The 23rd North West Aquatics Seminar was recently held in Port Hedland and was attended by 40 delegates from across the North West region.

The first time back in Port Hedland since 2006 it was great to be able to host the annual seminar in such a magnificent facility of the Wanangkura Stadium.

The 2 day event first kicked off with Royal Life Saving Society hosting a Water Safety Industry Forum to invite key stakeholders from around the Pilbara region to get together to discuss the needs of the region and to better understand the issues that surround water safety in the Pilbara Region.

LIWA's Vice President Chris Blankley and Committee Member Nick Wilkinson attended the event on behalf of LIWA Aquatics.  The day was well received by all attendees and invaluable to Royal Life Saving Society as this is the first of its kind to focus in on a specific region.

Whilst the Water Safety Forum was underway LIWA Aquatics was able to fund a great day of Professional Development with the Royalties for Regions Funding which saw 16 regional pool managers go through their paces in their RLSS Pool Lifeguard Requalification and a SCBA Refresher course held by Kris Trewhella from Priority 1 Fire and Safety.

 The North West Aquatics Seminar commenced on Day 2 which saw pool managers travel far and wide to attend the event for the day. 

The event kicked off with a Welcome to Country by local elder Alfred Barker 

The official opening was done by Tony Butler who heads up the Leisure Management team at Port Hedland as they have only recently taken back management of the Aquatic Facilitites who were previously run by the YMCA.

The morning began with a site tour of the South Hedland Aquatic Centre (SHAC) which has been well presented and a great facility.

Upon return back to Wanangkura Stadium morning tea was awaiting with freshly made scones, jam and cream,  Boy do we love Country cooking.

The first presentation of the day was lead by George Lech from IXOM who provided an overview of the draft of New Australian Standards for Chlorine Gas that will be implemented soon.

Whilst these are still in draft stage, it is fair to say that it will be a good reflection of what the standards will be in the coming months.

After lunch we were pleased to provide our Traders who attended the event (Greg and Luciano from Chadson Engineering, Rod from Trisley Hydraulic Services and Ed from Sigma Chemicals) a chance to answer questions from the floor in a Q&A session. 

RLSSWA Lauren Nimmo was up next to provide a bit of an overview of their Water Safety Forum Event from the day before, and to allow the opportunitiy for the Pool Managers to have their say.  We ran this forum to get the insights of the pool managers which focused on water safety prioritites, main goals and gaps that are often seen in the remote and regional areas of the north west.

This session provided some great insights and views that were not captured during the previous days event which now provides a great platform to work with moving forward for Royal Life Saving and LIWA Aquatics.

Some Watch Around Water information was shared to the group which focussed on new intiatives and stats of the region.

Last session of the day saw Tim Turner and Travis Doye from RLSS provide some information surrounding the successful Talent Pool program which engages young local indigenous youths to provide them the oppotunities to develop skills and confidence that allowed them the chance to become employable in many fields which included Aquatic Trainers, Pool Lifeguards and Pool Operators.

We can see that this type of program can and has been effective in employing local youths which empowers these communities.

This presentation and others are available to download here

LIWA Aquatics would like to thank all those who came and supported the event and for those involved in the running of the event such as Town of Port Hedland Staff, Youth Incentive Council for the catering, RLSSWA staff and everyone elses support.

Look froward to seeing you either next year or at our 50th Celebreations at the Annual State Conference in August.