Safety first at Eastern Beach during the summer break

With up to 10 000 visitors per day expected at Eastern Beach over summer we have introduced some new safety initiatives to the swimming enclosure.

These initiatives follow Life Saving Victoria’s 2023– 24 Drowning Report which reported the highest number of drownings on record for any summer.

These include:

• Full supervision of the Children’s Pool from 11:00am – 7:00pm daily with closures of the pool outside these hours.
• Lifeguard monitoring of the dive tower and dive boards to ensure rule enforcement and safety.
• A restriction on lap and recreational swimming under the dive tower and dive boards while diving is in progress.
• The temporary closure of the dive boards due to insufficient clearance depth – the boards will be moved to a location with greater clearance and re-opened in the coming days.
• The installation of a public defibrillator and rescue equipment in the coming weeks.

Signage will be installed at Eastern Beach to ensure everyone understands the rules and safety initiatives and the Children’s Pool gates will be locked outside supervised hours.

Executive Director City Life Anthony Basford:

The decision to close the Children’s Pool outside supervised hours strikes the right balance to ensure everyone can visit and enjoy their summer at Eastern Beach then return home safely at the end of the day.

Having the pool open after hours without supervision currently poses an unacceptable risk especially with the increase in drownings across Victoria.