Who are these women in white standing proud? It is 1957 and the keys have finally opened the door to the Artarmon Bowling Clubhouse, 11 years after the club’s formation in 1946.
The Artarmon Bowling Clubhouse is nestled on the edge of Artarmon’s Reserve, and preserves the most extraordinary story of the life and times of married women in the 1950’s.
Too often history records the struggles, the injustice and discrimination faced by women through history; but this is a story of courage and camaraderie of women and men in the rebuilding of their community after the hardships of WWII.
The Beginning…
The Artarmon Progress Association (APA) president Walter S Reeves in 1946, along with 97 founding members, formed the Artarmon Bowling Club and Walter Reeves became its first president.
Grace Warner [Author of Artarmon Past Present and Future] writes of the founding members: “few if any were bowlers at the time.” This begins the unique story of women’s leading role in the building of the Artarmon Bowling Clubhouse.
Mateship…
Post-war Australia was enlivened by a desire to rebuild community and relationships between women and men. In Artarmon, bowling became the vehicle of building that community without gender or social prejudice. Hannah Lewi writes of the Melbourne Bowling Club (Australia’s first bowling club): “… a well known doctor could play alongside the local plumber, and people of differing religions, talk to one another as friends”.
While lawn bowls in Australia embraced mateship without discrimination, women were typically excluded from membership and the game. More progressive bowling clubs that allowed women to bowl, built separate and often inferior clubhouses for their women bowlers.
Equality…
The Artarmon Bowling Club was unique, because as early as 1956 women and men were playing as equals on the bowling greens, evidenced by a 1956 photo in the Willoughby City Library archives (Fig 4-6, p17 of Heritage Impact Statement).
Noteworthy is that, as late as 2014, mixed-gender competitions were still causing controversy. ABC reporter Rosemary Bolger wrote: “Male lawn bowls players quit in outrage over move from men-only to mixed-gender competition”.
Marriage Bar Laws…
Life for women in the 1950s was very different, and what has been overlooked is the effect of marital status on the rights of women to act independently. Once a woman was married she took her husband’s name, lost her identity and many privileges she had as a single woman.
The marriage bar laws of the time meant married women could not hold property, or a mortgage, or even a passport without their husband’s consent. They could not hold employment in the public service either. It is hard to imagine the difficult choice faced by women who wanted to marry and still remain employed; many married in secret but a pregnancy was difficult to hide.
Independence…
It was not until 1966 that the marriage bar law was lifted, interestingly as a result of an unrelated campaign for women’s right to drink in public bars. In March 1965 the ABC Four Corners program made world headlines when Merle Thornton and Rosalie Bogner chained themselves to the public bar in the Regatta Hotel in Brisbane, in protest against the prohibition of women in public bars.
Merle Thornton used the publicity from the story to continue her campaign to lift the marriage bar laws, under which she herself had suffered dismissal from the ABC mid-pregnancy after having concealed her marriage for 2 years.
Gender Neutrality…
The marriage bar laws also insidiously restricted married women socially; for example, they were not free to participate in many sports enjoyed by single females. Lawn bowls was one of the few socially acceptable sports married women could enjoy as men did not view the sport as strenuous to play.
In fact today, under the Equal Opportunity Act, lawn bowls is considered gender neutral, and an exception to hold single-sex competitions cannot be granted on the basis of a differential in strength, stamina or physique of the competitors, as with most other sports.
Women Driving…
Once the Artarmon Bowling Club was formed in 1946, there is little or no evidence to suggest it was a men’s bowling club. In fact, the drive for establishing the club came from the wives of the founding members complying with the marriage bar laws, and women took the lead in fundraising and looking for a location for their club.
Finding A Home…
Finding a site for the Artarmon Bowling Club seemed elusive, and disappointed members all but lost hope, until in 1952 a privately owned parcel of land with a small frontage to Burra Road was found. It was an old sandstone quarry, described as “mountain goat country”, and the women wrote: “… very rugged and supporting many trees considerable scrub and undergrowth”.
Due to lack of finances the men worked on weekends to clear the land and the women worked to provide refreshments for the workers. The importance of providing these refreshments cannot be underestimated. Without the women’s support the clubhouse could not have been built.
Tea Ladies…
The formation of a ladies auxiliary committee to support men’s bowling was common but, in keeping with the gender neutrality of the Artarmon Bowling Club, the committee formed in March 1954 was known as the Artarmon Bowling Auxiliary and was under the chairmanship of Mrs AE Williams. It is clear the women of Artarmon Bowling Club were respected as equals by the male members.
The Artarmon Bowling Club women were a formidable group of “tea ladies” without a place to call home; they travelled to and were welcomed by nearby women’s bowling clubs while their bowling greens were being prepared. It was said “the Artarmon players reckoned they were the most travelled bowlers around Sydney”.
Networking…
Indeed, the result of these travels was that the women developed friendships with very influential women in the game of bowls, particularly Mrs N Wolinski who played at Wollstonecraft Bowling Club. Mrs Wolinski was the co-founder of the NSW Women’s Bowling Association (NSWWBA). She was instrumental in building the game of women’s bowling. Under her leadership by 1957 NSWWBA had 261 affiliated women’s clubs supporting close to 12,000 members. Mrs Wolinski was awarded a Queen Elizabeth II coronation medal in 1953 and in 1960 she was appointed MBE.
Tin Shed…
Finally, a tin shed was built on site to serve as the Artarmon Bowling Clubhouse and on 1st October 1955 the lower green was officially opened. Research by Dr Scott Robertson has revealed that the bowling greens were designed by Willoughby Council’s then architect, Eric M Nicholls, who was Walter Burley Griffin’s architectural partner.
Picture Perfect…
Shortly after, on 11th November 1955, the Artarmon Women’s Bowling Club was proudly formed by Mrs N Wolinski, who appointed Mrs AE Williams as the Foundation President.
The Artarmon Bowling Club women could hardly contain their excitement as membership rapidly grew and their honorary architect, Ted Fitzgerald, presented the women with a coloured drawing of their proposed new clubhouse. This inspired the Artarmon Bowling Club women to increase their fundraising efforts, some even mortgaging their home (under their husband’s name), to build the Artarmon Bowling Clubhouse.
Grand Opening…
By January 1957 the Artarmon Bowling Clubhouse was completed and the club president Mr Fred Parker opened the clubhouse. It was a very proud moment for the women of the Artarmon Bowling Club, and the clubhouse is a testimony to their achievement.
Local artist Alexandra Asovtseff captures the essence of the Artarmon Community in her painting of the Artarmon Bowling Clubhouse (1958). As an immigrant from Russia, Alexandra understood what it meant to be an outsider, and the importance of a welcoming community.
The Future…
The future of the Artarmon Bowling Clubhouse and its history hangs precariously with Willoughby City Council (WCC), which argues the absence of a heritage listing for the Artarmon Bowling Clubhouse is evidence of its absence of heritage significance. The Artarmon Bowling Clubhouse was built despite the marriage bar laws and the social etiquette of the 1950s that did not allow women to bowl and socialise as equals with their men under the same roof.
The Artarmon community is fighting a new form of inequity, the inequity of age. It is easy to look to shiny new object and fail see the precious gift of the old, the history, the stories, the friendships that have made us who we are.
Heritage Significance…
The Heritage Impact Statement commissioned by WCC highlights the Artarmon Bowling Club’s historical and heritage significance as a building that “maintains a high level of intact heritage fabric, with minor alterations”. The Heritage Impact statement then proceeds to provide support for the clubhouse demolition as the building is not heritage listed and the demolition will not impact the conservation area on which it sits.
Time Capsule…
Walking into the Artarmon Bowling Clubhouse you will be instantly transported to the 1950s and introduced to the life and times of married women in Australia at that time.
On the right side as you walk in you will see a typical bar that would have prohibited serving drinks to women until 1966. You will also see an auxiliary lounge built alongside the bar with a server into the bar. Here women and men could drink and socialise together without breaking the liquor laws of the 1950s.
You will also see a railing built to house the poker machines that enabled the club to benefit from gaming subsidies, but didn’t interfere with the right of women to move freely through the clubhouse.
Other than the auxiliary lounge, which has a spectacular view of the former lower green and into the bushland reserve, the right side of the clubhouse was the “men’s” side.
The left side was the women’s domain, built with a full catering kitchen as afternoon tea and other fund raising activities were an essential part of the bowling club activities.
The ladies’ bathrooms have original 1950s fitting and fixtures, with a large powder room as was customary for society women of that era
The Journey…
The story of the Artarmon Bowling Club is extraordinary, hidden and preserved on the edge of the Artarmon Reserve. Who would have thought it would have a history that documents the courage of married women’s journey as equals from the kitchen to the bowling greens?
The Honour Board…
The Artarmon Bowling Club was home to many amazing women and men. The honour board records Mary (Molly) Dive OAM among its membership. She was a resident of Artarmon for 20 years, an active member of the Artarmon Bowling Club, and was arguably Australia’s most famous female sporting legend. She was the first Australian female cricket captain to win the Ashes from England in 1948-49 and received the OAM for her contribution to both cricket and hockey. In 1987 North Sydney Council named a grandstand in honour of Molly Dive even though she had never played on the oval.
Sold to Willoughby City Council…
The Artarmon Bowling Club site was sold for $1M to WCC in January 2016. The proceeds were held in trust and followed the members to their new chosen club, thereby injecting much needed funds into the game of bowling.
The members’ sincere wish was that their beloved clubhouse be used for recreation and leisure activities by the citizens of WCC. In a 2016 media release by WCC, the Board of Directors of the Artarmon Bowling Club commented: “Whilst is it regrettable that we could not attract more bowling membership support, we are proud to have provided a venue that has given a great deal of enjoyment to both members and visitors alike. Our members unanimously supported the decision to offer the Club site to the Council and thereby honour the legacy of the founders of the Club by ensuring the site will be retained for community recreational use in perpetuity.”
Today…
The redevelopment of the bowling greens as community gardens and playgrounds was welcomed by the community and the finished works look sensational. The Artarmon Bowling Clubhouse stands proud on its site and with a sense of belonging to its modern surroundings.
However, despite a vigorous 3-year campaign by the community to retain and refurbish the Clubhouse, including a petition of over 700 local residents, WCC has raised a development application (DA) to unceremoniously demolish the clubhouse and turf its footprint.
Time for Action…
We have until the 4th October to make an objection against the DA. It’s your chance to leave your mark on the world, and save our history as a legacy for future generations. The submission process only takes about 5 minutes. Click on the direct link below. A disclaimer page will come up, tick the read-it box, then “Agree”
https://eplanning.willoughby.nsw.gov.au/Pages/XC.Track/Submission.aspx?id=493857
You can find the link to information at
https://eplanning.willoughby.nsw.gov.au/Pages/XC.Track/SearchApplication.aspx?id=493857
If you prefer to email; email@willoughby.nsw.gov.au , “Objection to DA 2019/254 – demolition” in the subject line and state your concerns.
Equality is respecting our differences, honoring our past and moving forward with love and friendship
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