Olympians including Michael Klim and Ian Thorpe have been given a first look at the refurbished North Sydney pool, which is close to reopening after years of delays. The heritage-listed art deco pool under the Harbour Bridge, first opened in 1936, was due to reopen in 2022 after closing for a major refurbishment in 2021, but has been hampered by setbacks and ballooning costs, now reaching £122m.
The quick glimpse came at a charity event for the Klim Foundation, established by Olympic gold-medallist Michael Klim after his diagnosis with the rare auto-immune disease CIDP. Former teammates, including Ian Thorpe and Daniel Kowalski, gathered to support a fundraising campaign.
The builders will formally hand back the site in the next two to three weeks, North Sydney mayor Zoë Baker said, after which it will take eight to 10 weeks to prepare the pool for the public. Baker noted that the council will still be dealing with the financial and other legacies of the pool, but for users, it will be a joy to be back.
A setback involved the pipes that bring water from the harbour to fill the pools and heat the outdoor pool to 26C. Baker explained that there were too many turns in the pipes, so they had to redo them to ensure proper pumping volume. Remaining work includes painting heritage stucco seashell reliefs in the bright colours of the original design.
Much of the site has been rebuilt, although a few original sections remain, including the southern wall with its sundeck. The pool's outer rim has a terracotta colour to match surviving bricks from the 1930s. A new gym and pilates studio have been added in a basement level underneath the rebuilt grandstand, following excavation work into the hillside above the pool.
The new design pays tribute to elements of the old site, including a frog motif mimicking reliefs on the surviving eastern stair tower. Tiling at the children's outdoor pool has been reconstructed from a slab of concrete sitting in a council depot. A hinged wall in the centre of the pool allows it to be transformed from one 50m pool into two 25m pools, creating 16 lanes from eight. Construction fencing will be put back up while work is completed, and the pool awaits its first swimmers.
