UWA Aquatic Centre

Such a great venue for lap swims. The staff is enthusiastic, the lanes are often available in Summer and the rates are reasonable

Awesome facility and great squads for swimming fitness

This is a really nice aquatic center on the UWA campus with three pools: two pools available for public lap swimming (one indoor and one outdoor) and an additional larger outdoor pool apparently for use by the swim team. I came to swim laps and it’s actually an amazing pool—the water temp is great, the pool is spotless, and the other swimmers/staff were friendly. The locker rooms are clean, but small, and most people keep their bags outside by the pool. It’s also easily accessible via the free Purple CAT bus (it’s a one way loop, so just make sure you know when the next bus is arriving). Docking one star bc although the pool is great, the extremely limited public swim hours make this pool almost useless for anyone who’s not near the campus or who has other things to do (weekdays: 6-8:30am, 11:30-2pm, 6:30-8pm and weekends: 12-2pm). Overall, great pool, but sadly one that I won’t be visiting again due to the limited lap swimming schedule. Lucky the Beatty Park pool is also amazing and has much more flexible hours.

Located on the back end of campus with access via a hidden gate, you can access the UWA Aquatic centre. There is no lighting of this area after dark so it can easily be missed. Prices are low ($7) however the facilities reflect that price. Changing rooms are poor with no cubicles and a floor that is constantly wet. Also there are no locker facilities available and you have to either carry your stuff poolside or trust your things will be safe in the 'changing room'. The pools themselves are mostly fine although POORLY MANAGED as lifeguards are few and far between. Lanes are limited with a lot of slower swimmers and few mid speed lanes. No obvious lane directions led to confusion, with some lanes being taken up by just two people going back and forth (no making room for three or more to share). The pool itself was clean and had no problem with it. There is a general lack of administration on rules and other things, it seemed to me like I could have just walked in without paying. Not sure why this is a public pool as it feels more like a high school pool. I hope in future UWA takes better management of the facilities as there is so much potential to make the facilities applicable for public use.

The website suggested at least 2 pools open to the public at 6am, but when I showed up there was just one. No problem, one is plenty, I thought. The one available pool, however, had water at 35 degrees. This is no exaggeration, I measured it. It was not fit for purpose. Swam until I felt unwell then got out.