Pool gets upgrade

" Nola and Joe Nubley were on hand to celebrate the reopening of Towradgi Rock Pool last Friday.

By Paul Fahy

JOE Nubley's life has long been intertwined with the waters of Towradgi Rock Pool.

He helped build the original structure in 1956, taught youngsters to swim there during the 1950s and 60s and was present for the rebirth of the pool last week.

Joe inspected the new-look facility on Friday along with Lord Mayor Alex Darling, Councillor Val Zanotto and members of the Corrimal Marlins Winter Swimming Club.

The pool had been closed for over two months to allow for major repairs to the deteriorating structure.

Wollongong City Council spent $470,000 on the refurbishment, which included underpinning the pool walls and replacing the entire floor.

The works, completed with the help of a specialist marine construction company, came half a century after Joe and his co-workers first lugged loads of rock away from the location.

"I was working in the trucking business at the time and we were carting out all the rubbish while the pool was taking shape," Joe said.

Construction of the original pool was limited to the weekends and dependent on the tides, according to Joe.

"We'd be down there working at 3am on a Saturday morning if the tides were right," he said.

Joe and his brother Jack helped run an amateur swim school at Towradgi Rock Pool in the years following its opening.

He continued swimming regularly up until last year, when poor health forced him out the water.

It was Joe's wife Nola who organised a petition with 1200 signatures in February, asking for the leaky pool to be repaired.

Cr Darling said the refurbishment, finished in time for the first day of summer, was brought forward 12 months in recognition of the popularity of the pool with local and visiting swimmers.

The project was completed under the council's rock pool priority works program, used to manage the city's 16 tidal rock pools.

Joe said he was eager to return for a dip and hoped the repairs would see the pool through another 50 years.

"It will certainly see me out anyway," he said with a laugh.