The Doone Kennedy Hobart Aquatic Centre is helping more Tasmanians gain essential water safety skills, with enrolments in its Learn to Swim program increasing by almost 40 per cent over the past two years.
The growing demand spans all age groups, from infants and school-aged children through to adults, reflecting a stronger community focus on water safety and confidence in the water. The Centre now delivers 323 children's swimming lessons to 1,350 children every week, alongside 23 adult classes, and is preparing to expand its program to include Sunday lessons to meet increasing demand.
Learn to Swim teacher and supervisor Annabelle Aiton has seen that growth firsthand and says the program is about far more than teaching people how to swim laps.
The children’s classes run for those aged six months all the way to 16 years, divided into levels by age and by skill level once they get older.
The lessons begin with foundational water safety skills before progressing to more advanced swimming techniques.
“For our children, we teach them confidence in the water and basic survival skills like breathing, floating and kicking,” she said.
“As they get older, we add a little bit more technique and structure to their lessons so they can become competitive if they'd like to in the future.”
The Centre's adult program is equally diverse, catering for complete beginners through to swimmers seeking to improve their technique and fitness.
“We teach adults all the way from the very beginning who have never seen water before, all the way through to adults who just want a little bit more fitness or improvement on technique,” Ms Aiton said.
Pictured (left to right) DKHAC Aquatic Coordinator Hannah Clear and Learn to Swim teacher and supervisor Annabelle Aiton.
Living in Tasmania makes water safety particularly important, she said.
“It is a major skill for anyone to have. Tasmania is an island state. We are surrounded by water, but not only are we surrounded by it, we've also got lots of beautiful natural rivers and lakes and having those skills in a natural environment is imperative to being able to survive and keep yourself safe over the summer.”
While lessons are taught in the controlled environment of a pool, the skills are designed to be transferable to real-world situations.
“Learning to swim in a controlled environment in our pool and our program gives them skills for life,” Ms Aiton said.
“Our new program has survival skills built into it as well, so children who are in the ocean or on a boat are absolutely going to be safe for life.”
The popularity of the program has led to expanded offerings, with Sunday lessons set to be introduced in coming weeks.
“We've had so much demand that we're going to increase the program to having lessons on Sundays now as well,” Ms Aiton said.
The Doone Kennedy Hobart Aquatic Centre's Learn to Swim program has increased by 40 per cent in the past two years.
Hobart Lord Mayor Anna Reynolds said the growth was encouraging, particularly given rising drowning statistics across Australia.
“We are really thrilled that we've had a big uptick in the Learn to Swim programs,” Cr Reynolds said.
“With unfortunately an increasing number of drownings occurring, not a decrease, it's so important to make sure that both adults and children are getting some of those basic swimming skills.
“We are an island state. There are waterways everywhere, so it's so important to learn to swim and to have those basic survival skills in the water.”