The Blue Room

Meet the inspiring group of women who swim in the Yarra/Birrarung River. It’s a group held together through friendship, pursuing good health and a love of nature. This dipping pod started during Melbourne’s lockdowns. The Blue Room's Sabra Lane joins the Yabbies for swim and chat about their swimming group, how it started and what inspires them.

Features:

Meg Elkins/Yarra Yabbie

Carrie Thomas/Yarra Yabbie

Holly Jones-Amin/Yarra Yabbie

Sabra Lane / The Blue Room

Themes:

open water swimming, cold water swimming, Yarra/Birrarung River, Swimmable Cities, Melbourne, swimming adventures, swimming friendships, swimming experiences, adventure, fun, COVID lockdowns.

The Glenorchy Memorial Pool closed three years ago, when the council ruled it was too dangerous. But the community fought back, launching a campaign to save it.

The pool reopens on October 3, 2026 - after a $6.5m refurbishment.

The Blue Room joined some community members for a 'soft' opening and a chat about what this pool means, and the value of communities fighting for what they want.

Features:

Anne Henderson/First Tasmanian to swim the English Channel.

Helen Conway/Honouree, Australian Marathon Swimming Hall of Fame.

Jan Bryan/Keep Glenorchy Pool campaigner.

Emma Fletcher/Weedy Seadragon swimmer.

Jodie Harrison and Jodie / locals and swim teachers.

Sue Hickey/Glenorchy Mayor.

The Blue Room's Sabra Lane and Julia Mansour.

Additional Information:

"Here comes the Sun" - Community Swimming event, Kingston Beach - 8.30am - Sunday October 4, 2026.

Themes:

community pools, Olympic Pools, Memorial Pools, Glenorchy Council, swimming for fun, swimming for companionship, swimming for fitness, community campaigns for pools, Chris Wedd swimming coach, marathon swimming, training, swimming teachers, Pankind swim, 'Here comes the Sun" community swim,

The Weedy Seadragons swim at Kingston Beach, south of Hobart every Saturday. In summer, some members swim from Kingston Beach to Blackmans Bay and back - about five kilometres. Harold Gatenby is one of the founders of the group, and he sat down with the Blue Room's Sabra Lane for a chat about the group, and about the addiction that is ocean swimming.

Features:

Harold Gatenby, founder of the Weedy Seadragons.

Sabra Lane - the Blue Room host.

Themes:

ocean swimming, open water swimming, cold water swimming, swimming for fun and companionship, mental health, community, connection, friendship, Kingston Beach, Tasmania, adenture swims, Devil of a Swim, Bicheno, Shane Gould, confidence in swimming.

This is family. Meet the Weedy Seadragons of Kingston Beach, where swimmers become buddies, form life-long friendships and many feel this tribe is family.

The Blue Room speaks with some of the Weedy Seadragons to find out how they got into swimming, how they discovered the Weedys - and what this group means. This Tasmanian tribe is special too for the Blue Room host Sabra Lane, as it's her regular Saturday morning swim group.

Interviews:

Weedy Seadragon members - Andy, Grainne, Anita, Rachel, Simon, Sandra, Kylie, Tamara, Rhona and a special guest appearance by Elle.

More information:

https://theblueroom.au/swim-groups/weedy-seadragons-ocean-swimming-group/

The Blue Room's Sabra Lane joins artist & swimmer Catherine Stringer in her studio for a chat about her art and swimming. An exhibition of Catherine's work is about to open - it's called Below and Beyond. Catherine is now 71 years old, she started swimming with tribes seven years ago - and started her working life as a doctor. Water is a big part of her art - we talk about that and being in the Blue Room.

Features:

Catherine Stringer - swimmer and artist

Sabra Lane - TheBlueRoom.au

More Information:

Catherine Stringer's website:

https://www.catherinestringer.com.au/

The Social Gallery at Salamanca Arts Centre:

https://www.sac.org.au/events/below-beyond/

Podcast themes:

swimming, tribes, swim groups, inspiration, mental wellbeing, art, seaweed paper, diving, underwater, kelp, giant kelp, seaweed, Tasmania, Indonesia, King Island, the Neva, courage, fitness, physical wellbeing, University, study.

Dr Vanessa Pirotta spends a lot of her time in The Blue Room, or what she calls our Blue Backyard. As a kid all she wanted to do was to become a dolphin trainer - she's now a whale scientist and become a regular contributor in the media, explaining science. Vanessa talks with the Blue Room's Sabra Lane about her fascination with the ocean, whales and science. We also discuss the approaching 70th meeting of the International Whaling Commission - and what YOU can do to help protect whales.

Features:

Dr Vanessa Pirotta

Sabra Lane, The Blue Room.

Extra Resources:

Dr Pirotta's website: https://www.vanessapirotta.com/

Instagram: @drvanessapirotta

"Humpback Highway" - Dr Vanessa Pirotta:

https://unsw.press/books/humpback-highway/

Themes:

The Blue Room, the Blue Backyard, oceans, whales, dolphins, killer whales, Orcas, research, science, STEM, swimming, snorkeling, diving, university degrees, courage, adversity, "Humpback Highway", Tonga, Humpback whales, dolphin trainer, Rosa Pirotta, women in science, whale snot, drones, krill, International Whaling Commission, krill supplements, keystone species.

The Blue Room's Sabra Lane interviews marathon swimmer Joanne Norman on becoming the first Australian woman to complete the Oceans Seven Challenge. What makes Joanne's story truly remarkable is that she was bitten by a Cookiecutter shark on her first attempt at the Molokaʻi channel. She recovered and successfully swam it a year after the attack. What makes her tick, why did she start marathon swimming - and Jo reveals she swims with her eyes closed - all of the time.

Features:

Joanne Norman, Marathon Swimmer.

Sabra Lane, The Blue Room - theblueroom.au

Joanne Norman on Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/jo_norman_swims/

Themes:

Courage, open water swimming, marathon swimming, Oceans Seven Challenge, inspiration, inspiring swims, surviving a shark attack, cookiecutter shark, English Channel, Catalina Channel, Strait of Gibraltar, North Channel, Kaiwi Channel, Cook Strait, Tsugaru Strait, Dubai, Abu Dhabi. Film, "Don't be Prey", Mark Sowerby, Rob Woodhouse.

Pop divas and sisters Vika and Linda Bull have just been inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame, released a new album "Where do you come from", are currently on a national tour and have written a song for swimmers called "That's how I pray".

The Blue Room host Sabra Lane interviews them both to talk about how the song came about, what swimming means to them and about their careers, life, Tongan heritage and how strongly they feel about community harmony.

Features:

Linda and Vika Bull

Podcast host Sabra Lane

Additional information:

Vika and Linda's website including Gig dates:

https://vikaandlinda.com.au/

Their book:

"No Bull" - Affirm Press, 2022.

https://www.simonandschuster.com.au/books/No-Bull/Linda-Bull/9781922848260

Themes:

Singing, song writing, harmonies, ARIA Hall of Fame, swimming, open water swimming, ocean swimming, health, mental health, alcohol, absintence, Tonga, Tongan heritage, inspiration, Joe Camilleri, art, whales, Philip Island, ocean pools, Fitzroy Pool, Collingwood Pool, Doncaster Pool, sport. "No Bull".

Dr Heather Massey is a marathon swimmer. She's also a researcher at the University of Portsmouth’s Extreme Environments research group in the UK. She's just recruited people for a study comparing cold water swimming with medication in treating depression. Heather joined the Blue Room's Sabra Lane for a chat about her marathon swims, the science of cold water immersion, after drop and floating. Plus what do we know, and what don't we know when it comes to proven results from cold water swimming?

Features:

Dr Heather Massey/Researcher at the Extreme Environments Laboratory at the University of Portsmouth.

Sabra Lane, The Blue Room.

Themes: 

Cold water swimming, wild swimming, cold water imersion, marathon swimming, English Channel, Ice kilometre, after drop, depression, science, University of Portsmouth, acclimatisation to cold water, cold water exposure, driving after cold water swimming, numbness, pain, hot water

More information:

Dr Massey's research:

https://researchportal.port.ac.uk/en/persons/heather-massey/publications/

Float to Survive:

https://www.floattosurvive.au/

Australian author Tim Winton joins the Blue Room podcast host Sabra Lane for a long chat about his obsession with the ocean. Tim is admired the world-over for his salt water stories. Nearly all of his novels are love letters to the sea. As Tim says in his dedication in “Land's Edge" - For my family and for those who know that a bad day's fishing is always better than a good day's work.

Tim says swimming is family culture and ‘pretty precious' for his tribe. We talk about swimming, what it means, what it does for the mind and explore some of his work including his TV documentary 'Ningaloo' where he swims with whale sharks and opens the window on that part of the West Australian coast. The author also talks about the struggle of writing Juice, while making Ningaloo, as well as fighting for its protection and sharks.

Features:

Tim Winton/Author and conservationist

Sabra Lane - The Blue Room

Resources:

Penguin Australia's Tim Winton page:

https://www.penguin.com.au/authors/tim-winton

Three-part TV documentary series Ningaloo Nyinggulu:

https://iview.abc.net.au/show/ningaloo-nyinggulu

Cape Range National Park

https://exploreparks.dbca.wa.gov.au/park/cape-range-national-park

Themes:

Author Tim Winton, Oceans, swimming, spearfishing, surfing, coastal life, open water swimming, pool swimming, writing, novels, Miles Franklin Award, Booker Prize, marine protection, environmental protection, marine parks, Whale Sharks, Great White sharks, conservation, environmental protection, Western Australia, mining, petro-state, beaches, beachcombing, diving, ocean obsession.