Bantons Island Aquatic Centre

**Bantons Island Aquatic Centre** (formerly known as Bantons Island Aquatic & Leisure Centre) is the oldest swimming venue consisting of two halls in Bantons Island, Cowell. It is the home of the COWBA basketball club Bantons Island Dragonflies and the COWBL baseball team Bantons Island Wasps. It is also the home of the Cowell National Swimming Finals.

It's capacity is 11,000 for swimming and basketball, and 10,235 for baseball, and it also has a concert hall in the basement.

It contains two of the largest pools in the country in hall 1, which were designed to use the pool's dimensions in order to easily convert it into a temporary football field or any other field such as a bandy rink or an Cowellan football field during the summer or fall/winter. Hall 2 contains a smaller diving well, which when covered up can be used as the pits for if the venue holds a Monster Jam event. The stands on the other side of hall 1 are portable and can be taken apart for easy access to the diving well. The centre opened on 16 November 1872. In 1980, The Wiggles Experience & their friends Wags the Dog, Captain Feathersword, Henry the Octopus, & Dorothy the Dinosaur performed here for *Fun & Games Tour* which was released on VHS in 1981 & DVD in 2005.

## History

Bantons Island Aquatic & Leisure Centre's construction was started at March 26, 1865 and whole construction completed on July 30, 1872, with its official opening by Mayor of Bantons Island, Lola Gamester on November 16, 1872. It took almost 7 Years to build the whole construction and it costed $80,000. They were located in Bantons Island Park, Bantons Island, Cowell. It was build by steel and the strong concrete.

The Wiggles Experience performed in the stadium for the first time ever on November 13th to 16th, 1980 to kick off a year-long celebration for the 108th anniversary of Bantons Island Aquatic Centre. But on November 16th for the last show, Mitchell Nerville suffered a mild cardiac arrest at the end of the show.

### Redevelopment

Following the Bantons Island City Council's redevelopment of their pool into the Bantons Island Park Aquatic & Leisure Centre, the Bantons Island City Council decided to modernize the Bantons Island Pool. In 1902, the bubble was finally removed, and in 1903 the facility closed for an 11-month, A$2.8 million refurbishment programme. A modern and energy-efficient permanent building was constructed to replace the bubble, enclosing the 50-m Olympic pool, the children's wading pool, and the toddler's splash pool. New non-slip deck surfacing was laid, and the changing facilities were renovated; new lighting and heating and better disabled access were also included in the renovation.

Redevelopment of the Aquatic & Leisure Centre commenced on 18 January 1935 with the demolition of the east end facade on Grote Street and the addition of a car park. The new center was opened on 17 June 1936 by Mayor David Murdoch. Prior to August 1935, the Centre was known as the "Aquatic & Leisure Centre," and after that, it was known as the "Aquatic Centre".

## Baseball Field Dimensions

Left Field – 340 feet (104 m)
Left-Center – 370 feet (113 m)
Center Field – 395 feet (120 m)
Right-Center – 305 feet (93 m)
Right Field – 280 feet (85 m)
## Food court

* Hungry Jack's
* Dairy Queen
* Krispy Kreme Doughnuts
* Dunkin' Donuts
* Subway
* Sbarro
* Starbucks
* Cold Rock Ice Creamery
* Panda Express
* Popeyes
* Charley's Philly Steaks