On any given Tuesday afternoon at Hawthorn Aquatic and Leisure Centre (HALC), you might be greeted by a guide dog. They're a familiar sight on Tuesday’s, calm and patient, waiting while their owners train upstairs.
The Blind Sports and Recreation Victoria (BSRV) gym program has been running at Hawthorn since around 2019 and has grown steadily. What started as a single Tuesday session now spans three programs across two days: a gym session and a boxing class on Tuesdays, and a spin class followed by a second gym session on Wednesdays. Participants are matched one-on-one with trained volunteers, and the Tuesday boxing class is run by experienced personal trainer Tom.
The program is one of several inclusive partnerships the team at Boroondara Leisure and Aquatic Facilities have developed to make its services accessible to people with diverse needs. HALC also hosts a Ping Pong Parkinson’s program, a Young Dementia Australia gym session, and is working through an environmental action plan developed with Aspect Autism.
For participants with vision impairment, a gym is not a straightforward place. Cameron, 81, has a genetic condition called retinitis pigmentosa that has progressively reduced his sight over decades. “My eyes are down to a bit of light and dark,” he says. “I can see the windows over the other side and the lights in the ceiling. Apart from that, it’s like a big black hole.”
He has been attending the program since it began, travelling from his home in Kew. Without volunteer support, he says, the gym would be off limits. “When you can’t see, you can’t use the equipment, you can’t set it up properly. It’s actually dangerous to be setting up by yourself. The equipment’s dark, the floor’s dark, the ceiling’s dark.”
I couldn’t do it without the volunteers.
The volunteers set up each machine, guide participants through their exercises, and keep a written record of what they’ve done. For someone who can’t read a display screen or adjust a pin on a weight stack, that hands-on presence is the difference between participation and staying home.
“As you get older, fitness is critical. Your muscle strength and bone strength is also critical. It helps with everything,” Cameron says. “I should have been blind 40 years ago, but I’m still going.”
Leanne Taylor facilitates the gym and spin sessions and has built the volunteer base by recruiting from within the HALC’s existing membership. “You love coming to the gym. How about you come and assist someone that loves coming to the gym but needs better assistance? I sell it that way.”
Most of the current volunteers are existing Hawthorn members, familiar with the equipment and already part of the HALC community. “It’s one-on-one,” Leanne says. “For the best experience for our clients.” BSRV handles screening, police checks, working with children checks and sighted guide training. Once cleared, volunteers come to Leanne for equipment-specific induction.
Leanne explains, “It’s members supporting members. It’s a good little community.”
Bob McQuillen, a retired corporate professional and long-time Hawthorn member, is one of the volunteers who has been involved since the program began. “Both my wife and I retired, we completed our Cert III and IV [in fitness], and I thought, I can’t just stop,” he says. “My idea has always been to give something back and to just go have some fun.”
The program has produced some remarkable outcomes. One participant, Francois, a former Comrades Marathon runner who uses a guide dog, trained at HALC for six months before completing the Eureka Tower stair climb. His volunteer trained him two mornings a week plus the Tuesday sessions and went up the tower alongside him. “Francois nailed it,” his trainer says.
Another participant, Stephen, has been blind since childhood. He travels to HALC independently from Coburg, catching two trains and walking between stations, twice a week, without a guide dog. “If you said to him, that’s amazing, he’d go, why’s that amazing? How did you get here?” his trainer says. When Stephen first started, staff would walk him back to the station after each session.
Several participants have worked with Guide Dogs Victoria to map their route to HALC, learning the journey by cane or with a dog before attending independently.
The BSRV program runs gym sessions and boxing on Tuesdays, and spin and gym on Wednesdays at Hawthorn Aquatic and Leisure Centre.
