From Mine Works to Neighbourhood Park
Colliery Dam Park takes its name directly from what it used to be: a set of earthen dams built to serve the coal mines that once ran under this part of Nanaimo. When the mines closed, the dams and the ponds they held back stayed put, and over the following decades the surrounding land became a forested neighbourhood park rather than an industrial site. Two connected ponds, upper and lower, sit within walking distance of each other, linked by a short trail through second-growth forest that's grown in over the old mine works.
It's a very different kind of green space than the coastal parks that get most of the visitor attention — no ocean view, no ferry terminal nearby, just a quiet residential pocket of south Nanaimo built around water that used to serve a very different purpose.
A Real Local Swimming Spot
For decades, the lower pond in particular has been one of Nanaimo's most-used unofficial swimming holes, popular for rope swings and cliff-jumping off the rock faces above the water. That popularity came with real safety concerns tied to the aging dam structures, and the city went through a period of closing and draining the ponds while it worked through dam-safety upgrades, which was a genuinely contentious local issue at the time given how attached residents were to swimming there. The ponds have since been refilled following that remediation work, but the episode is a useful reminder that this is infrastructure as much as it is scenery, and conditions can change based on maintenance work or seasonal water levels.
If swimming is your goal, check current signage at the park before jumping in, since rope swings and unsupervised cliff jumping carry real injury risk regardless of how established the tradition is.
Walking the Park Without Getting Wet
You don't need to swim to make the trip worthwhile. The loop trail connecting the two ponds runs through shaded forest that stays cool even on a hot Vancouver Island afternoon, and there are enough benches and viewpoints along the water to make it a pleasant half-hour walk on its own. It's a good option if you're staying somewhere in south Nanaimo and want a nearby green space without driving out toward Westwood Lake or the coastal parks on the north side of town.
Getting There and Parking
Colliery Dam Park sits within a residential pocket of south Nanaimo, reached easily by car in a few minutes from downtown, with a couple of small parking areas near the main entrances rather than one large lot. On a warm weekend, especially if swimming weather has drawn a crowd to the lower pond, those lots fill up faster than you'd expect for a park this size, so arriving earlier in the day or on a weekday gives a much easier visit. There's no transit stop directly at the park, so a car, bike, or a longer walk from a nearby bus route is the realistic way to get there for most visitors without their own vehicle.
The park connects into the surrounding street grid at several points rather than having one obvious main gate, which means locals often know a shortcut in from whichever street they happen to be parked on. If you're arriving as a visitor without that local knowledge, following signage from the more established entrances near the upper pond is the more reliable route in rather than guessing at a residential side street.
A Different Angle on Nanaimo's Coal History
Nanaimo's identity is bound up with its coal-mining history in a way that shows up across the city, from street names to the museum downtown, and Colliery Dam Park is one of the few places where that history is physically underfoot rather than behind museum glass. Standing at the dam itself, it's worth remembering that the water sitting calmly in front of you exists because of infrastructure built to serve an industry that shaped the entire city for the better part of a century.
For visitors interested in that thread, pairing a stop here with the exhibits at the Nanaimo Museum or a closer read on the city's broader mining story fills in context that a quick swim alone won't give you. It's also an easy add-on if you're already exploring the Old City Quarter, since both sit on the same side of downtown.