“I am so glad that all the application work for this much-needed project to re-establish the lido has come up trumps,” Mrs Pavey said. 

“The brand new structure will feature elevated walkways and floating pontoons, and will use new, durable materials. The site will also be dredged and the sand will be reused for beach nourishment in areas where the sand has eroded near the boardwalk and lido site.

“A range of activities, such as water aerobics, aqua fitness classes, swimming, paddling and a place to ‘just cool off’ will be possible in the new pool.”

The previous facility was decommissioned in 1999 due to decay caused by concrete cancer, and since then, the site has silted up with sand.

Hopes for its restoration have waxed and waned over the years, with numerous grant applications put forward and knocked back.

A feasibility study was completed in 2015, but money to properly survey the site and dredge it was only secured in February of this year, when Bellingen Shire Council’s application for $112,000 from the Department of Industry’s Tourism Driver Demand Infrastructure Program was successful.

The grant of over half a million dollars announced today for the infrastructure comes from the NSW government’s $300 million Regional Growth - Environment and Tourism Fund. 

NSW Crown Holiday Parks Trust, which operates Reflections in Urunga, collaborated with Bellingen Shire Council to make the application and will contribute $75,000 towards the project.

“This very significant funding from the NSW government will give the Bellingen Shire Council the best opportunity to make the Urunga foreshore a wonderful and lasting community asset,” Mrs Pavey said.     

Bruce Pettit is the president of the Urunga Tidal Swimming Facility Action Group, which has been fighting since 2011 to see the pool restored so it can be used at low tide as well as high tide.

He said over the years he’d been told many times that the group was wasting their time and should give up.

“But we never gave up,” he said.

Asked what today’s news meant to them, he said: “It’s put a big smile on our faces and a warm glow in our hearts.”