Successes in the 1950 and 1960's Olympic games fuelled an enthusiasm for competitive swimming in local pools. Swimming pools came to be seen as a standard local government community facility that was available to all Australians. (Ref: Australia's Swimming Success and Swiming Pools at culture.gov.au)
Public swimming pools built by local councils were seen as standards community facilities for residents.
Merrylands was the first public swimming pool in Holroyd opened in 1968. The original pool was upgraded for the Seventh National Paraplegic and Quadriplegic Games, held in March 1972.(Ref: Holroyd City library collection - Western Sydney Libraries)
Wentworthville Pool was opened before Merrylands. Merrylands was opened as stated in 1968. The photo from Western Sydney Libraries is not of Merrylands, it is of Wentworthville Pool. This can easily be determined by the location of the men's change room in the background, and the single long starting platform in the foreground which was only replaced with individual starting blocks in the early 1990s. The most obvious though is that the pool in the photo is a 7 lane pool. Merrylands is 8 lanes.
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