Adecision to extend the Millicent Swimming Lake season by up to six weeks has been welcomed by a group of older local women dubbed the ‘water lilies’.


Planning for an anticipated re-build is taking longer than expected and so Wattle Range Council has pushed back the expected closure date of January 28.


The lake is popular at all hours, with the ‘water lilies’ being an informal group.


Each weekday at dawn, the eight women don their bathers and enter the chilly waters of the man-made facility on Rendelsham Road.


They spend the next hour swimming and chatting as well as frolicking and wading.


The informal group then wear dressing gowns and head for their homes and a hot shower.


“Our time at the lake is good for the body and the soul,” said Sue Lesslie, who has regularly swum at the site for around 30 years and Brenda Trotter agreed.


“It is a kind of mental health therapy,” she said.


Judy Watts is another whose time at the lake has also lasted around three decades.


She proudly says she is a ‘river girl’ having spent her childhood years at Renmark.


“I learned to swim in the River Murray and became a member of the local club,” she said.


“I could swim across the river.


“I am thrilled to bits the swimming season in Millicent will continue to around mid-March.


“Wattle Range Council has done the right thing. It will be good for tourism and for trade at the Lakeside Café”.