The need for a future expansion of the Aqua Jetty facility to service our forecast population was first identified through the completion of a 2010 needs and feasibility study.
In February 2018 the City completed an updated Aqua Jetty Needs Assessment and Feasibility Study that investigated the capacity of the current facilities at the Aqua Jetty to meet the current and forecast community need. The study considered community and membership consultation and concluded that improvements and upgrades were required to both the aquatic and dry infrastructure to best cater for increased demand and ensure the Aqua Jetty continued to deliver as the City's flagship aquatic and leisure facility.
In 2021 the design process commenced with the final detailed design being advertised for a construction tender in September 2023. In December 2023 Council resolved to decline the construction tenders for the upgrade as they exceeded the budget at the time, and instructed the CEO to investigate redesigning Stage Two in an effort to reduce construction costs (read the media release).
The City then undertook both internal and independent reviews of the project. These reviews assessed the original design and scope to identify opportunities for reducing the project costs, while ensuring project outcomes and community expectations remained central. In November 2024 Council resolved to develop a project scope and to appoint a new design team to undertake a redesign of the Aqua Jetty Stage 2 project. In August 2025 a new consultant team were appointed to develop the new design for the project taking into consideration the lessons learnt from the first attempt.
In February 2026 Council resolved to endorse the new high level conceptual layout designs.
