Ask Canberrans why they're angry about Big Splash and you'll hear about slides, summers and school holidays.

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But this fight is about more than nostalgia, as some would like to claim. It's about whether Canberra treats places like pools as social infrastructure - shared spaces that hold community together - or leaves them at the whims of whichever private leaseholder happens to hold the paper.

Consider what has happened. Big Splash has been closed since the beginning of 2024.

In April this year, Access Canberra decided against terminating the lease despite years of disrepair. I obtained documents under freedom of information which showed multiple breaches of warning letters, orders and rectification notices, yet not a single fine issued against the leaseholders in response.

The site is Crown-leased land in a city where land is scarce. The lease permits an aquatic facility, an indoor sports facility or an unlicensed family restaurant.

And the owner has said it won't run a public pool but will comply by opening a "restaurant" (do they just mean a food truck?)

The government, meanwhile, with the knowledge that the park won't reopen this summer, has commissioned an "options analysis" of the site's future - an analysis on someone else's land, given that Access Canberra has not terminated the lease.

The property was listed for sale in June, but no acceptable offer was received. For Canberrans, this means a third summer in a row without a water park.

Our summers are getting hotter. In January this year,........

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