Club History

Originally, it was talked about forming a bowling and recreation club at Hat Head and the people who discussed this were mainly Harry Johns president, Arthur Jebb secretary and Ray Howard treasurer, Ray being the bank manager from Gladstone. At this stage, the idea lapsed for want of support.

Some time later, a new committee was formed. This committee firstly applied to the Lands Department for a lease and obtained same.

Before any work was carried out on this land, it was necessary to clear the area which consisted of many trees, lantana, old wire fences and an old tennis court. This work was carried out by Don Julian of Kinchela, with his heavy equipment, at no cost to the club. We commenced to put up a building as a clubhouse.

The materials used for the frame, etc. were obtained from Kemp's Mill by way of two ready cut homes that lay in the railway yards at Kempsey. They had been there for some considerable time, and in view of this, they were purchased at a very nominal fee - may have been forty pounds.

This timber served as the main structure of our building. The weatherboards and flooring were purchased from Jamieson's Sawmill at Fredderickton, along with all the necessary timbers to construct the green. The condition under which Jamieson's sold us the timber was that we pay at a later date when the club became financial.

We also purchased a number of palings at a greatly reduced rate which were used to erect the boundary fences, this work being carried out by the late Bill Ainsworth, who did it a very nominal charge.