong.
As well as the health and lifestyle benefits, it could help alleviate people’s shark fears.
He said it would give seniors and the disabled a long-distance swimming facility, and provide a safe spot for children.
Mosman Park Mayor Ron Norris and Fremantle’s Brad Pettitt were overseas, but a spokesman for the port city said a Bathers Beach ocean pool was part of the long-term vision Freo 2029 Transformational Move, but funding had not been determined.
Cottesloe Mayor Jo Dawkins said she could not comment because, other than the ocean pool proponents’ public presentation at the council in 2014, there had been no formal proposal for the facility at Cottesloe.