9 September 2026
Port Lincoln Leisure Centre in 2025-26
Close to ten visits for every person who lives in Port Lincoln.
Port Lincoln recorded 157,243 visits in 2025-26, up 5% on the year before. Satisfaction rose 6.5 points to 64.0.
More than a quarter of everything that happens here is recreational swimming, close to double the share at our other pool centres. That is the figure that most distinguishes Port Lincoln from the rest of the network.
157,243
visits to the centre
64.0
Net Promoter Score, against a YMCA benchmark of 50
$1,056,677
estimated community benefit
Steady across three years
Port Lincoln now records 8,283 more visits a year than it did in 2023-24, an increase of 6%. Visits have risen in each of the last two years.
Who trains at Port Lincoln
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.
Share of each age band, Port Lincoln against the state
Port Lincoln is one of only two centres we run where men outnumber women.
No single age group carries this centre. The timetable has to work for a twenty year old and a seventy year old on the same morning, which is a harder brief than most of our centres have.
What members said
We ask our members how likely they are to recommend us. Port Lincoln scored 64.0, against a YMCA benchmark of 50.
64.0
Net Promoter Score
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
A place to swim
Recreational swimming and membership both run well ahead of our other pool centres. The swimming lesson share reads low as a result, but that is arithmetic rather than a smaller program. Enrolments grew again this year. The lessons sit inside a pool that a whole city also uses for its own swimming, and the casual numbers are what push everything else down the chart.
Share of total participation, 2024-25
Comparison is against the average of our other pool centres, with Port Lincoln left out of its own benchmark. Health and fitness programs were not extracted from the 2024-25 report, so that category sits outside the comparison on both sides.
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.
$395,317 of that is teaching people to swim
Reduced risk of drowning is 37% of the community benefit generated at Port Lincoln. Across our nine recreation centres it is 55%, and it is the single largest component of the model. A swimming lesson is the one thing a centre does that changes whether a child is safe in water for the rest of their life.
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.
1.13
average visits per week per member, against 1.29 across the state
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.