Maybe that’s just the case with Tasmanian schools learn to swim campaign.

When the Victorian Government recently announced it was mandating learn to swim classes, there were calls to do more in Tasmania – perhaps something exactly like we already had in the 1980s.

Back then the Education Department owned and managed pools at Glen Dhu, Ulverstone and other locations around the State, staffing them with specialist swimming teachers.

And it was a year-long program - in Launceston shifting to the old indoor pool at Mowbray in the winter.

Students were streamed – most critically to ensure that at-risk students were given the instruction and advice they needed.

Water orientation, learn to swim and a water safety program were all elements in a highly-organised, compulsory program that provided a minimum 10 free sessions per year for every student in every school from grades three to six. 

The program was so successful that by the time some kids were returning for the grade six stroke sessions, they were learning butterfly.

There was rarely a case of student entering the program in grade three who did not emerge from grade six as water and swim proficient. 

There was a mantra at the time that the program was fully justified because no Tasmanian child lived more than a few miles from a stream, river, lake, harbour or the sea.

And then of course there was the expanding prevalence of backyard pools – extending the risk for those who could not swim.

Event in the 1960s and earlier there was some sort of program.

Grade four pupils in the mid-1960s were taken down to the Basin, to the old Technical High School pool or if you were lucky up something a little warmer at Windmill Hill.

Once you could competently swim 33 yards, you were exempt from further attendance, but those who needed more time to do so were given more instruction.

A couple of those cold old pools were a real incentive to get the skills up as quickly as possible.

But within 15 years, the program led by Bill Brain and others was as good as any in the world.

Whilst what we have now is better than elsewhere in the country, it’s hard to fathom why we ever let a world- leading program in such a critical area be downgraded.

As those who were involved back then will proudly assert, it wasn’t just about saving lives in the water, but getting real results in increased health, fitness and hygiene as well.