Question: Kelvin Grove Pool Closure
Speech to Council Chambers - Councillor Seal Chong Wah – Paddington Ward
Chambers Meeting -11th August 2026
My question is to the Lord Mayor.
Recently, the Vice Chancellor of Queensland University of Technology has announced that their publicly-accessible swimming pool at QUT Kelvin Grove will permanently close on 1 September 2026. This is the same day that this LNP administration is willingly handing over Centenary pool to GIICA which will see the closure of the pool. I note Council’s Centenary Pool, in Spring Hill, the next suburb over, has been managed for 67 years! Centenary Pool had roughly a quarter of a million visitors last financial year. The community is still hoping and fighting for this decision to be reversed.
This Council know pools are more than a place for exercise. They’re local community spaces, for neighbours to meet and play. They help people of all ages, especially migrants and refugees learn to swim.
Climate change is making our summers hotter, residents need a place to cool off. And in the dense inner-north suburbs of Brisbane, people aren’t likely to have pools of their own.
Given the threat of hundreds of thousands of residents losing their local swimming pools, Lord Mayor, through the chair, will you urgently fund swimming facilities in the inner northside which includes the QUT Kelvin Grove Pool?