Two new gold medals in the pool for City facilities

The WA Minister for Water Hon Dave Kelly MLA recently announced the award winners in the Waterwise Council Program, with gold waterwise aquatic centre status being awarded to the City’s Stirling Leisure Centres – Leisurepark Balga and newly refurbished Stirling Leisure Centres – Terry Tyzack Aquatic Centre to acknowledge best practice in water management.

Stirling Leisure Centres – Scarborough Beach Pool, which won gold status in 2021, was re-accredited with the gold recognition.

The Waterwise Council Program is an initiative of Water Corporation and the Department of Water and Environmental Regulation that helps local governments adopt more water-efficient practices.

Minister Kelly said the Waterwise Council and Aquatic Centre programs were supporting high water users to be as water-efficient as possible across their operations.

“Water efficiency is a shared responsibility across the community – in our homes, workplaces, and across all levels of government. In the face of climate change and declining rainfall, never has this responsibility been more important,” he said.

Mayor Mark Irwin congratulated the City’s Leisure Centres and Facilities teams on their long-standing commitment and effort to being waterwise and efficient with City resources.

“On behalf of Council I thank the Minister, the Department and Water Corporation for this continued recognition, and I congratulate the City officers who have made this vision of Council a reality,” he said.

“In April, the City of Stirling’s new five-year Waterwise Councils Action Plan (WCAP) 2021 – 2026 was approved by the Waterwise Councils program, and we were re-endorsed as a 2021 Gold Waterwise Council.

“Our commitment to best practice in water management is proven by the fact the City has been an endorsed Waterwise Council since 2016, when our first five-year plan was submitted, and has achieved annual gold status since 2017.

“We also congratulate neighbouring City of Joondalup on their successful selection as WA's Platinum Waterwise Council of the Year, and look forward to providing them with another year of healthy competition for the title in 2023.”

The City’s own progress towards becoming a Water Sensitive City has been recently benchmarked by the Cooperative Research Centre for Water Sensitive Cities, with the City’s performance rated against 34 goals, including water literacy in the community, adaptive water infrastructure, and sustainable water use.

The City recently concluded refurbishment works at Stirling Leisure Centres – Terry Tyzack Aquatic Centre including the replacement of all tiling of the pool walkways, the indoor leisure pool and 25m indoor pool, a pool plant upgrade, refurbishment of the changerooms and the installation of energy efficient lighting.