A group of advocates are campaigning for Melbourne’s Yarra River to be transformed into a city swimming spot.
But experts say the water quality would need to significantly improve for people to be able to safely take a dip.
The Yarra has a reputation for being brown, a little smelly, and very polluted, and outside of Moomba’s Birdman rally, swimming so close to the city is a bit of a no-go.
It’s not just because of the bacteria, but because it’s also technically illegal.
That doesn’t mean there are a small group of people that would like to see that overturned, however, including Matt Sykes.
Inspired by seeing what Paris did for the Seine River at last year’s Olympics, he’s campaigning around the world for cities like Melbourne to make their rivers swimmable.
“What we’re trying to do is advocate for a Birrarung Marr or a Yarra River swimming trail between Dights Falls and the Bay,” the Swimmable Cities co-founder said.
Sykes has been inspired by seeing the saunas in Oslo as well as river floats in Switzerland, but unlike many European cities, including Paris, Melbourne has a problem: stormwater feeds directly into the Yarra River without being treated at all.
Further upstream, the water quality was so poor today that taking a dip near Kew, Healesville, and the Yarra Junction was not advised.
Professor Tim Fletcher from the University of Melbourne knows all too well how bad things can get if you take a chance with bacteria and things go wrong.
“Having done some wastewater sampling, and I had a little cut in my glove that I didn’t see,” he said.
“I ended up in hospital on a drip for 10 days and had to cancel a trip overseas.”
The City of Yarra has already signed up to the Swimmable Cities charter, and Sykes hopes the City of Melbourne will be next before the Netherlands hosts the world-first Swimmable Cities summit.
