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SWIMMING POOL COMPLEX

Location Penshurst-Byaduk Road BYADUK, Southern Grampians Shire File Number 631 Level Stage 2 study complete

[1/5] 23286 Swimming Pool Byaduk [2/5] 23286 Swimming Pool Byaduk [3/5] 23286 Swimming Pool Byaduk [4/5] 23286 Swimming Pool Byaduk [5/5] 23286 Swimming Pool Byaduk

Statement of Significance

What is significant?
The Byaduk Swimming Pool, located on the Penshurst-Byaduk Road is a concrete swimming pool constructed by a committee of local people in the 1930s. It was the first swimming pool ever constructed in the Shire of Southern Grampians, and at the time was considered to be quite an engineering feat. The creek nearby was diverted and dammed and used to fill and clean the pool be moving through it, and the whole structure was dug by hand. People came from long distances, and sometimes from larger towns such as Hamilton to use the pool. The Pool is no longer used, but provided a focus for entertainment to the children and families of the district every Summer for over 50 years. The Byaduk Swimming Pool complex consists of an inground concrete swimming pool with timber diving board, separate male and female changing rooms, an covered seating area, and a kiosk. No architect, engineer or specific builder was used in the construction of the structure. The pool is remarkably intact, despite being overgrown and weed infested.

How is it significant?
The Byaduk Swimming Pool complex is of architectural, historical and social significance to the Southern Grampians Shire.

Why is it significant?
The Byaduk Swimming Pool complex is architecturally significant as a rare intact example of a rural swimming pool complex designed the early 1930s. It is of further architectural significance as an excellent example of a hand dug swimming pool, and for its use of engineering intelligence, which diverted the local creek through the strucutre to both fill and clean it. The pool is of historical significance as an example of a small community co-operating to build a substantial structure for the benefit of all in the community. Of further historical significance is the pool's representation of the social movement toward health and wellbeing, popular in the late 1920s and early 1930s. It is socially significant as an important meeting place for the Byaduk community for over fifty years.