CONSTITUENCY STATEMENTS
Ms PENFOLD (Lyne) (10:24): I rise today to make a very simple plea to the Prime Minister and the New South Wales Premier, Chris Minns: Please help us rebuild Wingham Memorial Swimming Pool. Please find the funds needed to give back to this community something that the catastrophic May 2025 floods took away. This is about much more than a swimming pool.
The Wingham pool opened in 1969, and it was built by the community. For generations of Manning families it has been part of growing up. I know, because I swam there at school carnivals, and so did thousands of other kids who grew up in the Manning.
It was where children learnt to swim, where schools held their carnivals, where Wingham Swimming Club trained, where families gathered on hot summer afternoons, and where older people went for exercise, friendship and connection. Today Wingham has four schools and three preschools, with around 1,800 schoolchildren in the town, before we even count children from surrounding communities.
In its final season before the flood, almost 16,000 visits were made to Wingham pool. More than 3,400 were school visits, and almost 900 were learn-to-swim attendances. Then came May 2025.
A catastrophic one-in- 500-years flood devastated Wingham, and the Manning Cedar Party Creek rose to record levels. The ground moved beneath the pool. Its floor cracked severely, its slabs separated and critical infrastructure beneath it was damaged.
Rebuilding this pool matters. But there's a gap in the disaster recovery funding arrangements. MidCoast Council, which took the brunt of the May flood, does not have the means to rebuild the pool out of its funds.
They are already $150 million out of pocket from expenses not covered under the DFR arrangements. So, despite the pool's being destroyed by the flood, there is no straightforward disaster recovery funding pathway to rebuild it. That cannot be where the story ends for Wingham.
Almost 3,800 people signed a community petition calling for the pool to be rebuilt. I acknowledge Jodi Carey, Ron Spriggs and all the Friends of Wingham Pool as well as my state colleague Tanya Thompson, MidCoast Council and the many locals who refuse to give up. The council and the community have made it clear that the pool needs replacing.
The price tag is around $15 million. So today I say to the Premier and the Prime Minister: Please come together. Please help us find $15 million.
Recovery cannot simply mean repairing roads and bridges. It must also mean rebuilding the places that hold communities together. The people of Wingham have lived with the scars of this flood for long enough.
Give our children back their pool. Give our older residents back their pool. Give Wingham back one of the things the flood stole away.
And, after everything this extraordinary little community has endured, give Wingham hope.