The History of our Lawn Bowls Club

The beginning of Fitzroy Victoria Bowls Club

In 2001, two of Australia’s oldest lawn bowling clubs - Victoria (1876) and North Fitzroy/Fitzroy (1877) - amalgamated to form Fitzroy Victoria Bowling & Sports Club. The ‘new’ club has links to the original Fitzroy Bowling Club (1865), which occupied a green on the current tram plantation on Victoria Parade.

Fitzroy Bowls Club, which was later called Fitzroy East Melbourne Bowls Club, participated in the first inter-club bowls game recorded in Australia (versus Melbourne in March 1866), and the first game involving Indigenous players (November, 1866), when the legendary football identity Tom Wills brought a team of Australian Aboriginal cricketers to play Fitzroy.

When the state government resumed the land on Victoria Parade for the current tram tracks, Fitzroy East Melbourne Bowling Club was forced to close.

In 1927, its licence went to the Kelvin Club and many of its bowlers to Victoria and North Fitzroy Bowls Club.

In 1929, the ‘North’ was dropped from the name, and the club was known as Fitzroy Bowls Club from then on.

In 1999, Victoria Bowls Club, whose green was on University Square in Carlton, was also forced from its location when the University of Melbourne expanded.

A planned relocation to the Flagstaff Gardens to join the City of Melbourne Bowls Club did not proceed and instead discussions began around a possible merger with Fitzroy Bowls Club.

The merger, to form Fitzroy Victoria Bowling and Sports Club Inc, was officially ratified in 2001, and a 21-year lease granted by the City of Yarra.

The club has had a long history of engagement with its cricket, football, baseball and tennis neighbours.

When Fitzroy Victoria Bowling & Sports Club Inc celebrated the North Fitzroy/Fitzroy Centenary in 1977, the green was opened by the then Governor of South Australia Sir Douglas Nichols OBE - a prominent Fitzroy footballer and former Fitzroy Bowls Cub greenkeeper during the 1940s.

A progressive bowls club, community involvement and acknowledgement

A traditional member-oriented club for much of its history, the club’s progressive attitude has seen it become one of Australia’s most pro-active, community-focused clubs with a wonderfully diverse and inclusive clientele.

The facility is now shared between members, corporate clients, barefoot bowlers, schools and charitable community organisations.

Recently applauded for this involvement by Clubs Australia, Clubs Victoria, Bowls Victoria and Bowls Australia, it has won a number of Awards including ‘Bowls Club of the Year’, ‘Best Youth Development Program’, ‘Volunteer/Club Official of the Year’ and ‘Best National Sporting Club Facility’.

The club has hosted the National Multi-Disability Bowls Championship is the current host for the recently developed Junior Bowls League program and proud supporter of its Melbourne Roys team Bowls Australia’s exciting Bowls Premier League competition.