Club History

The Club foundation committee set up at a meeting of residents held at Brighton Memorial Town Hall in 1975.  This committee negotiates a loan of $34,000 from CBA and a further $25,000 overdraft guaranteed by members.

Club rooms were erected to the the tune of $58,000 over the next 12 months.  The club first became a licensed club in 1976.

With no green at this stage, members were recruited and played competition carpet bowls, eight ball and darts.  Saturday night cabarets and other fund raising activities were held to raise money to build the clubs 1st grass green which came into use for social bowls in August 1977.  The green was wholly constructed by volunteers under guidance from other established clubs.

Clubrooms were opened by Kath Venn MLC who stood in for Darryl Baldock MHA who originally agreed to officiate but was held up by an airstrike.  The Club was originally called “Brighton Bowls & Ex Services Club”.  It was originally thought that to include “ex-services” in the name would facilitate the granting of a liquor license.

The land on which the club exists was leased from the Dept of Environment and was used as a PWD storage depot.  Eventually the property was offered to the Club for a purchase price of $50,000 in the early 1990’s.  Most of the money was raised by personal loans from members.  At this stage the Clubs legal advisors suggested that the club become a Bowls Club in our own right and with the cooperation of the remaining 3 RSL members the Club became the “Brighton Bowls Club Inc”.

In 1996 the Club borrowed money to build a second grass green adjacent to the synthetic green which proved to be a popular venture.  However over the next several years the Club battled to pay off the load and eventually sold off the balance of land that was owned by the Club which allowed the debt to be cleared.

Over time we have grown from a club that had 1 ladies and 1 mens pennant teams to a Club that now boasts 3 Saturday mens pennant teams, 2 midweek mens pennant teams and 2 ladies pennant teams.

Over the years we have been fortunate to have access to numerous grants from Local, State and Federal sources and we have recently again changed the Club name to “Brighton Bowls & Community Club Inc”.  Our last grant of $50,000 helped the Club replace the existing synthetic green with a new surface.

As a Community Club we have began to attract new members and are able to cater for a variety of private and community projects.

 

 

A very big thank you to Kevin Booth for providing details about the Clubs history.