Adelaide Aquatic Centre | North Adelaide | Review

Adelaide Aquatic Centre in North Adelaide features waterslides, plenty of family-friendly pools, and all the swimming facilities you need.

Review by Claire Davill

The newly built Aquatic Centre in the North Adelaide parklands is a great year-round swimming facility for families. The entry costs are reasonable, there’s a combination of indoor and outdoor pool areas, and plenty of space for leisure swimming, lap swimming, and of course, waterslides.

Waterslides

The water slides are the big drawcard at the new Adelaide Aquatic Centre. There are four slides, each with their own features.

Slide 1 is classed as “Extreme”, and starts with a long, steep drop. Thrill-seeking kids will love this one, but we found it a bit scary. Definitely not recommended for your first try!

Slide 2 is more gentle, but has some fun, speedy turns. There are rainbow lit-up stripes on this one, which makes for a fun, colourful strobing effect.

Slide 3 is also more gentle, with long straight sections and fewer turns. This is the most well-lit slide, with bright sections and slightly darker sections.

Slide 4 was our favourite. There are some sections that are completely dark, and other sections with the rainbow strobe effects. There are lots of twists and turns, but it’s not too steep or too fast.

You will need to pay separately to use the slides, and they only operate at specific times (see below for more details).

Leisure Pools

There are two leisure pool areas, one inside and one outside. The inside pool is shallow (maximum depth 70cm), and surrounded by splash pads. There’s plenty of seating around the edge and the cafe is accessible from this area as well. There’s an impressive jellyfish in the centre of the pool, and a stingray that occasionally showers water from it’s fins. There are water shooters and fountains to play in, and this area is perfect for the littlest of kids.

The outdoor lagoon pool is a bit deeper, with a shallow gradient at one end, and a maximum depth of 1.4 metres. There are shade sails over the shallow end, and some fountain rocks for play. There’s more seating out here, including some impressive rock loungers, and plenty of lawn and barbeques and picnic facilities. Note that the lagoon pool is closed in winter, with occasional exceptions if the weather is favourable. If the pool is open at any time during winter, this is displayed prominently on the website.

Lap Swimming Pools

There is a heated outdoor 25 metre lap pool, and an indoor 50 metre lap pool. Both pools have designated lanes for lap swimming at different speeds, and often there is a lane dedicated to leisure swimming in each pool. The front desk staff will inform you if there are lanes for leisure swimming when you visit.

There is also a warm water pool suitable for rehabilitation and gentle exercise in the centre, but this is not suitable for children under the age of 16. Similarly, there are steam room and sauna facilities available for those over 16 years old.

There is a separate pool dedicated to swimming lessons, and this is a fantastic design choice. It keeps the leisure pools from being overcrowded and loud.

Facilities

The changing facilities are top-notch here, with plenty of options that include community change rooms, accessible change rooms, a sensory room, and gender neutral as well as male and female bathrooms. We particularly liked the community change rooms, which are lockable small change rooms suitable for families. There is enough room for a family to change together in privacy, and each of these rooms contains a bench, clothes hooks, a baby change table and a bin.

There are also plenty of storage lockers, and these are available for $3 for 6 hours of use (as at July 2026). You can re-enter your locker as many times as you need, and we found them large enough for 3 swimming bags plus a handbag.

Adelaide Aquatic Centre Cafe

The onsite cafe is accessible from the indoor leisure pool area and the entrance, and offers coffee, tea, milkshakes, smoothies, protein shakes, hot chips, nuggets, pizza and burgers, as well as pies and pasties, wraps and sandwiches, cakes, fruit salad, lolly bowls and yoghurt and granola bowls.

Opening Hours and Pricing

Please check the Adelaide Aquatic Centre website for current opening hours and entrance prices, as well as other facility opening hours.

Opening hours vary between weekdays and weekends, public holidays and school holidays.  Water slides are paid for separately.

What we like about the Adelaide Aquatic Centre:

• It’s centrally located, with a huge car park
• There’s a variety of indoor and outdoor pools
• The waterslides are lots of fun

Things to consider:

• The water slides are restricted to children 5 years and over, AND a minimum height of 1.2 metres.
• You cannot take anything with you on the water slides – this includes phones or cameras, goggles or eyewear, or swimwear with exposed zippers.
• Be aware that you will need to climb 5 flights of stairs for each go on the water slides – great for wearing out the kids, not so great for tired adults!
• The outdoor lagoon pool is only partially shaded, and the outdoor lap pool is not shaded at all, so remember to be sun safe.
• Children under 5 years old must always be within arms’ reach of an adult when in the water, and children under 10 years old must be actively supervised by an adult at all times when in the water.

Location:

Jeffcott Road, North Adelaide

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For more information and all enquiries please visit the Adelaide Aquatic Centre website.

At Play & Go Adelaide we make every effort to provide accurate information to the best of our knowledge at the time of publication. We recommend confirming times, dates and details directly before making any plans as details may be subject to change.

As per all our Play & Go reviews, this is not a sponsored post and our review is done completely independently. All photos are by Play & Go (July 2026).

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