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Sweeney’s Swim School in Altona has been teaching generations of families in Melbourne’s west for 57 years – with four generations of the Sweeney family itself recently dropping in.
School founder Leon Sweeney, 85, his son Wayne, 60, his granddaughter Ruby, 28, and his great-granddaughter, Bella, one, visited the iconic school the family patriarch started.
Both Leon and Wayne are former Surf lifesavers, with Wayne representing Australia in the US at age 17.
Wayne also won the first Pier to Pub swim, with his father firing the starting gun.
Leon estimated the school had taught three million lessons since it began in 1964.
Mr Sweeney said he and wife Joan applied through the council to build their first pool in Altona’s Queen Street.
“That pool is now heritage listed by the council because it was the first inbuilt pool in the western suburbs,” he said.
“We started teaching. I was the first one in Australia to teach babies, even before Laurie Lawrence the Olympic coach.”
Mr Sweeney said he subsequently opened a bigger inbuilt pool on the current Pier Street site.
“I’ve been approached by that many developers because I can build 31 or 32 apartments on it, with about four shops at the front, but as long as we’re still alive, it’s going to be Sweeney’s Swim School,” he said.
Mr Sweeney now leases the swim school to one-time pupils but still enjoys swimming.
“We’ve got a 25-metre outdoor pool, between Wayne’s house and our house in Williamstown,” he said. “That gets used every morning.”
