With the sweltering heat this week Narromine pool became shelter for the sun-drenched masses. Shelly Bayliss certainly had her hands full as the lone lifeguard on duty on Monday when temperatures soared into the high thirties. At lunchtime the pool started to fill up with families and after school an avalanche of children saw Mrs Bayliss keeping an eye over about “70 kids all together’’.
“The river is so low that you get so many more people coming here,” she said.
The lifeguard is expecting a hot summer and has built a rapport with the children to make her job easier but reminded parents they still had a job to do when they came with children.
“My job is to save them and if somebody is in trouble that’s what I will do… but it helps keeping an eye on your kids,” she said.
“If parents know (where they are) it’s such a help to you.
“If you have kids who can’t swim get in the pool with them.’
“The pool rules are here for everyone’s safety, if everyone does their best to obey them we will have a happy healthy, safe environment everyone can enjoy,” she said.
For safety reasons children under 10 are not allowed at the pool without supervision.