Aquatic and Recreation Centre ARC in Cockburn

More people, more active, more often

published in sb 3 2020

A partnership between a local government, an elite-level sports club and a university has resulted in a very unique and exceptional aquatic, leisure, sport and educational hub in Australia. Just six months after opening its doors, the interest in the centre from the community has been extremely positive, with membership numbers, casual attendances and swim club enrolments already exceeding the feasibility-study projections for year four of operation.

Cockburn ARC is located 20 km to the south of Perth and, with a building footprint of 17,000 m², is the largest aquatic and recreation centre in Western Australia and one of the largest in Australia. Following on from an extensive eight-year planning process, the centre opened in May 2017 and now has more than 1.4 million visits per annum and is well on track to deliver on the mission of “More People, More Active and More Often”.

Cockburn ARC was built to replace a pre-existing facility but with a far more ambitious vision of servicing the needs of the diverse and growing community together with other major stakeholder groups. The centre consists of co-located facilities for community, including extensive aquatic and dry areas, an administrative base and elite-level training facility for the Fremantle Football Club (an elite Australian Rules Football team playing in the national competition) and educational facilities for Curtin University.