Matt Sykes

From Japanese onsen to Danish harbour baths and floating filtering pools in New York, Matt has travelled the world studying bathing cultures. In 2019, supported by the Victorian Tourism Industry Council and Peninsula Hot Springs, he proposed a vision for a 900km Great Victorian Bathing Trail (GVBT) which will stretch across our state’s southern coastline. You guessed it … Yarra Pools is one of the iconic experiences marked along the GVBT. Through his consultancy Regeneration Projects, Matt continues to work towards a swimmable Birrarung / Yarra River by 2030. This includes collaborations with the Yarra Riverkeeper Association and Swinburne University. Matt is also involved with World Bathing Day, a global celebration of water and bathing traditions which takes place on June 22.

Wominjeka (Welcome). We acknowledge the Yaluk-ut Weelam as the traditional custodians of the land on which we meet. Yaluk-ut Weelam means ‘people of the river camp’ and is connected with the coastal land at the head of Port Phillip Bay, extending from the Werribee River to Mordialloc. The Yaluk-ut Weelam are part of the Boon Wurrung, one of the five major language groups of the greater Kulin Nation. We pay our respects to the land, their ancestors and their elders—past, present and to the future.