Locals are lobbying for funding to upgrade the 24-year-old pool at Centenary Heights State High School.

Darren Lange Swimming Academy director Darren Lange said they held more than 700 private swimming lessons at the CHSHS pool each week.

Mr Lange has been operating a swim school at the pool since it opened in 1999. The aging infrastructure has presented several issues over the past few years.

“Renovations and the addition of a teaching pool would allow the facility to better cater to the community around it,” Mr Lange said.

“The addition of a shallow, warmer teaching pool would mean we could service hundreds of additional families with teaching their babies and toddlers learn to swim,” he said.

“The (slippery) tiled pool deck has been a major concern but there has now been marine carpet laid over the school holidays.

“There are also problems with the roof leaking. We get wet in the office, including our computers, and in the changerooms when it rains heavy.”

Member for Toowoomba South David Janetzki MP said the state government needed to develop a collaborative funding solution.

“Thousands of children use this pool each year for both private and school swimming lessons,” Mr Janetzki said.

“We know that on average, nine children under the age of 5 drown in Queensland each year and we know how important it is for the community to have access to quality swimming facilities,” he said.

“This pool is an important piece of community infrastructure that needs replacing”.

Head swimming coach Taylah de Joux said the pool desperately needed refurbishment.

“The pool flooring is brown, and you can’t see the black painted swimming lane lines anymore,” Ms de Joux said.

“At least a few kids slip over every afternoon on the old tiled floors and water gushes through the roof when it rains,” she said.

Ms de Joux is a former squad swimmer and former Centenary Heights State High School student.

“I walked into the pool building 15 years later and nothing had changed. It has only got worse,” she said.

Mr Lange was an Olympic swimmer and Commonwealth Games gold medallist. He started his swimming school at their purpose-built pool in Wilsonton in 1994.

Mr Lange started swimming lessons after he nearly drowned while on a family beach holiday in primary school.

“Swimming is an essential part of our way of life in Australia. Whether it be backyard pools, rivers, dams, the beach – we’ve got the climate and lifestyle to enjoy swimming,” Mr Lange said.

“It’s a skill for life that could one day save a life,” he said.

“For many years, we had parents dropping in to visit us on a Monday morning to tell us an all too familiar story. They were at a bbq at the weekend, heard a splash and ran to see their toddler had fallen in the pool. But they were able to come to the top and float on their back until they were pulled out of the pool. They had saved themselves.”