Pool Reviews

Botany Aquatic Centre – Botany, NSW 2019

Botany Olympic Pool

Botany was named for Captain Cook’s botanists!

My experience in the pool

Getting there, getting in, getting changed

Botany Aquatic Centre is so close to Sydney Airport that if you have more than an hour connection for a flight and felt like a swim, you’d pretty easily make it to the pool and back in time, though the taxi drivers probably wouldn’t thank you for such a small fare! Parking ample by the pool itself if you drive. And there are buses to Botany as well.

Nothing remarkable about getting into the water at Botany Olympic Pool.

Ample changing rooms set in enormous grounds.

Other practicalities

$6 entrance fee

1m shallow end to 1.7m deep end

Slides in a separate part of Botany Aquatic Centre. And a toddler paddling pool too, though not open for my visit in the Easter holidays in April.

Pool closed from last week of April till spring.

History and stories about this pool

It’s been hard to search for stories or even a history of Botany Aquatic Centre, partly because the search terms in Google or even my trusty source Trove from the Australian National Library throw up too many options given that the individual words are used in other contexts.

I’m hoping Graeme, who regularly comments on this and other swim blogs, and swims at Botany, might have some stories for us…

What’s your story? Any memories of swimming here? Any stories to tell? Or did you just have swimming lessons in days gone by?

Whatever you have to say, however brief, I’d love to hear from you and will add any stories to this section of the site as and when I receive them.  Add your comment or story under ‘Leave a Reply’ below.

Links to other articles on this pool

Another Pommy blogger called Tim came here in March 2017, just before me.

The Itchee Feet blog puts Botany Aquatic Centre in the top five Sydney swimming spots for kids.

Botany Aquatic Centre also makes this list of top ten swimming spots in Sydney’s Eastern Suburbs. I had no idea how popular this place was.

Rhonda is a local lady who began a blog on local facilities in Botany. She came to the Aquatic Centre in 2015.

Swim blogger Sally came to Botany Aquatic Centre as long ago as 2006.

Coffee, tea or milkshake after the swim?

There is a nice looking coffee shop right across the road from Botany Aquatic Centre, but it’s closed on Mondays. And guess which day I have been to the pool so far…So I’ll be back to have a coffee soon and let you know my thoughts.

There is a kiosk at the Aquatic Centre so if you’re thirsty and it’s  Monday, you can have your post swim cuppa there.

Botany Buzz – 32 Jasmine Street, Botany, NSW 2019

Closed Mondays

Open Tues-Fri 6.45am – 6pm; Sat 7am-5pm; Sun 7am-3pm

Coffee in Botany

When I finally found myself in Botany on a day other than Monday, the pool was closed for winter still, but Botany Buzz was open and I was so glad to try it. As well as the excellent coffee from Double Roasters and a pretty amazing piece of carrot cake, the atmosphere was really relaxed and the welcome super friendly. If you want a post swim coffee in Botany, don’t swim on Mondays. Otherwise you have a great spot right opposite the pool. Very good coffee shop in Botany.

 

3 thoughts on “Botany Aquatic Centre – Botany, NSW 2019”

  1. Midweek I find coming out of the entry area quite surreal. Usually so peaceful, despite being close to the airport and next to a railway goods line. I say usually, because there can be large numbers on warm summer weekends. It is the only pool I know large enough to comfortably accommodate cricket, football and other (did you notice the dedicated handball wall and court?) games. I guess it is these numbers, along with the school swimming carnivals, that have prevented some of the spacious grounds from being turned into blocks of units, so one can’t complain. A fellow swimmer who had a brother on the then Botany Council once told me that the pool was ‘safe’ as long as the council as a whole remained in the black. Now that Botany has merged with Rockdale to become Bayside, whose other pool is the recently rebuilt Bexley, it’s probably a whole new ball game. One suspects that at the least, Botany’s bargain basement $3.50 Seniors Card rate (Bexley’s is $6.00) won’t last.

    Botany would easily be my favourite Sydney Olympic pool, but for it being closed five months of the year. Interestingly at some point it would appear somebody thought about turning it into an all year facility and had a study commissioned, though only the undated architectural drawings survive on the web at http://www.graphitearchitects.com.au/projects/botany.html Other than that, I too failed to find much about Botany pool. There was an article on major vandalism of the slides in October 2014 and one on a boy in a swimming race brought back to life by a defibrillator in 2009, but nothing on the building of the pool or ‘last century’ usage.

    1. Thanks for sharing, as ever, Graeme. I didn’t see the handball courts, no. Good reason to head back to Botany, but sad I have to wait 5 months now, as you say. Bexley is on my list to visit once the ocean and harbour water is too cold for me to continue there. I did like Botany, though, and loved even more its location

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