🟠 I can't feel my tongue

Also: Lilydale Swimming Club hits pause after 123 years

Author

Matthew Sims
July 03, 2026

⏱️ The 149th edition of our newsletter is a seven-minute read.

Hi there 👋 

Matthew Sims here, your reporter at the Eastern Melburnian.

🏊🏼 A reader wrote this week to say Lilydale Swimming Club would be wrapping up operations after 123 years. This is undoubtedly sad news for club members past and present, but there is one silver lining: the committee isn’t giving up yet.

⏸️ Club president David Macrae and secretary Samantha Wahrenberger spoke to me about the club’s plans, and you can read more about that in this newsletter.

💰 Yarra Ranges Council’s plan for a new aquatic and leisure centre is in a holding pattern. It says it will stump up $15 million, but only if the state and federal governments kick in $20 million each. The usual dance between all three levels of government.

✍️ Researching, writing and editing stories like those above is time consuming. If you'd like to support our work, please jump on the link below.

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Today, we’re covering:

  • The Lilydale Swimming Club suspending operations after 123 years, due to declining membership numbers and cost pressures;

  • Hundreds of local councils, including Knox and Boroondara, calling for the Federal Government to look at making coal, oil and gas companies pay for climate-driven infrastructure damage.

“Some people simply can't get insured in flood-prone areas. The underwriting costs more, so the insurance premiums go up right across the board for everybody.”

In support of a call for the Federal Government to make fossil fuel companies pay for the damage their emissions cause, Kooyong Climate Change Alliance organiser Leigh Naunton said insurance pressures were already affecting communities across Melbourne’s east.

WHAT’S COMING UP 🎟️

📰 THIS WEEK’S HEADLINES

Lilydale Swimming Club president David Macrae said he and fellow executive members were “terribly sad” and “disappointed” to suspend operations after membership fell from 75 to 39 in three years, largely driven by the closure of the Kilsyth pool.

However, the committee behind the 123-year-old swimming club – the second-oldest in Victoria – hopes this isn’t the end, with plans to keep the club dormant while it waits for a new home.

Club secretary Samantha Wahrenberger said membership dropped sharply after Yarra Ranges Council closed and demolished the club’s former home – Kilsyth Centenary Pool – about three years ago, after its infrastructure became unsafe.

“We had about 70 members and lost almost half because of the closure,” she told the Eastern Melburnian.

The club relocated to the Yarra Centre in Yarra Junction, but Wahrenberger said the 60km round trip for members in suburbs including Lilydale and Kilsyth contributed to further losses. Membership stood at 39 at the end of the 2025–26 financial year.

Macrae said when the club’s coach left recently to take a new position, some swimmers ended their membership in order to follow the coach.

“We really couldn't justify the expense to employ another coach with the numbers that we had left,” he said.

Yarra Ranges Council has dedicated $15 million towards a new indoor aquatic and leisure facility, dependent on a commitment of $20 million each from the state and federal governments.

Wahrenberger said the committee was “trying to figure out what [its] next steps are” while it waits for a potential new home.

Lilydale’s 123-year-old swimming club suspends operations

“We had about 70 members and lost almost half because of the [Kilsyth] closure.”

Knox and Boroondara were among more than 500 local councils last week calling for a $1.3 billion “national climate compensation fund” sourced from levies on coal, oil and gas companies to help pay for infrastructure damage linked to climate change.

The impacts of the fossil fuel industry vary between councils, but local governments say they are increasingly carrying the long-term costs of the damage caused by more frequent and severe weather events.

In Melbourne’s eastern suburbs, those impacts include increased insurance premiums and infrastructure damage linked to heat, storms and changing rainfall patterns.

Last week, more than 1,100 local government leaders from the nation’s councils met in Canberra for the Australian Local Government Association (ALGA) national conference to debate issues affecting communities nationwide.

One of the key topics was the rising financial burden of climate change. Councils said the costs were rising faster than their budgets could cover.

The councils argued fossil fuel companies, rather than ratepayers, should contribute to clean up and repair costs, due to their emissions.

Natural disasters cost Australia an estimated $38 billion annually — about $3,800 per household — and are projected to rise to $73 billion by 2060, according to Deloitte Access Economics.

ALGA said local governments bear a disproportionate share of those costs because councils maintain a third of the nation’s infrastructure, including 75 per cent of roads, forcing more spending on repairs and recovery.

ALGA, representing 537 councils, voted to ask the Federal Government to establish a $1.3 billion Climate Compensation Fund – consisting of $400 million per year for local government climate adaptation and $900 million per year for improving disaster management.

The motion specified these funds should come through “the implementation of taxes or levies on the coal, oil and gas industries”. The motion passed.

Research from the Australia Institute found the cost of insurance from climate-related disasters is now 12 times higher than 20 years ago, while local government revenue has only tripled.

Knox mayor Paige Kennett told the Eastern Melburnian a dedicated fund would “ensure the costs aren’t borne by ratepayers through insurance premiums or hefty rebuild costs”.

Boroondara mayor Wes Gault said climate-driven weather events mean “heatwaves will get hotter and longer, rainfall will get more erratic and storms will get stronger”.

“Our support for this motion is not about the threat to Boroondara specifically, but reflects our desire to see more action taken by state and federal governments to support councils and the communities we serve,” Gault told the Eastern Melburnian.

Knox and Boroondara back push for fossil fuel companies to pay for local weather damage

Councils maintain a third of Australia’s infrastructure and say footing the repair bill is increasingly difficult.

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🥵 Seeking heat in Melbourne’s east

Last week, I went to Crazy Wing in Glen Waverley to try the signature spicy chicken wings.

It was an experience I won’t forget anytime soon.

If you’ve got a suggestion on where I should go next, please let me know via [email protected].

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🤢 During this week’s Monash Council meeting, councillors voted to hire an expert to establish where underground gas is leaking at various former landfill sites. One councillor suggested residents were being impacted. If that’s you, please email us via [email protected].

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Cheers,

Matthew