Our Club – Cherry Street Sports

1907-1908
History has it that the first bowling club formed on the Richmond River was in Lismore in 1907.

This club was the Caledonian Bowling Club, then known as the Lismore City Bowling Club. Because of its popularity, it inspired a well-known resident of Ballina of that era, Hugh Gibson, to construct a small private bowling rink on the lawns of his own property on the banks of the canal at the western end of Bentinck Street in 1908. This rink consisted of grasses of no particular variety–just a mixture of local grasses–and mowed with rather primitive mowers of the cylinder type.

Former Ballina Mayor Bert Barlow reflected that as a very small lad he often visited the Gibson family with his father and his friends. The bowls used were made of wood, similar in shape and size to those used to this present day. The green had no ditches, just a raised section with a timber frame around the rink to a height of about 10cm.

1909

n 1909 the idea of a bowling club in Ballina grew from the Ballina Caledonian Society. Treasurer Tom Martin and fellow member Mr Street began talking about creating a bowling green and forming a club, and the suggestion quickly gained support within the society. Even though the local paper questioned whether a bowling green was too ambitious, the conversation had already started and the community interest was clear.

Through May and June a series of public meetings were held in Ballina to explore the proposal. A steering committee was formed, with Tom Martin appointed as secretary, and it was agreed that once membership reached 55 the club would officially commence. This early committee then wrote to Ballina Municipal Council on 21 June 1909 requesting land in the north east corner of Clement Park No. 2 for a bowling green.

On 5 July 1909 the council approved the request, granting an area of land, accepting 50 pounds to level the ground and setting a modest annual rent. Shortly after, on 16 September 1909, Ballina Bowling Club was officially established on this site. More than a century later, the greens at Cherry Street still sit on this original ground and continue the tradition started by that small group of committed locals.