Ensuring the safety and enjoyment of all pool users is a top priority. Here, you'll find important guidelines and regulations that apply to both public and private swimming pools in our region. These rules are designed to promote a safe, clean, and fun environment for everyone, while also complying with state and national safety standards. Whether you're a pool owner or a visitor, we encourage you to familiarise yourself with these requirements to help keep our community safe.
Important links
Swimming Pool Compliance Certificate Form (PDF 147.5KB)
Swimming Pools Act 1992
Pool Safety Checklist
Royal Lifesaving Australia
Pool Registration
Pool owners must register their pools online on the NSW Swimming Pool Register. You can pay a fee to your local council to do this on your behalf.
A certificate of registration will be issued to the pool owner. Go to the NSW Swimming Pool Register website to check that your pool has been registered.
Pool Fencing
Owners of properties with swimming pools must at all times:
- ensure that pools are surrounded with a child-resistant safety barrier that separates the swimming pool(s) from any residential building and any place adjoining the property
- keep closed the doors and gates that provide access to the swimming pool
- ensure that fences surrounding pools are designed, constructed, installed and maintained to comply with the relevant Australian Standards.
Visit the pool safety checklists page on the NSW Government’s Swimming Pool Register for more information.
Note that portable and inflatable pools that are capable of being filled to a depth of 30cm (300mm) or more must also be surrounded by a swimming pool safety barrier and meet the requirements listed above.
Safety information about inflatable or portable pools is on the inflatable swimming pools page.
Pool Safety Barriers
Swimming pools must be separated from a residential dwelling by a child resistant barrier.
From 1st July 2010, swimming pools located on properties which are waterfront, on land over two hectares or on very small properties (230m2 or less) can no longer use the automatic exemptions from the Swimming Pools Act 1992 .
Previously, pools located on the above mentioned properties could use the dwelling as the swimming pool barrier. This required all doors and windows from the dwelling to be made child resistant in accordance with the Australian Standard. Existing exempt properties may continue to use the exemption but only if the barrier is continuously kept compliant with the Australian Standard. If the barrier is found to be non-compliant, Council may remove the old exemption and require compliance with the current Australian Standard.
For swimming pools constructed or completed before 1st September 2008, the barrier must comply with Australian Standard 1926~1986 ‘Fences and gates for private swimming pools’.
Swimming pools that commenced construction from 1st September 2008, must have a barrier that complies with Australian Standard 1926.1~2012 ‘Part 1: Safety barriers for swimming pools’.
Keeping your pool clean for the health of all pool users
Keeping the pool clean and well maintained ensures that when the pool is used the risk of illness from poor water quality is reduced.
Not maintaining your pool can lead to the production of organisms in the water which may be dangerous to people's health.
Pool Safety Common Questions
Under the Swimming Pools Act 1992 the owner of a swimming pool has the responsibility to ensure that the pool is at all times surrounded by a complying child-resistant pool safety barrier.
Pool safety barriers must be maintained in a good state of repair as an effective and safe barrier restricting access to the pool.
Yes. In Australia, if you have a portable or inflatable pool that can be filled to a depth of 30cm and is used by people, you need to install a pool fence. Other water sources such as irrigation channels and fishponds, where people don't swim, don't share the same regulations.
The Swimming Pool Act 1992 defines a pool as an excavation, structure or vessel:
- that is capable of being filled with water to a depth greater than 300 millimetres, and
- that is solely or principally used, or that is designed, manufactured or adapted to be solely or principally used, for the purpose of swimming, wading, paddling or any other human aquatic activity, and includes a spa pool, but does not include a spa bath, anything that is situated within a bathroom or anything declared by the regulations not to be a swimming pool for the purposes of this Act.
Inflatable pools are deemed swimming pools under the Act and so the land owner to which a pool is located requires:
- The owner of the premises on which a swimming pool is situated to ensure that the swimming pool is at all times surrounded by a child-resistant barrier—
that separates the swimming pool from any residential building situated on the premises and from any place (whether public or private) adjoining the premises, and
- that the pool is designed, constructed, installed and maintained in accordance with the standards prescribed by the regulations.
Royal Lifesaving Australia has a great online resource of information about your responsibilities when owning and operating an inflatable pool.
Local councils and registered swimming pool inspectors (certifiers) can inspect swimming pool and spa pool barriers and issue a certificate of compliance if the barrier meets requirements.
Pool owners should contact their local council or a private certifier early, to allow time to organise an inspection before renting or selling a property.
A certificate of compliance is valid for three years.
Visit the NSW Swimming Pool Register website to check if a certificate of compliance has been issued for a particular property.