It all goes back to November 1864, when the Fitzroy Bowling Club (later Fitzroy-East Melbourne), was granted a lease to establish a bowling green on Victoria Parade. It was situated on what is now the tram plantation between Napier and Gore Streets.
The first game was played in November, 1865, just months after the Melbourne Bowling Club (the oldest) opened its green.
In 1866, Fitzroy BC participated in the first inter-club bowls game recorded in Australia (versus Melbourne) and the first game involving First Nations people when legendary football identity Tom Wills brought a team to play Fitzroy prior to their departure for England to play matches as our first national cricket team.
In 1867, Fitzroy gathered five other clubs (Melbourne, West Melbourne, St Kilda, Prahran and Ballarat) to agree on laws to govern inter-club competition.
In 1876, Melbourne Council approved a petition to establish “a recreational site suitable for the more mature of the respectable middle class men of the city”. It was located in University Square off Grattan Street. The Victoria Bowling Club green was opened later that year.
In 1876, the Collingwood Commercial Cricket Club, which had been granted management of parklands now identified as the Edinburgh Gardens sporting precinct, gave permission for a bowling green to be established. In 1877, North Fitzroy Bowling Club opened its two-rink green.
In 1880, Fitzroy, North Fitzroy and Victoria became founding members of the Victorian Bowling Association.
Fast forward to 1927, when the state government announced that in order to electrify the tram system it would resume the Victoria Parade land which Fitzroy-East Melbourne bowls club occupied. The club had a valuable asset, namely a portable liquor licence which, in those days, was a rarity. There was a heated internal debate but eventually the retiring board voted to take the licence and a number of members to the newly established Kelvin Club.
Although records are patchy, we believe other came to North Fitzroy, as when teams took to the green for the 1928/29 season, the ‘North’ had been dropped from the club’s name.
In 1901, the Fitzroy Ladies Bowling Club was established. It was followed in 1947 by the Edinburgh Park Ladies Bowling Club on a separate site in the Gardens. It enjoyed considerable pennant success until it ceased competition involvement in the early 90s. Victoria established a Ladies Bowling Club in 1988, but it ceased as a separate entity in 1996.
In 1955, Fitzroy’s bar was moved to the Edinburgh Cricket Club and the bowls club went ‘dry’. This had an ongoing impact on revenue, but the club rejected a proposal to form a joint social club with our football, cricket and tennis neighbours. Finally in 1966, after years of discussion and negotiation, an Act of Parliament granted the club a lease and a licence.
When North Fitzroy/Fitzroy celebrated its 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.
Then in 1998, the state government informed Victoria that its land would be resumed to enable the University of Melbourne to expand. They were provided with $1 million in compensation.
The plan was to merge with the City of Melbourne Bowling Club in Flagstaff Gardens. Both parties were agreeable, but the plan was eventually vetoed by the Melbourne City Council – for reasons still unclear.
In April 1999, Victoria members played their last game on the club’s green.
So, at a time when Fitzroy was struggling financially, it suddenly had much better prospects!Long negotiations between the clubs and the City of Yarra took place.
A joint meeting of Fitzroy and Victoria members in 2001 approved a merger and the newly created Fitzroy Victoria Bowling and Sports Club Inc was granted a 21-year lease by the city of Yarra.
Among other things, the financial injection from Victoria allowed the clubrooms (built in the 1970s) to be extensively renovated.
The Edinburgh Park Ladies Bowling Club amalgamated with the newly formed club in 2004.
The ‘club’ has won numerous pennant competitions, received numerous awards, been applauded by Bowls Victoria and Bowls Australia for its youth development initiatives, inclusivity and support of diversity and access. It has hosted national disability tournaments and state championships. It was a founding team member of the national Bowls Premier League and was one of the first clubs to fully embrace the revolution in barefoot and social bowls which followed the 2002 release of the iconic ‘Crackerjack’ movie. It's beautiful facility is shared between members, corporate clients, barefoot bowlers, schools and charitable/community organisations.
