9 September 2026
Port Lincoln Leisure Centre in 2025-26
A bigger share of what happens at Port Lincoln is people swimming for the sake of it than at any of our other pool centres, by a wide margin.
Port Lincoln has around 16,000 residents. Last year they visited the leisure centre 157,243 times, which works out at close to ten visits each.
Some of that is lessons and some is the gym, but the number that stands out is recreational swimming. Nearly three visits in ten to Port Lincoln are somebody getting in the water because they felt like it. Across our other pool centres that figure is closer to one in six.
157,243
visits to the centre
963
memberships at the year’s peak
64.0
Net Promoter Score, against a YMCA benchmark of 50
456
swimming lesson enrolments at the peak
Three years of steady growth
Port Lincoln now records 8,283 more visits a year than it did in 2023-24, an increase of 6%. Growth here is incremental rather than dramatic. For a centre already used this heavily by its town, incremental is the harder kind to find.
The centre reached 963 memberships at its peak, and members stay an average of 26 weeks against a state average of 30, which is the figure that tends to matter more.
Swimming lesson enrolments reached 456 at their peak, up 2.9%, with classes running at 76% occupancy.
+5.0%
growth in visits year on year
26 weeks
average length of a membership, against 30 across the state
76%
average swimming lesson class occupancy
Port Lincoln’s age profile is unusually even. Every band from 15 to 75 sits between 12% and 20% of the membership, where most of our centres bulge somewhere.
Members by age
Share of memberships with a recorded date of birth. Port Lincoln: 786 members, 387 women and 424 men.
Port Lincoln is one of only two centres where men outnumber women in the membership.
Swimming lesson students by age
405 students, average age 6.6
An even spread is what a single facility serving a whole town looks like. There is no second gym down the road to take the twenty five year olds and no separate seniors centre to take the seventy year olds, so both use the same building at different hours of the day.
What members said
We ask our members how likely they are to recommend us. At Port Lincoln, 267 people answered out of 1,235 asked. That is a response rate of 22%, against a state average of 20%.
The score was 64.0, against a YMCA benchmark of 50.
We are always welcomed by friendly faces and warm smiles. It's a very family friendly centre.
Swimming lesson parent, Port Lincoln
The quality and skill of the swimming instructors, the equipment available, free entry to the pool for my child.
Swimming lesson parent, Port Lincoln
64.0
Net Promoter Score
267
members responded
22%
response rate, against 20% across the state
A town that actually swims
Recreational swimming takes nearly double the share here that it takes at our other pool centres. Lessons look small next to it at 9%. The swim school is not small. It runs 456 enrolments in a town of 16,000. Everything else in the building is simply busier.
Share of total participation, 2024-25
Comparison here is against the average of our other pool centres, with Port Lincoln left out of its own benchmark.
76%
average swimming lesson class occupancy
1.13
average visits per week per member, against 1.29 across the state
What the activity is worth
$1,056,677
Estimated community benefit created at Port Lincoln in 2025-26.
Social Value puts a dollar figure on the community benefit created when people are physically active. It is an estimate, built from real participation data at this centre, and it covers health, education and employment outcomes where there is an agreed, evidence-based method for converting activity into monetary terms.
What the estimate covers
Select any indicator to read what it covers.
Value only accrues above a threshold
Turning up does not automatically create measurable value. A participant has to be active often enough to reach a physical activity threshold before anything is counted.
Across our centres, 43,735 people took part in an activity last year and 12,162 reached a threshold. Around 28 in every 100. That is normal for a community recreation centre, and the threshold is an invitation rather than a test.
How much of the centre the model sees
Roughly 72% of what happens at Port Lincoln is visible to the model. The figure above is real, and it is also an understatement.
The methodology comes from a 2018 study by KPMG, commissioned by the Australian Sports Commission, which put the value of Australia’s community sport infrastructure at more than $16.2 billion a year, including $4.9 billion in health benefit. ActiveXchange applies that framework to real participation records at each facility. Each participant is placed in a demographic segment with known health risks and associated costs, and their activity, covering how often they attend, for how long and doing what, produces dollar values against specific outcomes. More than 200 councils and venues across Australia use the same model. We do not produce the methodology and we cannot adjust it.
Turning up does not automatically create measurable value. A participant has to be active often enough to reach a physical activity threshold. Acute benefits are assessed monthly, in any month where activity averages out to the weekly physical activity guidelines. Chronic benefits are assessed annually and also require the participant to meet the monthly threshold in at least six separate months. Across our centres, 43,735 people took part in an activity last year and 12,162 reached a threshold, around 28 in every 100. That is normal for a community recreation centre. The threshold is an invitation, not a test.
ActiveXchange recalibrated its model during 2025. The practical effect is that the threshold for generating value went up. Activity is now measured on the actual length and intensity of a session, and a participant has to sustain it across the year rather than have one strong month. Figures we published before 2025 sit on the earlier model and are not directly comparable with the figure above.
Social Value counts visits and participations recorded through our membership and point of sale systems. Casual customers, user groups and social stadium sport are not counted, so the figure understates activity at Port Lincoln. Some benefits cannot sensibly be priced and are left out altogether. Recreation centres build social connection and inclusion, strengthen community pride and identity, raise levels of trust and reduce anti-social behaviour. None of that appears in the figure.
Social Value indicates the scale of community benefit generated by activity at this centre. It does not count individual health outcomes for any person, and it does not measure how well the centre is run. A centre can improve while its Social Value falls, and the reverse is also true.
Social Value figures are produced using the ActiveXchange Social Value model, developed in partnership with KPMG and based on the Value of Community Sport Infrastructure framework commissioned by the Australian Sports Commission. The model is used by more than 200 councils and venues across Australia. Figures are estimates. YMCA South Australia does not produce the methodology.
Reporting period 1 July 2025 to 30 June 2026. Participation composition figures are from 2024-25. Written with AI assistance and reviewed by YMCA South Australia, in line with our AI Safe Use Policy.