By Alistair Gray
The Bongaree Bowls Club ‘Ballet’.
Congratulations to all the members of the Bongaree Bowls Club as they celebrate their 75th anniversary. The early history of the Bongaree Bowls Club Inc. reflects much on the early life and conditions of those who lived on Bribie Island, long before we had the convenience of a bridge to connect us to Australia. Thanks to an earlier publication by the bowls club and some of the founding members, in particular Fred Kling and Marion Winston, the first president of the ladies club, compiled by Arthur Hangan to celebrate the first 50 years of the club, the following is a summary and edited extract from that publication.
The Bongaree Bowls Club was formed in 1949 following local bowlers’ dissatisfaction with the Bribie Island Bowling Club. Then the only bowling club on Bribie and predominately controlled by a Brisbane-based committee and reported in the paper that “60% of members wanted a bowls club, not a pub”.
“All monthly meetings of the Bribie club were held in Brisbane. If local members wanted to attend these meetings, they had two options-
Catch the boat S.S. Koopa on a Sunday to Brisbane, attend a meeting on Monday returning on the ‘Koopa’ Tuesday, or
Have their car ferried across the passage on a pontoon, tackle the 20km sand track to Caboolture and bounce on down to Brisbane,” founding father Fred Kling said.
After attempts to have meetings each month held alternatively between Brisbane and the Island and a ballot loss, Fred Kling decided it was time for a new club to be formed and controlled by locals.
A meeting of 40 bowlers agreed to create a new bowls club with inaugural president Arthur Winston, secretary Walter James and greens supervisor and club development Fred Kling. The membership fees were set at two guineas, with membership restricted to only those prepared to play bowls to ensure the club remained a bowls club. Eventually, they selected a site on Toorbul Street that stretched to the beach, with a creek running through it and some swampland. Work then began clearing the land of logs and tree stumps using the horses from Winston’s dairy to haul the logs out of the swamp. Then, members hand shovelled and carted sand from a large sand hill near the RSL to the site to build the bowling green. They then greened it with a blue couch carefully teased out and watered. They also built a clubhouse during this time. Finance for the project included the issue of 10-pound debentures plus a bank overdraft guaranteed by the business members of the club. They completed building the green in 1952, with bowls played from about the end of September.
The Bongaree Bowling Club officially opened on Saturday July 25, 1953, with Mr W Raymond, vice president of the Queensland Bowling Association and 10 visiting bowling clubs represented. The president of the ladies’ bowling club, Mrs M Winston, rolled the first kitty and then Mr Raymond rolled the first bowl, which officially opened the green and all rinks began to play.
The club went on to have a very successful future, including hosting the first-ever International Test Series between Queensland and Fiji in 1987 in Australia. In 2015, to encourage new bowlers to join the club, an arrangement was entered with U3A (University of the Third Age), where four times a year, a six-week program is offered to those wanting to learn to play bowls. The program has been very successful, with the club gaining many new members. Membership now has grown to 300.
“The club enjoys a very active and vibrant membership with many lifelong friendships formed through the game of bowls,” chairman of Bongaree Bowls Club Inc. Ian Paterson said.
Today, the club known as the ‘friendly club’ has two first-class greens, one fully shaded by a retractable screen. The club is affiliated with the Moreton Bay District Bowls Association and Bowls Queensland, the state bowls association.
Visiting bowlers and new members are welcome at the club, with bowls played between Tuesday and Saturday and brekky mornings held on the first Sunday of each month.
For more information or for visiting bowlers looking to play, please phone 07 3408 0005 between 10am and 1pm each bowls day.
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