Ahead of Anzac Day, Horsham’s outdoor war memorial pool is doing what it was built to do: serve the town.
On most days, that looks ordinary enough. People come to swim laps, do their rehab, cool off in summer, or keep up a routine. But the Horsham War Memorial Swimming Pool is a little bit special. When it opened in 1956, it gave the town a public memorial people could return to every day.
That choice still says something about Horsham.
“Horsham’s always looked forward,” says local veteran Ken Taylor.
Taylor joined the Royal Australian Navy on 7 May 1963 at 16 years of age. He served three tours across Vietnam, Borneo, and Malaya before later training as a submariner in Portsmouth, England. Now living in Horsham, he sees the pool as part of a town that chose use over symbolism alone—something public, something lasting, something woven into everyday life.
Rather than build a memorial people might only visit on formal occasions, Horsham built one the community could live with.
Taylor still remembers returning home from Vietnam to a country that offered little welcome to many who had served.
“We were treated like dirt,” he says.
For years, he kept that part of his life at a distance. Then, in 1984, the Wimmera branch of the Vietnam Veterans Association formed in Horsham.
“All of a sudden, they were all talking the same lingo. And that’s made all the difference.”
Sitting beside him is Tony Lawrence, whose path home carried its own burden.
Lawrence was called up in September 1964, number 3786883, and served with 6RAR at Nui Dat. He returned at a time when trauma was poorly understood and rarely discussed. He spent six weeks in a psychiatric ward after coming home.
“No one spoke about mental health,” he says quietly. “Those six weeks fixed me. That did help a lot.”
Years later, when the aquatic centre was redeveloped, Lawrence was one of the earliest members to sign up. For about 15 years, the pool became part of his routine, until his health made it harder to get there.
That kind of connection is part of what gives places like Horsham Aquatic Centre their weight. They are public facilities, but they also hold private histories—they mark the passage of a town: the people who learn there, recover there, grow older there, the people who come back.
This year, both Taylor and Lawrence received recognition awards for their service to Australia’s Vietnam War efforts. Both will mark Anzac Day, with Taylor attending the gunfire breakfast and Lawrence hoping to attend the dawn service if his health allows.
Their stories sit naturally within the life of this place.
Across regional Victoria, ageing outdoor pools face an uncertain future. Many are nearing the end of their structural life, and the cost of renewal is rising. For councils, keeping them open is not always easy.
Horsham Aquatic Centre is one of the facilities that has continued to be invested in, valued, and used. For the Y, that carries a responsibility too. Places like this are part of a town’s story, and so are the people who give them meaning.
That includes veterans like Taylor and Lawrence, whose connection to the pool is bound up with service, memory, and the long work of returning to ordinary life.
Lawrence puts it simply:
“The Y and Horsham Rural City Council’s aquatic centre are always here for you,” he says.
