When Shellharbour mayor Marianne Saliba was a kid, summer meant days spent at Oak Flats Pool in water so teeming with swimmers, she could hardly see any blue.
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Swim season 2020/21, opening this weekend, will be nothing like that.
Swimmers will need to sign in before making any carefree splash into the Illawarra's public pools. In some pools, visitor numbers are going to be capped in line with COVID-era public health orders.
Councils are grappling with the difficult prospect of having to turn people away at the pool gate, particularly in Wollongong's northern suburbs, which can be inundated with large numbers of out-of-area visitors at once.
Wollongong city plans to introduce a booking system for its nine saltwater and chlorinated pools from October 12. Swimmers will be able to book a two-hour swimming window online or by phoning in, with early indications of caps of 100 and 220, for smaller and larger pools respectively.
Wollongong Lord Mayor Gordon Bradbery said the booking system was intended to encourage people to visit the pool at different times of the day and, if pools are full, to disperse along the region's beaches.
"It's so everyone doesn't turn up at once," he said.
"It's quite possible people will get turned away, but we have no other option in light of the public health orders and social distancing."
Pool lifeguards will be pushing a "swim and go" message and promoting a person-to-person distance limit of 1.5m - "at least a towel length" and Wollongong council will close public pool change rooms.
A spokeswoman for Shellharbour City Council said pool staff would be carrying out extra cleaning and taking regular manual testing throughout the day to make sure automatic chemical dosing systems are working properly.
"NSW Health has advised that there is currently no evidence that COVID-19 is spread through appropriately treated swimming pool water."
Pools will be opening on Saturday at Berkeley, Helensburgh, Unanderra (Western Suburbs), Port Kembla, Thirroul, Oak Flats (cold pool) and Shellharbour (Beverley Whitfield Pool. Weekends only. Seven days weekly from December 19). Albion Park and Warilla pools open October 26.
Oak Flats Heated Pool, Beaton, Park, Corrimal and Dapto heated pools and the Continental Pools at Wollongong have been open year-round, with Oak Flats already operating under a booking system.
Cr Saliba is among local government leaders agitating for more resources from the state to allow councils to carry out extra COVID-related duties such as marshalling and monitoring social distancing.
"There needs to be some financial support for that, because council's lifeguards are already stretched during summer months," she said. "They don't have the capacity to be running around beaches saying, 'you need to keep your distance'."
Shellharbour council is also considering introducing a booking system for its pools, but will monitor visitor numbers in the lead-up to peak season.
"When I was a kid there was hardly enough room to bobble around [at Oak Flats pool], it was so full," Cr Saliba said.
"But you won't be able to just go for a day at the pool any more."