A history of the City of Melbourne Bowls Club

More than 150 years of history is recorded in the newly launched book On Flagstaff Hill – A History of the City of Melbourne Bowls Club by historian Alex McDermott. 

The date of the launch, August 3, was chosen to celebrate the birthday of Kevin Mansbridge, who first joined the Club in 1974. 

He was Club Champion on four occasions between 1982 and 2002 and was made a life member in 1985 in recognition of the work he had done, and continued to do, to support the Club. 

Unfortunately, Kevin died earlier this year however members of his family attended the launch.

The first bowls club met in 1866 at the Sabloniere Hotel on the corner of A’Beckett and Queen streets. It moved the following year to more spacious premises on government land in William St. 

Its original name, the West Melbourne Bowls Club, was changed to City Bowling Club in 1906 and to City of Melbourne Bowls Club in 1966.

The government ordered the club to vacate its William St site as it was required for another purpose. 

Their request for land in the Flagstaff Gardens was initially refused, but after some political shenanigans involving crucial support for premier Graham Berry’s government at a West Melbourne by-election in 1878, the club was rewarded with a lease provided at a peppercorn rent. It’s been occupying this site ever since. 

The clubhouse burnt down twice. On May 25, 1938 the wooden structure built 50 years previously was almost totally destroyed. This was quickly replaced by a brick structure but this was substantially destroyed on January 7, 1994. 

The new, and current, clubhouse, wasn’t completed until 2009. The cost, and the increasingly stringent regulation of clubs, meant that the club had to be managed on a more commercial basis, and the modern building did not provide the degree of comfort and informality that many of the older club members were accustomed to.

Mystery, political manoeuvres, business versus social interests, loyalty versus self-interest, and the rights of women – these all have a place in this interesting and sometimes fascinating tale that recounts the club’s story against the wider political, economic and social backdrop to its history. 

One mystery that is unlikely to be solved: why was treasurer, later president, J. H. Polglase, not only ejected from the club but all reference to him expunged from the honour boards, with the name of the vice-president replacing his? 

Polglase was lauded at the 1925 AGM but all trace of him had vanished from the records by the 1926 AGM. There is no reference to how he came to be so disgraced.

A vote to allow women to join the club in 1906 was unsuccessful. It took just over 60 years for women to be admitted to the club in 1967. 

The book, produced by the club in cooperation with the Hotham History Project, has a number of images, including line drawings by Bernard Caleo.

It is available from the City of Melbourne Bowls Club at the price of $35. •