Swimming Pool Safety

Swimming pools provide great enjoyment for families, particularly during the warmer months. However, pool owners also have an important responsibility to ensure their pool area is safe and properly maintained.

Tragically, many drownings involving young children occur in backyard pools. In many cases, these incidents happen because pool fences or gates are not properly secured, or because barriers have developed gaps or faults over time.

Regularly checking and maintaining your pool barrier can help prevent these tragedies.

For more information about swimming pool safety or pool compliance requirements, please contact Bogan Shire Council.

Residents can download a free Pool Safety Checklist from Royal Life Saving Australia to help identify potential hazards around their pool.

Visit:
www.royallifesaving.com.au

Active supervision is essential whenever children are near water.
Parents and carers should:
•  Always supervise children around pools and water
•  Never leave children unattended in the pool area
•  Avoid distractions such as answering the phone or briefly leaving the area
•  Teach children basic water safety and swimming skills
•  Consider undertaking CPR training in case of an emergency
Swimming lessons are valuable but do not replace proper supervision and compliant pool fencing.
Royal Life Saving Australia encourages parents and carers to “Keep Watch” of children around water at all times.
 

Pool owners should regularly check their pool area and ensure:

• Pool fences, gates and locks are secure and in good condition
• Gates self-close and self-latch correctly
• Gates are never propped open
• Climbable objects are removed from near the pool fence
• Trees and shrubs are trimmed away from the barrier
• Pool chemicals are stored safely and out of reach of children
• Children are always supervised around the pool

 

The requirements for child-resistant barriers on premises where there is a residential building vary according to when the pool was constructed and where the pool is located.

  • For pools built before 1 August 1990, the pool must be isolated from access from the street or from adjoining properties. The pool does not have to be separated from any residential building on the land provided the means of access from the building to the pool is restricted at all times. The standard for restriction, for example, by use of complying windows and doors, is set out in the Swimming Pools Regulation applicable at the time the pool was built.

  • For pools built after 1 August 1990 but before 1 September 2008, the pool must be surrounded by a child-resistant barrier that separates the pool from any residential building situated on the premises and from any place adjoining the Australian Standard 1926-1986 Fences and Gates for Private Swimming Pools.

  • For pools built after 1 September 2008, but before 1 May 2013, the appropriate standard is Australian Standard 1926.1-2007 Swimming Pool Safety, Part 1: Safety barriers for swimming pools.

  • For pools built after 1 May 2013, the appropriate standard is Australian Standard 1926.1-2012 Safety Barriers for Swimming Pools.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT OF COUNTRY

Bogan Shire Council acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of the land on which we gather, the Wongaibon people.
We acknowledge that Bogan Shire covers the Wongaibon, Ngiyampaa, and Weilwan Nations.
We pay our respects to their Elders past, present, and emerging. We extend this respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples present today.