The past, potential and perils of swimming in urban rivers: discussion with Loretta Bellato

This Must Be The Place Podcast

The past, potential and perils of swimming in urban rivers. After quite a long dormancy period, in this episode of This Must Be The Place Liz has a follow-up discussion with a researcher she met recently while speaking at an MPavilion event (“Time Travel: Can Inspiration from our past save our holiday future?”). Loretta Bellato is a PhD researcher based in the Swinburne Centre for Urban Transitions, whose work crosses over with some of the topic Liz spoke about at MPavillion – particularly the historical origins of Victoria’s imperilled public swimming pools in river enclosures/river pools. Loretta’s research is focused on the potential of regenerative tourism, including a case study of efforts to regenerate the Birrarung (Yarra River) into, amongst other goals, a swimmable urban river. Relatively few people now would brave Melbourne’s brown “upside down” river – at least not in its lower urban reaches – but in this episode we hear about some of the people who are working to make the Birrarung swimmable; and about people who already swim in it including at the longstanding swimming hole Deep Rock. The discussion ranges from pollution and perception; what regeneration and regenerative tourism mean; transitions theory; ‘Wild Swimming’ and the UK’s legal history; other examples of urban rivers being made swimmable again; Melbourne’s river pool locations of the 20th century; and the demise of river pools - many of which were diverted into/replaced by the concrete post-war Olympic pools that are themselves now fast becoming obsolete. Liz has spiels about the role of health regulations, insurance, signage and fences as applied to open water swimming locations. Featuring Deep Rock, Warburton, the Thames, Copenhagen, Hepburn Pool, Kyneton, Shepparton, the Campaspe, Buchan Caves pool, and Bondi’s poopy past amongst other stories. If you’re interested in participating in Loretta’s PhD research, she can be contacted at [e-mail] . The song ‘Swimmers” by Taylor Project is stuck on the end for good measure.