The Fitzroy and East Melbourne Bowling Club

In Fitzroy in 1865 the idea of a local bowling club finally came to fruition. A committee was elected. The name was confirmed as the Fitzroy Bowling Club and rules were put in place.

The next task was to find a green. Within a month the Fitzroy council had granted the club permissive use of the reserve in Victoria Parade. The green soon “presented a very gay appearance, owing to the great number of members who are constantly seen practising there”.

A “little wooden house” for the use of club members was constructed across the median strip about halfway between Lansdowne and Eades streets. It had interesting consequences as it was built across the boundary between the Borough of Fitzroy and the City of Melbourne.

In June 1866 the Fitzroy council went about its annual ceremony of beating the bounds. “The council and officers, together with a number of citizens and 400 children” set off to physically demonstrate the limits of the borough. When they reached the little house the only thing for it was to send one of the councillors over the top. The following year a pavilion was erected to replace the house. No further mention was made of beating the bounds and possibly the practice was abandoned.

On New Year’s Eve that same year Tom Wills and his team of Aboriginal cricketers were invited to play several friendly games of bowls at the club. Tom Wills is perhaps more famous for his part in the creation of Australian Rules Football, but he started out as a cricketer.

The Aboriginal cricket team toured Australia in 1866-67 and England in 1868. Apparently, they adapted to the new game with ease and attracted a good crowd of spectators.

Although the club was called the Fitzroy Bowling Club there was no requirement that members live in that suburb, and plenty of East Melbourne residents joined up.

In 1900 it was Cr Weedon, yet to be Lord Mayor, who proposed a ladies’ club. Mrs Weedon was its first president. About the same time the name was changed to the Fitzroy and East Melbourne Bowling Club.

When cable trams were first introduced, they ran along the Fitzroy side of Victoria Parade, leaving the reserve free, but in 1927 when the trams were electrified this changed.

New tram tracks were laid down the centre of the grass reserve and the bowling club was forced to vacate its long-held premises. Its licence was transferred to the Kelvin Club, and its players joined the North Fitzroy Bowling Club which itself later merged and remerged with other clubs.

Now both the Fitzroy Victoria Bowling & Sports Club and the Kelvin Club trace their beginnings to the Fitzroy and East Melbourne Bowling Club. •