My name's George Herbert Coleman.
And we are now standing alongside where the hot water dam used to be,
where the children used to swim.
Back in the early 50s,
there was a group of children swimming.
And one little girl got tangled up in something
that was in the water and drowned.
So then they decided,
they formed a committee of men in the town,
and they decided to build a swimming pool.
Commonwealth Portland Cement Company donated the land.
And then it was built voluntarily.
I used to come to work and do eight hours,
and then go across to the pool where the work was being done
and work there until dark nearly every day.
And then if you weren't working a weekend, you were there both Saturday and Sunday working.
My memories as a child of coming to the pool were
coming down here and spending Christmas
holidays at the pool.
And spending time with friends,
using the facility as a local hangout.
Just a place where everybody, as a teenager and a young child met.
A lot of pools around New South Wales run at a loss,
and those are council-owned pools.
This is a community-owned pool.
We rely on patronage through the gate.
Being involved in the pool, it's quite challenging, it's a fair bit of work.
But it's very fulfilling seeing all the children down here from schools
and just visitors to the town, and children in the town who actually come and enjoy the place so much.
So I think that's the positive side.
Our pool is a 50-metre Olympic swimming pool.
It was actually the first Olympic swimming pool in this area.
So it's a 50-metre Olympic size pool.
We have a little board and a big board.
In reading some of the newspaper articles of late,
I think the town was in a bit of a worrying state.
The result of that little girl drowning was the result of
a lot of other children were actually swimming
in bodies of water over at the cement works.
So it was a top priority for the people of the town,
but I also think the local industry too,
the cement works itself didn't want that happening to young children.
The opening of the pool was celebrated as an event over a whole weekend.
So it was really big, it was probably one of the biggest events in Portland's history.
The importance of Herb you cannot measure.
Because without his influence and impact and help,
we would not have been able to keep this place up and running.
So he's taught, every committee that's ever come in has relied on Herb's knowledge and expertise.
When they painted the silos, the fellow that painted them turned up on my doorstep,
and started talking about it and asked me would I mind if he painted me on the silos.
So I said 'oh yeah, go ahead, please yourself'.
And it was a great feeling to know you're going to be on there forever.
It was built 60 years ago, but it doesn't seem like it.
Doesn't seem like it was 60 years since we done it.
I'm 80-years-old now, and I just want to be involved with
the pool while I'm here and around and can do a little bit.