Club Management Autumn 2023

THE COMFORT ZONE

Getting cosy in the latest style of club lounge

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AN AWARD WINNING SUPER FUND

At Hostplus, our measure of success is what we deliver for our members. But if you’re into awards, we’ve got those too.

We’re proud to have been named 2023 Fund of the Year by third-party ratings agency SuperRatings. Judged across three areas: strong performance, competitive fees, and an ongoing focus on members, we’re thrilled to receive this recognition.

We’ve also been recognised for 20 Years of Platinum Performance, and received awards for MyChoice Super of the Year and Net Benefit.

The rating is issued by SuperRatings Pty Ltd ABN 95 100 192 283 AFSL 311880 (SuperRatings). Ratings are general advice only and have been prepared without taking account of your objectives, financial situation or needs. Consider your personal circumstances, read the product disclosure statement and seek independent financial advice before investing. The rating and awards are not recommendation to purchase, sell or hold any product and are only one factor to be taken into account when choosing a super fund. Past performance information is not indicative of future performance. Ratings are subject to change without notice and SuperRatings assumes no obligation to update. SuperRatings uses objective criteria and receives a fee for publishing awards. Visit https://www.lonsec.com.au/super-fund/ratings-and-awards/ for ratings information and to access the full report. © 2022 SuperRatings. All rights reserved. General advice only. Consider the relevant Hostplus PDS and TMD at hostplus.com.au and your objectives, financial situation and needs, which have not been accounted for. Awards and ratings are only one factor to consider. Host-Plus

244392 trustee for Hostplus Superannuation Fund, ABN 68 657 495 890. HP2386

With Foxtel, you’ll get more customers coming in to experience legendary sporting moments, staying for longer and coming back with friends.

With a Foxtel Venues subscription, you get to show over 50 live sports, all year round, including:

• AFL

• NRL

• Cricket

• NBA

• F1

• Supercars

• Golf

• Netball

• NHL

• NFL

Foxtel and legendary sporting moments. A win/win for you.

www.foxtel.com.au/venues

Signing in

I’ll admit I’m a bit of a cheerleader for the clubs industry so, as football season approaches, I wanted to see what was in store for season 2023. Are you on a winning team?

AS STARTS TO the year go, 2023 was a cracker!

Living with covid, a flurry of footraffic through the door, new members signing in, high demand for staff – qualified or not – and an increase in volume of renovations plans and fast-tracking building projects. Throw into the mix a raft of proposed changes to gaming in NSW – with the rest of the country looking on – and the swift removal of a peak body chief and you get some idea of where the clubs industry is going.

As this issue shows, lateral thinking is the way ahead for many. Goodna Services in Brisbane could have turned up its toes after being flooded yet again, but instead brought forward a masterplan rebuild and rebranded as Club Parkview. The historic Sorrento Couta Sailing Club didn’t sit around and wait for funding. Instead, this historic Mornington Peninsula hub raised the cash themselves and now have a spectacular clubhouse to show for it. Meanwhile, on the northern end of the Gold Coast, Southport Sharks handed the keys to outsourced operator SITE Hospitality so it could create Mozza Mozza, a hot new bar and restaurant within a club that now has other club operators envious.

Talking of F&B, we look at wine trends, from a range of styles in one varietal, to the new possibilities available in wine on tap and what dishes will be riding the crest of a wave on winter menus this year. Surf clubs, too, are entering into the F&B space with a variety of offerings for everyone from Nippers to rusted-on members, with Sydney’s Northern Beaches offering a microcosm of what is happening elsewhere. Over in Sydney’s west, Revesby Workers is appealing to kids at heart, with the opening of the retro Miss Iggy’s. And with footy season upon us, we also look at a pack of club high-performance centres that are opening around the country, plus a couple of leagues club refurbs. It’s what you do now, of your own volition as a club, that will help you drive the success of your venue, not what you are told to do. All up, I’d say the club industry is kicking goals at the moment. Signing out.

Grant Jones Editor, Club Management gjones@intermedia.com.au www.clubmanagement.com.au

Published by: Food and Beverage Media Pty Ltd 41 Bridge Road GLEBE NSW Australia 2037 Tel: 02 9660 2113

Publisher: Paul Wootton

Managing Editor: Vanessa Cavasinni vcavasinni@intermedia.com.au

Editor:

Grant Jones Mob: 0407 334 000 gjones@intermedia.com.au

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Cover image: Bargo Sports Club. Photography: Doublestar

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It’s what you do now, of your own volition as a club, that will help you drive the success of your venue, not what you are told to do.

Club Management, a new business magazine, website and newsletter aimed at the huge clubs sector in Australia, is from the trusted stable of Food and Beverage Media.

For the best coverage of the food and drink sectors in Australia, subscribe to our titles at www.intermedia.com.au

26

Autumn 2023

48 40

Regulars

12 / News briefs

Club news from across the country.

18 / The Foyer

The best new products on the market.

75 / Q&A

Club MC, entertainer and actor Salvatore Coco has portrayed an array of challenging characters but has always been at home in clubs.

Features

22 / Club Parkview

From the flood-damaged Goodna Services Club in Brisbane’s western corridor a new experience emerges.

26 / Sorrento Sailing Couta Boat Club

Historic wooden fishing boats find a refined multi-million-dollar home on the Mornington Peninsula.

28 / Dale Hunt, Mounties Group

This top club CEO believes gaming reform is the impetus needed to diversify club offerings that meet community needs.

34 / Winter menu design

Seasonal menus should have an increasing focus on procurement and quality produce rather than aiming for cheap prices.

48 / Let’s go retro

An eclectic retro arcade and diner brings an inner city vibe to the heart of Revesby Workers.

50 / F&B lifesavers

Surf clubs looking to attract visitors and earn income are now offering a variety of dining options.

56 / Lounge lovers

Comfortable furnishings are key to getting patrons to stay longer in your lounge area.

62 / Race to the top

There is a growing push to create high-performance sports centres across the country.

66 / The merger debate

The dilemma facing small clubs across the country as they hit yet more financial hurdles.

Renovations

70 / St Marys League

Restaurants and bars, plus a new foyer and event centre pave the way for Western Sydney’s new international gateway.

72 / Arana Leagues

How do you bite off a major renovation? In very small chunks. That’s what this club learned from previous experience.

Drinks

40 / Wine on tap

Variety, quality, convenience and no wastage. What’s not to love. We tap into proven methods, plus a new option in wine on tap.

44 / Seeing the light

Club wine lists are changing to appeal to a more diverse demographic.

46 / Drinks on me

Southport Sharks’ novel liquor license and restaurant lease agreement opens new doors.

G A M I N G T E C H N O L O G Y H O S P I T A L I T Y

T h e b e s t n e w a n d i n n o v a t i v e g a m i n g m a c h i n e s , c o m m e r c i a l k i t c h e n e q u i p m e n t , p o i n t - o f - s a l e s y s t e m s , p a g i n g a n d c o m m u n i c a t i o n d e v i c e s , w a s t e m a n a g e m e n t s o l u t i o n s , v e n u e d e s i g n a n d c o n s t r u c t i o n p r o v i d e r s , f u r n i t u r e a n d f l o o r i n g , f o o d a n d b e v e r a g e , e n t e r t a i n m e n t , u n i f o r m s a n d m o r e , a r e

f o u n d a t t h e A u s t r a l a s i a n G a m i n g E x p o ( A G E ) .

A G E i s t h e c o r n e r s t o n e o f t h e A u s t r a l i a n g a m i n g a n d h o s p i t a l i t y i n d u s t r y . I t ' s w h e r e g a m i n g , t e c h n o l o g y , a n d h o s p i t a l i t y m e e t .

1 5 - 1 7 A U G U S T 2 0 2 3

I C C S Y D N E Y

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In the

What’s happening in clubs across Australia

ClubsNSW’s interim CEO

Sallianne Faulkner has made little public comment since being appointed interim CEO of ClubsNSW following the departure of Josh Landis who was stood down by the board following inflammatory comments he made about NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet.

With the 25 March State election looming, it is believed both ClubsNSW and the Perrottet Government want to divert the focus away from the gaming reform debate. Of her appointment on 9 February, Faulkner said the club industry faces challenges on multiple levels.

“I look forward to working with whomever forms government in March and working on sensible reform – reform that is informed by evidence and ensures long-term industry viability for our communities, our staff and our club members,” she said.

Faulkner was appointed to the Board of ClubsNSW in 2018 and was subsequently elected as Deputy Chair in June 2019. She is also the President of Ramsgate RSL – a role she has held since 2014 after joining the Ramsgate board in 2012 – and held the position of the Secretary/Treasurer of the ClubsNSW Southern Metropolitan Region from 2016 until 2022.

ClubsNSW is undertaking an independent executive recruitment process to identify a permanent appointee to the CEO role.

ClubsNSW Chairman Dr George Peponis OAM said the Board was delighted Sallianne had accepted the role.

Clubs WA’s Kickstarter Workshops

Clubs WA recently held a series of successful Kickstarter Workshops in regional locations, including Corrigin, Esperance and Albany. The workshops provided a platform for local club members to network and discuss important issues affecting their clubs.

“Regional clubs in Western Australia face unique challenges due to their isolation and distance from major population centres. These workshops are an opportunity to bring club members together to share their experiences and collaborate on solutions to these challenges,” Clubs WA CEO, Karen Giles said.

The discussions were productive and provided valuable insights for addressing the specific needs of regional clubs in Western Australia. The Kickstarter Workshops were made possible with funding from the Department of Local Government, Sport and Cultural Industries and support from The Road Safety Commission.

Clubs WA said the workshops were well attended and the discussions were productive, providing valuable insights and ideas for addressing the specific needs of regional clubs in Western Australia.

Regional clubs interested in participating can contact Clubs WA at info@clubswa.com.au.

“She possesses the right combination of integrity, compassion and intelligence that is well suited to leading a large and complex organisation like ClubsNSW,” Dr Peponis said at the announcement. “We are fortunate to have a person of Sallianne’s calibre within our ranks to lead the organisation through an important transition period.”

Editor’s Comment By Grant Jones

New interim ClubsNSW CEO Sallianne Faulkner, a long-time ClubsNSW board member and President of Ramsgate RSL, has kept a low public profile since being appointed interim boss of the peak body.

That is in stark contrast to the public profile and controversial commentary of her predecessor, Josh Landis, who was sacked by ClubsNSW after he made comments connecting the NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet’s Catholic beliefs to his stance on gaming reform.

While the search for a permanent head continues, Faulkner’s appointment has taken considerable heat out of the gaming reform debate which has cooled considerably since the removal of Landis by the Board. While there is little volatility at present, don’t think the debate is dead. Discussions continue but likely behind closed doors. And don’t even consider that this discussion and its outcomes will affect NSW only – or just clubs.

All club industry eyes across Australia will be on any gaming reforms instituted by the returning Perrottet Government or a new Labor State government under Chris Minns as they will affect clubs and the community organisations that rely on them. Other states and territories have already said they will look to adopt any reasonable reforms put in place.

As Mounties Group CEO Dale Hunt mentions in his column (on page 28) the club industry faces a big watershed moment, one of the biggest in history. So don’t be a bystander.

Attendees at the Albany Kickstarter Workshop.

Mounties acquire ESP Healthcare

Mounties Group has expanded its health portfolio with the acquisition of ESP Healthcare. Based in Balmain, ESP Healthcare offers home care and support services in the Sydney and Illawarra areas.

ESP Healthcare was established 16 years ago, has provided more than 1.4 million hours in care to thousands of clients and officially joined Mounties Care in late February.

“Mounties Group is committed to improving all aspects of the lives of our members, and our plans to take ESP Healthcare onboard will boost our unrivalled health sector presence and support our already established medical services,” said Mounties Group CEO Dale Hunt.

The Mounties Care brand, established in 2020, now offers a formidable portfolio in home care, medical centres and general practice clinics. In 2021, Mounties Care acquired its first in-home care business, Carers & Companions.

“Mounties exists to improve the lives of our members and our expansion in the healthcare sector allows us to make a positive difference to locals in our communities through offering a range of health services including in-home aged care, home nursing, integrative health clinics, specialist medicine, GPs, respite care and allied health,” explained Hunt.

“We are excited at the opportunity of supporting more people in their homes with ESP Healthcare’s range of services across home care, disability support, care management and planning.

“The team at ESP Healthcare is made up of passionate and caring people who are truly dedicated to supporting clients to meet their goals and remain independent in their own homes. This ethos meets our values as a growing health business, wanting to improve the wellbeing and health of local people as they age,” he added.

ESP Healthcare offers cultural diversity with many of carers able to support clients from Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CALD) backgrounds. The ESP service joins Mounties’ existing ventures including specialised medical services, integrated health clinics, allied health, state-of-the-art fitness centres plus health and wellbeing services across Mounties Group’s nine clubs and 216,000 members. Its profit for purpose healthcare model now operates across NSW, ACT and Queensland.

Panthers’ new western Sydney mega centre

Work progresses on Panthers Group new $110 million Western Sydney Conference Centre precinct with the entertainment and club group announcing it will also accommodate two charities at the Warami Community Centre.

With more than 125,000 members across five licensed venues Panthers Group is one of Australia’s biggest club groups with the WSCC, at the foot of the Blue Mountains, its biggest project yet.

Set to open in the third quarter of 2023, WSCC will serve as a local hub for a broad range of community programs including WestCare, a notfor-profit charity that will permanently occupy part of the Warami site.

“The space presents a significant opportunity to enhance our local benevolent activities across a wide range of community sectors and we are honoured to be a part of it,” WestCare Director Andrew Paech said.

With 1250sqm of state-of-the-art flexible floor space, near the new Western Sydney International Airport development, the WSCC will offer world-class conferencing, pre-function spaces, bars and amenities to accommodate corporate events, trade shows, seminars, conferences, workshops, gala dinners and exhibitions. The WSCC will be adjacent to a new five-star international Pullman Sydney Penrith hotel by Accor.

Calling all sleepers

It’s not too late to sign up for RSL & Services Clubs Association’s first fundraising month, Snores for a Cause. Snores for a Cause is about developing healthy sleep habits over the month of March and raising funds for veterans and their families.

Starting 1 March, Snores for a Cause teaches participants about healthy sleep habits, to get a better nights’ sleep for them and their family. The initiative is being run by the Veterans’ Benevolent Fund. (VBF), the charitable arm of the RSL & Services Clubs Association.

CEO of Veterans mental health charity Swiss 8 and Snores for Cause Ambassador, Adrian Sutter, said getting a solid nights’ sleep is the highest priority for many veterans striving to improve their routine and structure after service.

“Sleep is the foundation on which all other healthy habits are built. Without good sleep we cannot regulate our mood and this quickly leads to failure in fitness, diet and other wellbeing habits. When any of us want to build a healthy routine, sleep must come first,” he said. “Snores for a Cause challenges us all to have a crack at improving our sleep habits, while raising money for a worthwhile cause.”

During March, club staff can fundraise as individuals or fundraise as a club group and all they have to do is sleep – no training required!

www.snoresforacause.com.au

What’s in a name?

The revitalisation of redundant club spaces into venues for the modern world comes at a price. That’s what the operators of the revitalised Five Dock Bowling Club found out when the venue reopened in mid-February with many thinking it was still a club venue, complaining about the costs of dishes in the now pokie-free restaurant and bar in Sydney’s inner west.

Today Show host Karl Stefanovic even gave the venue national publicity in a rant after a newspaper report revealed FDBC’s in-house Italian restaurant, Skinny Tony’s, offers a chicken schnitzel with two sides that would set diners back $45. While the chicken schnitzel itself is $28.90, fries are an extra $6.90, and salads or mashed potato cost $8.90 each.

The revived FDBC, leased to the Moio family by the City of Canada Bay, is now set to undergo a rebrand after confusion about the status of the newly reopened venue which is no longer a registered club and no longer has poker machines.

Operator Pierre Moio admitted there had been some confusion surrounding the revival of the venue with some patrons expecting club prices, so a name change would likely remove the word “Club” from the inner-Sydney venue.

Moio said keeping the club name was meant to be a reference to the venue’s location “not to denote the offering”, but he was now in discussions with council about a name change.

Even so, the price point hasn’t done anything to dampen enthusiasm, with the restaurant booked out on weekends.

Balmain Leagues Club had been operating the venue as Tigers Five Dock but closed the venue several years ago.

Rebranding club venues has become big business with many removing the word “club” from their names, registered club or not, to offer a more neutral-sounding venue such as The Patch (Tomakin Sports Club) or Norths Collective (North Sydney Leagues Club) club group. Rooty Hill RSL, under the guidance of CEO Richard Errington, no longer trades under a club moniker, becoming Wests HQ in a 2018 rebrand by Clemenger.

Five Dock Bowling Club is no longer a club.

Covid loss turns into gain

Covid left many legacies, and some club groups utilised them to their best advantage. Sadly, after a merger with Club Charlestown, Newcastle Leagues Club failed to reopen so its new parent was left with an additional 38 poker machine licences.

Because of these additional licences and an existing crowded gaming floor, Club Charlestown – with the help of Webber Architects – made the decision to reallocate space within its club, switching the old function room with the gaming room.

The new gaming room and floor design by Tony Donnelly offers larger poker machine bases (1m wide and with LED lighting), an increased outdoor area, privacy screens, greater machine spacing, a dedicated blackjack and roulette machine room, along with new carpet and paint.

Club Charlestown was able to complete the $2m upgrade in 26 weeks without impacting trade and flipped the room overnight, with Collaborative Construction moving the existing gaming floor and adding an additional 25 machines – giving it a new floor of 126 machines (43 outside and 83 inside) with 10 licences to spare.

“One of the legacies of Covid was that people’s personal space expectations grew,” Club Charlestown and Club Lambton CEO Michael Gray told Club Management.

“Clubs had to adapt to social distancing customers and to create more space in their gaming rooms to meet these changed expectations. These changes plus the additional poker machine licences acquired from NCL created the need for greater space. Our existing gaming floor had 101 machines, was very crowded with 28 machines outside and 73 inside. With the NCL licences, the club had a total of 136 licences.”

Without changing the way it used space it would not have met this changing view, Gray added.

“Maximising the use of space within the club has been at the forefront of our long-term planning. Switching the function and gaming room areas allowed us to make better use of space without reducing our ability to offer customers a great experience.” he said.

“Every area of a club should be revenue-producing or being used daily.”

Regional round-up for bowlo boss

New Bowls NSW CEO Tim Rowe has been doing the rounds in support of regional bowls club communities that continue to reap the benefits of close working relationships with Bowls Australia’s Regional Bowls Managers (RBMs).

RBMs have worked closely with local clubs and Bowls NSW to ensure funds from the NSW Government’s Local Sports Defibrillator Grant and Local Sports Grant found their way to bowls clubs.

More than $170,000 was assigned to 30 clubs for various projects, including green or club renovations, the purchasing of bowls, wheelchairs and other sportrelated equipment and infrastructure, while more than $37,000 was allocated across 10 bowls clubs to purchase defibrillators.

Rowe, who started as CEO in December last year, has worked closely with RBMs since starting in the role.

Bowls Australia has 19 Regional Bowls Managers situated across the width and breadth of the country, working in conjunction with state and territory associations and clubs. Each RBM lives and works within their region and keeps in touch with the issues surrounding each club in their area.

“It is fantastic to see our new CEO Tim Rowe working hand-in-hand with the NSW RBMs to achieve some great results,” Bowls NSW President Dilys Kindleysides said.

The RBMs are a support resource to clubs and communities in their region, helping across a range of areas from participation initiatives, event support to grants, governance and marketing.

Bowls Australia Development and Programs Manager Brett Hughes said the recent grant success is a great example of the kind of support RBMs can provide.

“The funding allocated from these grants is a fantastic result, and a sign of the positive relationship they have with their state body,” he said. “Our RBMs are passionate about what they do – helping their clubs and communities.”

Bowls NSW CEO Tim Rowe with Coonabarabran Bowling Club’s Brett Bowman and Adam Freeman and Jayson Pinnock, Bowls Australia RBM, Northern & Western NSW. Picture: Bowls NSW

A partnership leading to better places

A joint venture partnership with Capital Corporation took Kogarah RSL from financial hardship to a secure fiscal future.

AFTER YEARS OF dwindling membership and decreasing revenue, Kogarah RSL Club needed some way to revive its fortunes. Kogarah RSL wanted to find a partner to assist in reinvigorating the club premises, membership, and secure the financial future of the club. The club’s board turned to Capital Corporation, a development company that specialises in joint venture (JV) partnerships, to aid in the club’s recovery.

Capital Corporation has more than 30 years’ experience working collaboratively with landowners to deliver communities that connect, evolve, and thrive. It looks at all available options as to how it can assist each partner with their property outcomes and design a plan that suits, as well as looking at business problems and finding a property solution around them.

For the JV partnership with Kogarah RSL, that meant successfully delivering 220 apartments above a new vibrant 2000 sqm clubhouse facility, as well as 600 sqm of lettable commercial space.

“Partnering with Capital Corporation to rejuvenate the Kogarah RSL Club has turned out to be the best decision we have made in our long history,” said Club General Manager, Grant Amer.

“We needed a partner who would assist us to reinvigorate our club premises, membership and secure our financial future. Capital Corporation has enabled us to achieve these outcomes through their ability to design, fund and deliver an outstanding project for both the end purchasers and club members.”

The JV partnership has taken Kogarah RSL from a club in crisis, with low member numbers and few prospects to one with growing profitability and increasing member numbers, while reviving a beloved community club and its surrounding community.

Capital Corporation are the leaders in creating the future success of a club that might be struggling, and have the know how to successfully capitalise on the assets that a club would already own.

“Over the years we have identified the need of landowners in

realising the true value of their land holdings via participating in developments, typically under Joint Venture arrangement,” explained Capital Corporation director Jim Hunter.

“We love partnerships, working with clubs and finding ways we can add value to their organisation through well planned property development strategies. We are always mindful to substantially enhance any club’s future viability, often based around generating additional income outside normal operations.

“We align ourselves with your partners, navigate through the pitfalls and share the success equally. We are incredibly passionate about what we do and the value we add to our partners.”

Over the past 30 years, Capital Corporation has undertaken numerous projects with community clubs, churches and property companies including, Cronulla Sharks Leagues Club, Bondi Junction RSL Club, Seventh Day Adventist Church, Hillsong Church as well as various other major landowner groups.

Each of the community club projects have taken considerable management to ensure members are included in the process, and the company has remained mindful to substantially enhance the club’s future viability, including by generating a recurring income outside normal club operations.

As Capital Corporation’s tagline suggests, a JV with the company ‘Leads to better places’.

Visit Capital Corporation at www.capitalcorporation.com.au to view more successful projects. To discuss your club’s needs email admin@ capcorp.com.au.

As part of the JV partnership between Kogarah RSL and Capital Corporation, a 220-residential complex was built.

The updated clubhouse sits underneath the residential complex.

We believe in partnerships

More than $4b in development partnerships delivered. Across more than 30 years, Capital Corporation has emerged as a reliable, proven business partner and a dynamic, forward-focused leader. We have a reputation for working constructively with landowners to deliver communities that connect, evolve and thrive.

“The trust and security provided by Capital Corporation was fantastic. They went above and beyond all our expectations. It was really a delightful process.”

Grant Amer General ManagerKogarah RSL Club.

The Foyer

Brand news and promotions

2. Squealing Pig

As the official wine of the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras, Squealing Pig wines have released nine limited-edition Pride Labels representing nine LGBTQIA+ communities. Treasury Wine Estates is the official wine supplier of Mardi Gras and Squealing Pig one of its fastest growing wine brands. The three-year partnership incorporates the 2022 to 2024 festivals as well as the global pride event Sydney WorldPride, which is expected to be the largest event in Sydney since the 2000 Olympics and the largest celebration of inclusivity and pride in the Southern Hemisphere.

As a partner of the festival, which is currently in full swing, the labels each feature a cheeky rhyme tailored to a particular community, adapted from the rhyme traditionally found on every Squealing Pig bottle. Contact your Treasury Wine Estates representative for more information.

1. Birch & Waite

Birch & Waite thanks all the chefs who voted it as the Best Mayonnaise* in Australia! The company is grateful for your support. The Birch & Waite team is dedicated to creating superior quality, versatile products that bring the perfect flavour and texture to your dishes.

To celebrate its win, tell us why you like using Birch & Waite and go into the draw to WIN 1 of 5 x $300 Vouchers at House of Knives. To enter, visit the @birchandwaite Instagram page and find the pinned competition post. Full T&Cs available at https://birchandwaite.com.au/ mayonnaise-instagram-competition-tcs.

“Thank you for choosing Birch & Waite, and we look forward to continuing to be a part of your culinary creations.”

*At the 2022 Chefs Decision Awards as voted by Australian Professional Chefs. birchandwaite.com.au

3. Cargo Crew

Nothing says poised and polished like a smart new uniform, and no one does it better than Cargo Crew. That’s because the company leads by design, blending the best of classic and contemporary fashion with comfort and durability that’s fit for work. Each piece in Cargo Crew’s 200-strong collection has a story to tell, and the power to sell. That’s because its uniforms work hard to play a part in your venue’s success. How? By tying your venues aesthetic, brand narrative and service offering together, into a cohesive staff wardrobe.

Naturally, Cargo Crew has you covered with uniforms for reception, bar and dining, chefs, gaming, management and everything in between. This includes aprons, suits, knits and shirts, suiting and chefwear, chinos and a range of versatile accessories. The company also caters to every venue atmosphere, be it hip and happening, classic, casual, or five-star fine dining. No matter the reason, give Cargo Crew a call. (03) 9411 9850, hello@cargocrew.com.au , cargocrew.com.au

4. Stay Charged

Stay Charged has been proudly helping hospitality, hotel and commercial applications transform their surfaces into wireless charging stations since 2017. Specialising in commercial applications, Stay Charged offers premium and commercialgrade wireless charging solutions for either brand-new furniture installations or onsite retrofitting options with a focus on safety, reliability and quick installation.

For peace of mind, every Stay Charged wireless charger is waterproof or spill-resistant, has built-in foreign object detection (FOD) technology and overheating protection. With both drop-in and hidden wireless charging solutions available, you can transform virtually any surface into a convenient wireless charging point to make your venue stand out from the crowd.

Your customers can feel at ease with a convenient battery topup solution, so they can stay connected with friends and enjoy your venue’s amenities. Proudly Australian owned and operated. staycharged.com.au

6. De Bortoli Wines

The new De Bortoli Wine By The Glass system is a convenient, compact and portable way to serve wine, offering still and sparkling on tap in a simple and sustainable way.

The system ensures quality wine is served as if it came straight from the bottle. The dual-zone fridge system serves white and rosé chilled, while the sparkling system serves a perfect pour every time and red arrives at the perfect ambient temperature. The blue and white fonts also stand out at any bar, as does the easily recognisable De Bortoli badge.

No more leftover half-filled bottles, no more wastage and no more kegs! Just a 10L wine in a box of your favourite De Bortoli brand; De Bortoli King Valley Prosecco, 3 Tales Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc, Woodfired Heathcote Shiraz, BLUE Pinot Gris and La Boheme Pinot Noir.

Available in Melbourne, Sydney and Queensland.

5. Foodservice Australia

Foodservice Australia is the annual showcase of new food, drink and equipment for your club. It gives you a chance to see all the new ideas for your club under one roof. This year it is running at the Melbourne Exhibition Centre from 30 April – 2 May and organisers say it will be one of most important for many years.

Event Director Tim Collett says the show should be a compulsory exercise for every club manager and chef.

“The hospitality industry has changed dramatically over the last few years and this is a unique opportunity for club operators to literally taste the new food trends and try out the new kitchen equipment,” he says.

The show will have more than 400 exhibitors and special events including the Chef of the Year, Café School, National Restaurant Conference and Sweet Spot Theatre. Entry is free but strictly trade only. You must be over 16 and work in a food or hospitality business. For more details and to register go to www.foodserviceaustralia.com.au

7. Vertek’s digital decals

Vertek is about to introduce a remote online portal so the messaging on Vertek digital decals can be easily changed by anyone with access, from anywhere in the world.

With the static tap talker no longer able to keep up with constantly changing beer and wine offerings, the task is now easily managed and updatable with Vertek’s digital version, which is also able to make a venue money through advertising.

The digital tap talkers can be used for in-house promotions, membership drives and looped animated messages across a row of taps. You can even order an Uber via QR code!

The original micro USB cable model is being updated with an online portal that can easily update or change the decal content by anyone with remote access. As well as this, external advertising can help pay for the service cost in a matter of months.

Vertek’s digital tap talker is now in the US with discussions also taking place in UK, South Africa Romania and Europe. For details contact Shinae Vergone on 0403 892 643, email admin@vertekinnovations.com.au or go to vertekinnovations.com.au

8. Taylors’ The Hotelier range

Bill Taylor’s love for Australian wines came from his time working behind the bar as a hotelier. He understood the joy of bringing together great wine, food, and company. That tradition continues today with the modern, food-friendly wines in the new Taylors Hotelier range, which has been developed exclusively for the onpremise, and independent retail market.

The collection celebrates Taylors’ heritage with modern wines that are crafted to delight the modern consumer, appealing to a younger audience with a contemporary, simple but sophisticated offering.

The range incudes, from Padthaway: a delectable, plump, and juicy Shiraz with a soft, velvety finish; a Pinot Gris that walks the perfect line between soft and crisp; and a silky, supple Chardonnay with an enticing, lingering finish. From Wrattonbully, there is also a soft, smooth, beautifully integrated GSM.

To purchase these wines, please contact your Taylors Area Manager or call 1800 804 295.

https://www.taylorswines.com.au/the-hotelier

9. Trivia Head

Trivia Head is Australia’s leading supplier of self-hosted pub trivia packs. Since launching in 2015, Trivia Head has become the go-to solution for venues across the country to run their own profitable trivia nights with its print-and-play system that will suit any venue.

Trivia Head is continuing to expand its operations, making extra quiz packages and bringing on new professional trivia creators to ensure everyone gets a unique trivia night for their venue.

Trivia Head can save each venue over $300 per week in costs and in some cases double or triple the patronage you previously had. We don’t have contracts or minimum terms, we don’t need to, most of our customers have been with us for many years.

So, if you’re looking to add a trivia night to your venue or simply looking to change supplier, check out www.triviahead.com.au .

Is your crew dressed by the best?

Club Parkview rises anew from devastating floods

The opening of Club Parkview, on the site of flood-damaged Goodna Services Club in Brisbane’s western corridor, has surprised all with bumper attendances, a boost in younger members and a recordbreaking number of meals from the kitchen.

GOODNA SERVICES MK III, now known as Club Parkview, has been warmly greeted by both existing and new members and visitors, plus the extra staff now needed to serve an influx of patrons. In the first four weeks of opening, trade was up 70 per cent on their best-ever figures.

“We are breaking records every week, so it’s good news for us,” says Club Parkview General Manager Adam Wiencke. “You know when a good renovation has landed when people are sitting in every corner of the club. They are everywhere.”

While the new build has been welcomed with open arms, the devastating February 2022 flood disaster offered mixed blessings in that insurance only covered about a quarter of the replacement value of all the big-ticket items lost.

That included several hundred EGMs, kitchen equipment, most electricals, plus carpet, fixtures and fittings that went under as the water rose to 1.7 metres on the second level of the club. But that payout was enough to set up the club in a temporary space in an area unaffected by the flood damage.

It however did force the club to borrow $5 million in government loans to fast-track an

amended 2021 masterplan which was already on the drawing board. The sun shone on the club recently when it was told an insurance payout from the even more devastating floods of 2011, which inundated the premises up to the roof of the third level, is now on its way.

In executing the revised 2021 masterplan, the Goodna board visited Sydney venues Cabra-Vale Diggers, Bankstown Sports and Dee Why RSL, with Altis Architects, to look for some fresh ideas, Wiencke told Club Management.

“They were unbelievable to deal with,” he says. “They were extremely professional and knew exactly what sort of thing we wanted and they brought a different element to it which brought a different high end to (the result) and we were very happy with that.”

In another stroke of good luck, builder Unita had a job postponed and was able to jump straight in and complete the new Club Parkview in just seven months.

The reinvigorated space is now home to the share-plate, tapas-style Parkview Kitchen, build-your-own pizzas and burgers, plus Parkview Bistro and Jacaranda Cafe. Such is

the popularity, the club is now installing more kitchen equipment and upgraded gas flow to fulfull new service requirements.

While the club now serves up to 400 meals a night, up from 50-60, Wiencke said the club is also focused on sourcing from local suppliers. This includes Parkview Tap House which offers more than 60 beers, including the locally-crafted Parkview Pale Ale, alongside mixed drinks.

“We’re proud to be featuring the full Imbibis Gin Craft range from the distillery in Bundamba in our premium cocktails,” he said.

Add to that a modern gaming lounge, openplan events spaces and kids’ play area and there is something for everyone, from three-year-olds to 90-year-olds, he says. The average membership age, pre-flood, was 68.

“It’s probably closer to 40 now. Our target market is now 18-50 which we had never chased before but which we are now getting,” Wiencke says.

The club has now submitted plans to council for a two-storey carpark across the road, potentially linked to the club by a footbridge, hopefully followed by a deck area on the existing carpark.

Bankstown Sports Club –Taking parking to another level

From daily traffic to big event nights, Park Agility has developed a club-specific parking guidance solution that will make it easier for your patrons to find their way quickly and safely to your front door.

PATRONS QUEUING TO get into your multi-storey car park then driving around in circles trying to find a spot, especially on a busy night, is not the best use of anyone’s time.

For any reasonable-sized club, even on an average day, several hundred people will make their way from the car park to the front desk to sign in. On a busy night, with a special event on or a concert taking place, traffic could easily build up as they try to find a spot.

And how long did they take to find that spot before they signed in? Too long, is probably the answer, unless you have some sort of technology to show them where to go.

Imagine then, signage throughout the car park that advises patrons exactly how many spots are available and where, LED lighting indicating where they can park, or whether it’s a spot to charge their EV or gain access to a disability space.

“Consider it a value-add for your members,” says Park Agility’s Brad Burrows. “The less time they take getting into the car park and finding a spot, the more time they will spend in your venue.”

Even the best-run club car parks are inundated sometimes. Park Agility’s tailor-made solution suited Bankstown Sports Club which has transformed over the years into a 24/7 multi-operational venue. The club often reaches parking capacity and management recognised that being able to park quickly and efficiently is an important service to members and guests to this well-known southwestern Sydney club.

Visitors flock to the club for its multiple food offerings, Lady Banks rooftop bar, theatrette and function spaces, in addition to accommodating visitors to the club’s Mercure Sydney Bankstown hotel, and those arriving at its Flinders Centre office tower which also contains a childcare centre and gym.

“Given the number of facilities we have on site the club is always very busy, meaning our car park needs to be operating at its best. We now have the technology that enables that to happen. Since installation of the Park Agility guidance system, we have

Bankstown Sports Club car park transformation

• One of Sydney’s top 10 registered clubs

• 100,000-plus club members

• 5-level car park

had very positive feedback from our patrons, and our management team are delighted with what Park Agility has implemented for us,” said Bankstown Sports Club CEO Michael Clancy.

• 1200 parking bay sensors

• 43 LED wayfinding signs

The unique part of the Bankstown Sports Club installation is the ticker-tape style messaging along the bottom of the Park Agility LED wayfinding signage, providing additional club information to members and guests. This feature optimises the car park signage providing significant value to the car park guidance investment.

“Park Agility’s wayfinding signage ticker tape messaging capabilities are easily editable, enabling our club’s marketing department to promote upcoming events or our operations team to highlight important safety and community messages,” said Bankstown Sports Club’s Facilities Manager, Paul Murphy.

Park Agility also prides itself on providing parking guidance and wayfinding solutions that are accurate and straightforward with an installation process that has minimal operational impact on your site.

Marcus Steedman, Bankstown Sports Club Security Operations Manager handled the project implementation. “With 5 levels of parking, one of our biggest concerns was the system installation process and how it would impact operations of our car park, but the install went very smoothly and it was business as usual. The Park Agility project team were great to work with, clear communication on a daily basis and finishing with an on-time and on-budget delivery.

“We deliver one of the best and most affordable parking guidance systems in the market, providing a high level of accuracy, extensive reporting, system flexibility and value for money and proud to say we now have a club specific product,” continues Burrows.

Locally engineered and maintained by industry experts, Park Agility is a faster, smarter and greener way to optimise your car park yield.

Park Agility’s LED wayfinding signage at Bankstown Sports Club.

New Couta Boat Club in fine shape

There is now a refined multi-million-dollar Mornington Peninsula home for these historic wooden fishing boats.

THE HISTORIC SORRENTO Sailing Couta Boat

Club opened its new multi-million-dollar home just in time for the start of the summer sailing season, with members who helped pay for the new build welcoming its arrival with open arms.

On Victoria’s Mornington Peninsula, the club was established in the 1940s and features the couta, a workhorse of Port Philip Bay’s old fishing fleet.

While it has undergone several renovations in the past, this latest iteration will enable the club to peel back the glazing over the summer months and open the new venue up, allowing the club to have a greater connection with the seafront and beach activities.

“The club is thrilled to have a built for purpose clubhouse with far bigger areas for hospitality, administration and sailing,” club CEO Henry Dyer said of the opening.

An initial $6m budget blew out because of significant increases in building, material and labour costs and substantial design changes, but Dyer said a jump in applications as a result of the renovations resulted in the membership hitting its cap of 4500, up from 3000 members, since construction began.

“Thirty per cent of the new members are children or young adults, the rest are adult members,” he said. Despite some delays and exceeding the budget, members of the private club are thrilled with the result.

Members comments received included: “Congratulations on having the clubhouse open for summer when it seemed in doubt mid-way through the year”; “The bar is enormous and the additional room on the northern deck is

amazing”; and “We can’t wait to see what the finished product of the dining room will be”.

Designed by Melbourne architecture and interior design studio Carr, the new club floorplate has been extended in two directions, allowing for hospitality areas as well as administration offices and boating facilities to comfortably expand with all taking advantage of spectacular ocean views and sunset vistas.

The pared-back venue used local limestone and timber battens throughout, referencing the venue’s natural surrounds and the boats the club is named after.

A handmade wooden marina and jetty has also been built to service the couta’s support vessels including 20 RIBs and wooden-hulled power boats.

The capital works were funded by membership subscriptions and the issuing of Member Bonds, alongside a fundraising campaign which had a target of $1 million.

“The demographic is quite well off. It’s a very popular club, most members are paying subs that are comparatively expensive compared to other clubs,” Dyer said.

Couta boat and off-the-beach sailing has continued throughout the year uninterrupted.

Dyer said the new facilities are five-star with a mid- to high-end restaurant experience. Members and sponsors are quickly filling up spots for weddings and events at the new venue.

“There wouldn’t be a better club in Australia in terms of facilities,” Dyer concluded.

The “refined and streamlined” venue and new membership is now set to accommodate the next generation of sailors at the historic club.

By Grant Jones

The Club of the Future

Dale Hunt, CEO of Mounties Group, believes that incoming gaming reform will be the impetus for many clubs to diversify their offerings to meet community needs – something that the industry has needed for more than a decade.

WITH GAMING REFORM at the top of the mind for many politicians – and many in our community and membership hearing that change is needed – our industry now faces a watershed moment. One of the biggest in club history.

We can protest all we like about how problem gamblers make up only one percent of people that play gaming machines and that we shouldn’t punish the 99 per cent. But if we put that into context, if one percent of people were driving on a particularly busy road and had an accident, we would fix the road. We wouldn’t ban the other 99 percent of drivers from the road and we certainly wouldn’t detour drivers on to a more dangerous road (which is what appears to be some peoples solution to this serious concern). Like the road, we have a duty of care to fix it.

The truth is that we have been speaking about diversification and the need to reduce our reliance on one individual stream of income for more than a decade. Now more than ever it is time to act and ensure our clubs survive to meet our members needs now and for decades to come. The challenge is that every club, every community and every town will have different needs to be addressed and different opportunities that exist.

For Mounties Group members, the

highest needs have been identified in the areas of health and wellbeing and we have moved in that direction at the same time as reducing risk to our club by providing new sources of revenue and profit. Mounties Group started this diversification with retirement living. Now, we also operate Mounties Care that currently encompasses four general practice clinics, 140 medical specialist services, homecare support and multiple allied health offerings.

The results have been outstanding in terms of membership, engagement and financial performance but more importantly, it has meant we have made a positive difference in the lives of thousands of our members, in the communities we operate and beyond.

We appreciate this shift might not be for everyone.

We are currently speaking with a few clubs to partner with us in delivering the same to their members and we continue to seek out other opportunities, but we understand that the field of health or the scale and speed of our growth is not viable for all. What it does prove is that by talking to members, identifying community needs and delivering what people want, we can have a huge impact, for the people and the results of our club. This approach has also seen a shift in how our members regard us and engage and support our clubs.

What is now being cast upon us is a time to either shrink and decline or to face things head on. It’s about delivering to our members needs in new and innovative ways. Some will see the doom, but others like Mounties Group will see this as one of the greatest opportunities in club history to be even better than we have ever been, and deliver more than ever to our members.

This is a time when the club industry can shine. When we are able to talk to each other and share ideas and work together for a better outcome for all. Not many industries would be willing to do that.

So, as we embrace this new era for our industry, I urge you to consider how we can use this as an opportunity to shape the future. It’s about collaboration, diversification and most of all finding the strategies and best practices to thrive.

Mounties Group has more than 216,000 members and 1000 staff among its 10 club venues in NSW situated in the Fairfield, Northern Beaches and Central Coast Council Areas. In addition, Mounties Group have expanded their services beyond hospitality to include Medical, Allied Health, Fitness, Child Play, Retirement Living, In-Home Care and Fitness with operations now in Queensland, NSW and the ACT.

Dale Hunt at the opening of a Mounties Care Integrative Health Clinic

Harvesting good concepts

GOOD RELATIONSHIPS ARE built on trust, especially when it comes to long-term build concepts that need to be turned into reality over a period of several years.

Cullinan Ivanov Partnership (C+I) was first engaged by Campbelltown Catholic Club in 2017 to create a garden-like environment for its outdoor gaming, alongside a TAB, bar and amenities. With that job a success, over the years the C+I/ Campbelltown Catholic Club relationship has been further built upon with a new foyer in 2019, which created a high-quality arrival area and new face to the venue. Add to that a new indoor gaming area, pre-function space, Sage Café and pub-style bistro Dove and Shears and the partnership became even stronger.

All parties were so happy with the light and ethereal ambiance of Dove and Shears that C+I is entering the project into the Australian Interior Design Awards 2023.

“Our client’s envisioned a modern venue supporting quality local suppliers with sustainable practices and an animal welfare focus,” the C+I award submission states.

“Meeting the client’s goals and providing a successful wellpatronised venue are testament to excellent design, which in this venue stems from attention to the fundamentals such as acoustic performance and use of durable and aesthetically pleasing finishes.”

In 2022, the whole F&B picture was complete with the delivery of Harvest, a re-imagined food offering which created a modern bistro-style venue for Campbelltown Catholic Club patrons.

Harvest capped off the club’s modern food offering which now includes the award-winning Kyubi Asian restaurant, Embers’ casual pizza and burger fare, alongside Sage Café and Dove and Shears.

For C+I in delivering the projects, it helped that Campbelltown Catholic Club CEO Michael Lavorato has been well ahead of the curve in clubs, working towards diversification from gaming revenue: creating the Aquafit fitness and aquatic centre in 2004, partnering with Rydges to create an on-site hotel in 2007, and establishing the ground-breaking The Cube, Campbelltown Convention Entertainment Centre in 2008.

“I have worked with many of the leading clubs and Michael is one of the most switched-on operators in the club industry,” says

C+I Director Richard Cullinan. The C+I hospitality team is also vastly experienced, managing the whole process on each project from concept to construction. Key to C+I’s success is interior designer Mia Ward (Rick Stein’s Bannisters) and C+I’s longstanding relationship with expert F&B consultant Andrew Frost from Cini Little (F&B consultants to Merivale); who worked with Campbelltown’s own F&B Director, former executive chef Peter Sheppard (MoChi). Sheppard has been steering the club’s food masterplan for the past five years.

While working with Campbelltown Catholic Club, Cullinan knew he had to deliver for Lavorato and the direction he wanted to take the club and the venues within. Lavorato says a simple one-pointof-contact process and an experienced C+I team helped hit the mark and avoid costly mistakes.

“C+I are a very experienced and competent hospitality-focussed professional organisation that can provide a well-managed and successful hospitality delivery process, with proven results and costeffective design and construction delivery,” Lavorato says. To find out how Cullinan Ivanov Partnership can help grow your club’s offerings, visit www.cipartnership.com

Cullinan Ivanov Partnership’s food and beverage project work with Campbelltown Catholic Club has helped grow the club’s multiple food concepts, to great acclaim.

Campbelltown Catholic Club’s Dove and Shears bistro has been entered into a national interior design competition.

Harvest Bistro caps off the club’s various food offerings.

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Pan-seared salmon with cauliflower puree, beans, toasted almonds, fried capers and buerre noisette at Wagga RSL.

Winter winners for the creative kitchen

Seasonal menus in clubs should have an increasing focus on better procurement and quality produce rather than getting food on a plate at the cheapest possible price, reports Grant Jones.

WITH THE PUSH to attract lower age brackets into the club space, executive chefs should be looking to create clever club menus that will appeal to an increasingly discerning diner – and the time to do that is now.

While it’s a well-known club truth that some menu items will never leave a menu – we are looking at you schnitzel, steak and fish and chips – improving and expanding options with seasonal items provides the opportunity to change. Allan Forsdick from Future Food said clubs are now looking at a more differentiated strategy than they have in the past, with venues needing to be

aware of their changing marketplace.

“Are you still targeting a senior membership base, and aging demographic, yet the area around you is changing? Are young professionals moving in and no longer looking at the $12 roast? And that also lends itself to a great kids menu,” he says. “Having the kids drive the spend is a huge things for parents, particularly if you are looking to attract that 40-50 year-old market in the inner city suburbs.”

If there have been no changes to a menu of late, changing with the seasons offers the perfect opportunity to introduce new options.

Forsdick says clubs are looking at a more

differentiated strategy than they have in the past.

“I think they are aware that their customers want a greater range of offers over a greater range of the day. Very typically it’s been the bar and the bistro or the buffet.

“It’s still a moneymaker for some of our clients, particularly in Queensland there a couple of our clients still run a buffet because its too much of a revenue earner to turn it away. But other clubs are looking at a diversification.

“I think the idea of procurement within food and particularly in professional

Pork cutlet with spatzle (German noodles) and winter spiced braised cabbage, pork jus and crackling pieces at Wagga RSL’s Henry’s retaurant.

culinary terms for chefs is to adopt greater procurement to work with good ingredients and do the best they can, as opposed to perhaps a more volume-based strategy to get something in at the cheapest [price] which allows us to get it on plate at the cheapest possible price,” he says.

“I think there is a shift in that mentality and customers are very aware of the quality of food they are putting in their mouth. That lends itself to what we’ve seen in an explosion in plant-based and green-based food in the past two to three, even five years.”

Farm to fork

Wagga RSL Executive Chef Scott Clapham couldn’t agree more. Seasonality and price point are the focus of his menu changes, particularly when it comes to the seasons at the club’s restaurant dining option, Henry’s on Goonigul. This coming autumn/winter Clapham’s menu will continue to feature a host of local suppliers who he visits throughout the year.

“Many of the suppliers have become

really good friends of mine and they have invited me for lunch and dinners,” he says. “A lot of the time that I take to visit these guys is often personal time.”

Such is his high esteem of local producers Highfield Farm and Woodland in Mt Adrah, that he nominated them for the Harvey Norman Delicious Awards, resulting in Highfield’s owners David Bray and Louise Freckelton picking up NSW Winner in the Paddock category for their grass-fed Dorper Lamb in 2021. The previous year, the small eco-focused farm won both the NSW title and the gold medal in the national level competition for the same product.

“The Riverina is the food bowl of NSW but I don’t think a lot of places really take advantage of that,” Clapham says. But it pays to stay in touch, especially small producers.

“Louise just sends me a message saying, ‘This is where we are at’, ‘This is what we have got’. She will sell the premium cuts in town, but I’ll take the lamb necks, lamb ribs, the secondaries, so I’m really trying to help them move their product at the same time.”

Post-covid, Clapham says there has also been a mindset change to support small local businesses.

“You start supporting these local people and they spread the word at the same time,” he says. Other local suppliers include Wollundry Grove Olive Oil, Happy Wombat Hazelnuts in Tumbarumba and Back Creek Meats with its Riverina scotch fillet and rump. That relationship also helps with pricepoint.

“I have a good relationship with these local guys so I usually get a bit of a discount as a result, so we pass on that to the consumer,” he admits.

Lunch and dinner menus also differ to suit varying demographics: “We tend to find that we will attract older people during the day and then at night we have a good mixture off all generations.”

Clapham starts working on new seasonal menus three to four months out and test drives them, promoting individual dishes on Facebook posts and inviting patrons in to try. This winter, it could be anything from chicken breast with risotto; or pan-

Wagga RSL’s Vietnamese pork pizza with hoisin BBQ sauce, coriander, spring onion, sesame, salted peanuts and nuoc cham.

seared salmon with cauliflower puree; to pork cutlet with spatzle and winter spiced braised cabbage.

“It’s just trying to drive people to give us feedback. Sometimes we just have minor changes and other times we just go, ‘That’s not going to work.’”

Imagery helps, too. The executive chef is starting to put new menu items on various screens throughout the club so people can actually see what they are getting. One screen promotes the main menu, the second screen is the specials and the third screen includes a scroll through of images of new menu items. That also applies in the kitchen, with chefs looking at pictures so plating is consistent.

The club’s new autumn/winter menu will go live mid to late March or early April with a new outdoor smoker also set to get a workout.

“Our focus here is fresh and housemade, we do very little opening of packets and putting things on plates. But we do have a classic menu area and that will never change,” he says.

“But what’s really big at the moment is to make sure there is a plant-based menu item. I’m looking at putting on a miso-smoked eggplant with some Asian greens.”

Meanwhile, Forsdick says while larger club venues with multiple food offerings have no real need to rotate menus, mid-sized and smaller regional clubs need to consider what their local attraction is if they

Dishes that say ‘Eat me!’

It’s time to strip off your summer menu and rethink stale winter dishes, says chef Paul Rifkin.

TRADITIONALLY THE COOLER months are, what I call, ‘the eating season’. The focus is off the beachwear and it’s time to wear the bulkier clothing. This mostly translates into your customers wanting to eat heartier meals with less focus on dieting.

It’s a great opportunity for you to develop interesting offerings, to entice them to be a more regular diner and help with your sales growth.

Share plates for starters that are a step up from your norm will create interest and extra revenue: think hot dips, spicy numbers, pull aparts.

Lamb shank has always been a favourite, but have you done it to death? Instead add in eggplant parmi, beef cheek ragout pie, briskets and other smoked meats, slow cooking shoulders overnight. Light curries with seafood or just fish, and don’t forget the vegans, Thai green curry eggplant a firm favourite.

Desserts are the perfect item to sell, and with the correct training your staff can entice your customers to ‘want’ to have dessert. Remember, most people want it, but will say no. Your upsell techniques can change this and improve spend per head. Seek training for your staff on how to upsell, it’s worth the investment!

Create desserts items that say ‘eat me’ with visual appeal through table talkers or display cabinets. Mix it up with both hot and cold items, use eyecatching garnishes like Persian floss, freeze-dried fruit or chocolate soils and maybe fruit compotes.

Whatever you end up doing, don’t forget to keep it as simple as you can, and be sure your staff can manage it when staff challenges occur. Think revenue, ensure all your items can produce the highest gross profit. With a well thought-out menu you will increase total sales while improving gross profit and wages at the same time.

Chicken breast with risotto, broccolini, chicken jus and crispy onions.

Freeze-dried fruits and compotes are an easy way to make any dessert more visually appealing.

are offering up the same thing, week in, week out with the same chef of 30 years.

“His (the chef’s) exposure is likely to be with that club and that club only. And his exposure to what good looks like in 2023 is unlikely. Does he get out to have a look around at Bondi or the CBD? Has he been down to Barangaroo and seen the amazing offers that Crown has put together or just the Barangaroo development as a whole?

“It’s education, it’s exposure. Does he read magazines? Does he read Club Management? I don’t know, but there is that element of needing to evolve and augment the culinary capability of those kitchens in many clubs.”

Even if a menu hasn’t been changed in a generation, it’s never too late. All you have to do is give it a crack, and seek feedback –from your members, from your team, from local suppliers and even from industry consultants.

“That’s our most frequent request,” Forsdick says, “to ‘fix’ club menus that are stuck in a time warp.”

From ribs and roasts to bacon and burritos

TWO OUT OF three foodservice venues feature pork on their menu so if pork isn’t on your menu this winter you may be missing out. It’s now Australia’s most popular meat after chicken and is served as anything from ribs and roasts to bacon and in burritos, so now’s the time to try out some new autumn/winter menu ideas.

Australian Pork’s new series of on-trend and affordable autumn/winter recipes have been developed based on insights identifying the most popular dishes in on-premise venues. Stir-fry was identified as the number one pork meal consumed out-of-home. Some of the more classic dishes that are firm favourites with punters are grilled pork or roasted porchetta.

While burgers remain the most popular food type in out-of-home purchases, according to Foodservice Research prepared by Thrive Insights for Australian Pork Limited, other winter menu options, such as their Porchetta Burger, combines two of the most popular items on a club menu.

“Our insights are showing a rising trend of customers wanting to see a great sandwich on the menu. The autumn/winter recipe booklet offers the solution with a pork schnitzel sandwich and porchetta burger on your menu,” a spokesperson says.

While favourites have their place, with pork on two in three menus, it also might be worth including on-trend dishes such as pork and miso eggplant stir-fry, pork neck ragu with olives and pecorino or a parmesan crumbed schnitzel sandwich with bacon, buffalo mozzarella and pesto.

A spread from the new Australian Pork series of on-trend and affordable autumn/winter recipes.

Tapping into quality

Premiums wine on tap are coming into their own as suppliers and clubs get a handle on the benefits of the bottleless pour, writes Grant Jones.

WHILE STANDALONE FONTS and utilising beer systems to serve wine have been around for a while, it’s surprising how few club venues serve wine on tap. But that’s about to change.

While some patrons might need a little convincing that wine on tap is top quality, it makes absolute sense to serve a premium second-tier drop via tap as these systems save time, energy and resources, and are a cost effective way to serve quality wine.

Just think, no heavy bottles to lug, corks or screwcaps to open, leftovers poured down the sink, no glass bottle to crush at end of service and no confusion from unskilled staff about whether they are serving the $12 house or the cracking $16 shiraz.

De Bortoli Wines has gradually been convincing clubs as it works on introducing its convenient, compact and portable way to serve wine. Their relatively new Wine By The Glass patented system offers still and sparkling wine on tap in a simple and sustainable way, via a fridge and without a gas system or drop of glycol in sight.

De Bortoli bought the system from its inventors, Font Fine Wines, two years ago after they had supplied boxed wine to Font for five years. The system was developed

to ensure quality wine flows through and is served as if it came straight from the bottle, says Ashley Roscoe, national business manager of Wine By The Glass.

The system is now being taken up across Australia, in Perth, Sydney, Brisbane, Melbourne and Canberra; and is now going regional, from clubs in Ballarat and Bendigo to Orange Ex-Services and Yarrawonga Golf Club.

“We just use a standard bar fridge but all the internal workings of the stainless system are patented. We pump the wine out of a box,” he says. “To put in its simplest form, it’s like a postmix. We only use C02 to carbonate the prosecco.”

Roscoe said quality wine on tap will be an education process from club operators to their guests.

“We try and implement a bit of a strategy for the (new) venue, to really drive it out to customers. We might do a member drive or a special or a food pairing where it is really just trying to get it into the customers’ mouths to taste it and to get the staff to understand that it really is premium wine.”

De Bortoli Wine By The Glass brands include De Bortoli King Valley Prosecco, 3 Tales Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc,

Woodfired Heathcote Shiraz, Bella Riva King Valley Pinot Grigio and Regional Reserve Yarra Valley Pinot Noir.

The system is also completely mobile, offering clubs the opportunity to move it to an outdoor area for events, such as beer gardens or opens spaces for weddings or festivals.

“Up here at Warrilla Bowls Club they are shooting for a different demographic outside and they have a shipping container offering. One’s got pizza and burgers and we have all our on-tap systems in there.

“We even saw a customer just a couple of weeks ago and they thought it was just another glycol system, and we were going to sign them up for five years. We do none of that. If they like it, they’ll keep buying it.”

Allan Forsdick from Future Food said with pressure on gaming takings, clubs will look to focus on alternative revenue streams such as tap wine, serving premium varietals in higher volumes to a wider audience, including women.

“It opens a lot of doors for a higher volume of pour,” he says. “It opens customers up to a more premium type of wine without committing to a bottle and typically at a very fast service point.”

Bottoms up for wine in clubs

While local on-premise wine sales may have declined during the pandemic, the Australian market may be better positioned than some others countries for a recovery, according to a new survey.

Australian consumers see on-premise visitation as an important part of their lives, with 73 per cent reporting that they would be either “disappointed” if they couldn’t eat/drink out, or “lost without it”, the On-Premise User Survey conducted by CGA by NielsenIQ found.

Surprisingly, according to those surveyed, 26 per cent said they consumed wine when they visited a club or sports bar, coming in third behind beer (37 per cent) and soft drink (30 per cent).

“Another positive characteristic of the on-premise for wine producers is that wine (still wine in particular) features strongly across all types of on-premise venue (except nightclubs), whereas beer dominates in pubs and sports bars, but doesn’t feature in the top five beverages in any other type of venue,” says Sandy Hathaway, Senior Analyst for Wine Australia, the author of the report.

“This broad popularity and versatility of wine gives brand owners a wide and diverse range of opportunities to create wine-based experiences for consumers.”

Alcohol beverage trend analysts IWSR forecasts that the drinks channel will recover slowly and in a “nuanced” manner, with rising costs, staff shortages and slowing economies limiting growth in the short term, while changes in consumer behaviour such as working and entertaining at home are also expected to be long-lasting.

Among frequent (at least weekly) visitors to the on-premise, according to CGA, 43 per cent are 18–34 and just 21 per cent are 55+ years old. By comparison, in the general population, the share of adults in the youngest cohort is 27 per cent and the share over 55 is 38 per cent.

“For wine producers, the on-premise environment provides an important opportunity to engage with the younger generations, which are showing less interest in the wine category generally,” Hathaway says.

While there is fresh wine literally on every corner there is no better place to try out new styles and premium labels than at a club in wine country.

Given that The Clubhouse Bar & Lounge is in South Australia’s Barossa Valley, the locals know exactly what they like in a good drop of wine, while visitors will want to try a little of something new. To accommodate both types of patrons, the club introduced a state-of-the-art Enomatic wine dispenser which offers premium Barossa red wine by the glass through a series of eight pourers. The system was introduced to offer visitors the chance to drink a variety of premium wines at a reasonable cost.

It was installed 13 years ago and has had a few tweaks and repairs over the years, but general manager Jack Ferrett wouldn’t have it any other way.

“To come up here and drink a bottle of red would cost you $50-$200, outside many people’s budgets. But doing it this way people can have a taste, 20ml, or in a 75ml and 150ml glass.”

Ferret says any apprehension patrons may have about wine on tap soon disappears after the benefits of the system – and not needing to visit half a dozen wineries – is explained to them.

A bottle of premium wine, with opening date marked on the bottle, will last about three weeks. The oxygen in the open bottle is replaced with the inert argon gas and the wine will be good for up to three weeks but is usually drained within a week by customers.

The wine list is changed regularly, usually every three months, so there is always something new on offers, from small boutique producers through to “the big guys”.

“It’s a very affordable way of letting people experience premiums wines at an affordable price,” Ferrett says.

Seeing the light

Much like the multi-level food offerings they now offer, clubs are diversifying wine lists to appeal to a wider, more diverse demographic, writes Grant Jones.

WOMEN, THOSE LOOKING to reduce their alcohol consumption and the LGBQTIA+ audience are all current drivers behind the modern-day club wine list, industry experts say.

While no- and low-alcohol is gaining some traction, patrons are also looking for wines with lower alcohol content, with some traditional big heavy reds even cutting down their alcohol content from as high as 17% ABV to as little as 13.5% ABV – and in doing so, improving their sales.

“The big bold reds of 16 and 17 per cent are going out of fashion,” says Jack Ferrett, manager at The Clubhouse, Barossa. “People are definitely drinking lighter – 13.5-14.5 seems to be the preferred range these days.

“Demands for the big heavy Barossa red has slowed up, definitely,” adds Ferrett who says St Hugos is his best-seller on tap.

While shiraz is still the “kingpin” to drink in the South Australian wine-growing region, and cabernet sauvignon is still popular, Ferret says grenache is a lighter style that is moving up the ladder.

While many lighter varietals and reduced alcohol styles have enjoyed broader appeal, some brands have even targeted quite a specific demographic.

As the official wine of the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras, Squealing Pig’s rosé released nine limited-edition Pride Labels, representing nine LGBTQIA+ communities. The three-year Treasury Wine Estates partnership with one of its fastest growing wine brands incorporates festivals from 2022-2024, as well as the global pride event Sydney WorldPride.

As a partner of the festival, which is currently in full swing, the labels each feature a cheeky rhyme tailored to a particular community, adapted from the rhyme traditionally found on every Squealing Pig bottle. NSW clubs that support Squealing Pig include Dapto Leagues, St George Motor Boat Club, Bondi Icebergs, Gymea

Bowling & Recreation, Penrith Panthers, Illawarra Yacht Club and the renovated St Marys Rugby League Club (see story page p70).

Premiumisation is also an on-trend factor in the club space. Oatley Wines National Sales Manager Andrew Coorey says an increasing number of clubs are offering premium wines, including a far wider reach in varietals, plus wines from lesser-known regions.

“People are wanting a better quality of wine and the premiumisation. More and more clubs are starting to offer that diversified offering,” he says. “They are selling it and steering away from entry-level house wine and consumers are better educated now and they want to drink better wine from well-known regions.”

Big South Australian reds are dropping their alcohol content.

Treasury Wine Estates’ Squealing Pig rosé is the official wine of the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras.

Talking the talk

With a wider variety of craft beers available and constantly changing on-tap wine menus, the static tap talker is no longer up to the task, with easily updatable modern digital versions now also able to make a venue money through advertising, reports Grant Jones.

VERTEK, RUN BY West Australian couple Shinae and Ryan Vergone, are pushing innovation in the segment to the max, providing in-house production and constantly changing custom digital content for clubs. Those clubs that have jumped on board include Gosford RSL and Strathfield Sports Club in NSW and the new Club Parkview (see story on page 22) in Queensland.

Not only that, digital tap talkers also offer creative consumer engagement and can be used for in-house promotions such as wine or beer of the month, competitions, fundraisers, membership drives or ticketed events through displayed QR codes. An animated “crawl” across a row of taps can also send messages or even display sports scores as patrons wait their turn for a refill. You could even order an rideshare!

“Venues have to change the decals often and with so many beers now available, with the many independent brewers, they might have five or six or tap changes, every week or month, and that’s quite a bit of legwork when you’ve got [physical] decals and you’ve got to print things,” says Shinae. “In the coming months, they can just email me the night before and ask me to change this keg to this [brand] and I can do that.”

While the existing model is micro-USB cabled and requires content to be manually uploaded via drag and drop, Vertek is about to introduce a remote online portal so the messaging or decals can be easily changed by anyone with access, from anywhere in the world.

“Our goal now is to create premium custom messaging nicely, not pop-up sticker things. We want this to be a feature of the venue, an aesthetically pleasing way of customers seeing content on their decals,” Shinae says.

External advertisers can also pay for the space with a 10-tap of decals earning up to $1200 in advertising with two ads played for just 10 seconds a minute.

“There is not a lot of intrusion,” Shinae says. “A couple of the trial venues that we had paid for themselves within three months. It’s a no-brainer to have the decals there, even if they only choose to advertise for a year and they want to take them off. It’s just a whole other way of using that space to earn revenue for that venue.”

With 300 decals already in Australia, Vertek’s digital tap talker has landed in the US with discussions also taking place in the UK, South Africa and Europe.

“Venues have a lot to gain with our animated tap decals,” she says. “It’s a completely new concept.”

Vertek’s digital tap decals.

Vertek is run by West Australian couple Ryan and Shinae Vergone.

Vertek decals

Drinks on me!

WHEN A TRIED and trusted legacy restaurant in a club gets replaced with something shiny and new, even on the Gold Coast, there is bound to be some resistance.

But Southport Sharks took the plunge and engaged Dave Galvin and his SITE Hospitality to open a venue inside a venue and that’s how the Italian concept, Mozza Mozza, was born. Word soon spread.

“From a club perspective and my perspective, we have just captured the hearts and imagination of a whole new demographic,” says Galvin. “We just haven’t seen this kind of demographic come through the club.

“It’s taken a while, but we are really starting to convert the members now. We are getting more walkin traffic which really wasn’t a thing when we first opened. I think they all just wanted to hear from the other members that it was worth the investment, so to speak.”

With a four-metre-tall olive tree as a centrepiece, the 160-seater Mozza Mozza inside Southport Sharks, now offers long lunches (Friday to Sunday) and dinners (Wednesday to Sunday). There are now plans to open seven days. But Galvin made it quite clear that for a deal to go ahead, he needed full control of the food – and beverage – a novel concept in Queensland registered clubs.

Mozza Mozza, a new venue with a novel liquor license and lease agreement has opened at Sharks in Southport, writes Grant Jones.

“The one thing that I wanted to be famous for – and we are – is cocktails. We sell hundreds of cocktails a week. We started with a really cool list,” Galvin says.

“Our signature is a Southport Sour using a mango gin from White Oak Distillery, a local award-winning local distillery, that’s 1.5 -2km from Southport Sharks. We sell over a hundred of those a week.

“All of the drinks are pretty Instagrammable and a lot of the Insta girls come along to get their photos.”

Galvin says working with club CEO Dean Bowtell and the board to achieve a viable F&B agreement was crucial.

“We played out a few scenarios, including license agreement, food-only sales, however the drink creation and sales were critically important for us execute the concept, and for us to take on the opportunity,” says Galvin who secured the location in mid-2021.

“As far as we are aware, this is the only external liquor and food license within a registered club in Queensland.”

SITE Hospitality created the 400sqm, Mozza Mozza from the existing and much-loved Carmody’s steak restaurant plus an events space.

Galvin’s partner has an overseas-based procurement business, so the venue was designed here then prefabricated in China – furniture, joinery, shopfronts, marble, small-wares, packaging and custom equipment – before being shipped to Australia.

Gold Coast born-and-bred head chef Mitch Chesterton is behind the menu offering classic Italian dishes from the woodfired-oven, including pastas, 48-hour fermented pizzas and starters of house-made focaccia and puff pizza bread. With summer feedback from the now-diverse patronage, there have also been a few menu tweaks. The bistecca is now gone, replaced by a pork cutlet. The mains will also be expanded.

“The beauty of Italian cuisine is it talks to the masses, so the audience is mixed,” Galvin says.

“Fridays and Saturday we are at peak. We are just slowly getting the second sitting, as on the Gold Coast they like eating early and getting up early.”

Other menu favourites include Nonna’s meatballs and a fried mortadella sando on fluffy white bread, plus there are plates of cured meats, including salami, prosciutto and mortadella – sliced to order.

“The club was very supportive of the Italian concept, and they knew that we would deliver the classic Italian fare with our Mozza Mozza flare,” he says.

Such is the success, other clubs are now reaching out to CEO Dean Bowtell about the concept. That’s something to talk about.

Group Executive Chef Nic Wood, SITE owner Dave Galvin and Head Chef Mitch Chesterton.

Miss Iggy’s offers retro fun to Revesby Workers

An eclectic retro arcade and diner inspired by street art brings a trendy inner city vibe to the heart of Revesby, writes Grant Jones.

MISS IGGY’S STANDOUT kitchen, bar, lounge and retro gaming arcade has been unveiled at Revesby Workers’ Club, offering an amazing pop of colour and attracting a new audience to the club in Sydney’s southwest.

Designed for kids at heart, it has a range of pinball machines and 80s and 90s arcade games, plus a dual dance machine. Designed to complement the Rogues Sports Bar, which opened in late 2021, Miss Iggy’s is set within the Club’s Brett Street foyer, allowing for the creation of a unique dual-venue offering to attract a younger demographic.

“Thorough research internally with staff, including external reviews of similar venues, was carried out by the working team for this project, to ensure the club was developing a product desirable to this market,” a club spokeswoman says. The 80s/90s nostalgia theme was born during the research process.

“The creation of a product that was distinctly bold and unique, with immense personality would resonate strongest with the market, and the inclusion for memorable moment opportunities through key design features was mandatory,” the venue says.

Revesby Workers’ says the response so far has been nothing short of positive with the recent launch party by ticket only and secured through a social campaign.

“In the days leading into the launch, there was

a surge of people trying to secure tickets, which continued well into the evening of the event,” the spokeswoman says.

The menu is designed to mix and match, with snack and sharing options including ‘tapas’ of Tostitos chip nachos with spicy Korean bulgogi, plus towers and platters that feature everything from charcuterie and fresh seafood to a cheese board selection.

There are also ‘Carnival’ options such as grilled corn cobs, Pluto Pups and Chiko Rolls or, for the sweet-tooth, blueberry fairy floss, chocolate snack bars and sour straps.

Drinks include the Fuchsia Fairy cocktail of Applewood coral gin, Okar tropic orange liqueur, lime, cranberry, orange blossom, blood orange soda, grenadine, persian rose floss, 100s and 1000s which can be bought individually or in a six-cocktail ‘balloon’. There is also a selection of flavoured ice teas.

The project architecture and interiors were created by Squillace with Boden Projects as the building and construction team. The club has continually evolved over the years with the introduction of the Revesby Village Centre, Brett Street Medical Precinct, kids entertainment with Flip Out and Zone Bowling, Tree House Early Childhood Centre, Health Mates Fitness Centre, extensive dining and bar selections, Rogues Sports Bar and now Miss Iggy’s.

In the days leading into the launch, there was a surge of people trying to secure tickets, which continued well into the evening of the event.

Revesby Workers Club spokesperson

On the crest of a wave

A variety of hospitality offerings could be a lifeline for surf clubs looking to attract visitors and earn income, writes

Grant Jones.

AS SMALL COMMUNITY hubs, surf lifesaving clubs often struggle to make ends meet, despite numerous government grants and grand plans for multi-million-dollar makeovers of dilapidated and ageing facilities.

The problem for many clubs or councils as landlord is that many weekday coffee drinkers and Sunday brunchers may not want to smell petrol fumes from outboards while sipping their $5 lattes or have their day spoiled when a surf carnival is up and running.

Some venues, such as Avalon Surf Life Saving Club on Sydney’s Northern Beaches have also struggled to attract operators in what many see as a seasonal venue. Trippas White Group had been operating the Beach House Restaurant and Kiosk in the club since 2015 but pulled the pin during the pandemic in winter 2021.

Northern Beaches Council is now evaluating new tenders.

But there are simple solutions. We take at the look at a new wave of operations that have been floated this summer.

Rowie’s by the Sea pop-up, Newport SLSC

Members of the close to 100-year-old Newport Surf Life Saving Club have been happily paddling along, servicing the needs of Sydney’s Northern Beaches locals without offering so much as a flat white, but watching on as other nearby powerhouse surf clubs, such as Mona Vale, unveil extravagant buildings with high-end restaurants, bars and cafes.

Newport surf club president Guyren Smith was recently approached by well-known local Rowie Dillon of Rowie’s Cakes fame, with a simple Sunday lunch concept. Choosing the middle ground, the club added a pop-up restaurant to the first floor that had only been operating as small bar, yoga studio and training rooms for members.

“Compared to Mona Vale, we are more part of the Newport village hub and we don’t particularly want to go into competition with the local businesses and restaurants,” Smith says.

The pop-up, Rowie’s by the Sea, now offers access to all with a set $35 menu of Ottolenghistyle dining – two proteins, salads and veg, plus a kids’ mac and cheese offering and dessert ($15 each), plus free live music from local artists.

“We don’t want to alienate the space from members,” Smith says. “It works well to use it a couple of days a week as a restaurant space but the problem is you do lose training space and access for members.

“It is really nice having more activity in the club and having people outside our normal membership base utilising our facilities, making

it a place to visit on a Sunday when it would normally be closed up and quiet,” he says.

“We spend a lot of time looking towards the beach and we don’t spend enough time looking to the community, so we wanted to focus on that a bit more.”

The club now makes money from the bar and takes a percentage of the pop-up profits without having to employ staff to cook in the kitchen. Dillon is now looking to expand the offering to other local clubs looking to make a small profit from their own vacant spaces.

“Extra income is always good for us, surf clubs are always scratching around here and there for extra money to do what we need to do,” Smith said.

Northern Beaches Council wanted to partially demolish, improve and extend the Newport Surf Life Saving Club to include a buried sea wall to protect the building which many see as unnecessary. But the $7.8m makeover plan was recently knocked back by the NSW Government’s independent State North Planning Panel. Council has asked for a review of the decision. Public submissions, including a food offering from Dillon, have now been submitted as part of the review process. In the meantime, locals are loving what is on offer.

“Something should’ve been done ages ago and now they are talking about tearing it down,” says social member Ian Totterdell.

“I just like coming for the atmosphere and the food and the live music. I love it,” his wife Sheralyn says.

Queensland’s surf coasts

The Sunshine State’s popular surf clubs have long experienced the dilemma: stay a member-focused club with little income, or go large and introduce cafes and restaurants to create cash turnover; handing over control of the space to a lessee or have the club undertake its own F&B operations.

Palm Beach Surf Club has a busy restaurant and Jeffersons cafe spaces and is often booked out at peak times. The 2021 Keno & Clubs Queensland Club of the Year (Intermediate) sits right on the sand at Palm Beach and has also implemented sustainability practices into its operation which earned it accreditation as the first surf club in Australia to be certified as Ocean Friendly by the Surfrider Foundation.

On the opposite end of the operations scale is Cafe Twelve91, at Pacific Surf Life Saving Club a few hundred metres up the beach. This pocket beachfront cafe, with access from the sand, offers tea and coffee, light meals and cakes, with all proceeds going back into life saving and community programs.

The view from Avalon SLSC where Rowie’s by the Sea is open on Sundays.

The Basin Dining Room, Mona Vale SLSC

The client brief for The Basin Dining Room at Mona Vale Surf Club was to create a casual restaurant that felt natural, comfortable and local: a space with a clear sense of place, while avoiding the standard beach aesthetic, says Giant Design’s Ed Kenny.

The result is a step up from clubs usually frequented by barefeet, boardshorts and sandals on sandy floors.

“It was important that the restaurant could transition seamlessly from day to night without the interior losing its pulse once the dominant water views fade to black,” Kenny told Club Management. “On a practical level the kitchen had to be capable of servicing the restaurant clientele as well as provide for functions for the club.”

Downstairs, the $10m project also includes The Brightside Café, operated by the Nine Yards Coffee, a first aid room, nippers’ facilities, storage, family change space and an accessible toilet.

“This building meets all the practical requirements of surf life savers, but it is also flexible for a wide range of uses,” Northern Beaches Mayor Michael Regan says. “This spectacular new building is an enduring legacy and something the whole community can be proud of.”

Mona Vale Surf Life Saving Club President Paula Tocquer said the new club building is “just amazing”.

“The quality and the design is beautiful. So many locals have commented on how it fits into the surrounding landscape, and it looks fantastic from the water,” Tocquer said. “The surf club is a building not only to keep the community safe but also as a place to meet, enjoy and gather.”

Mona Vale Surf Club has been an important hub for the local community for decades, says Kenny.

“Its rebuild and re-opening has been highly anticipated and warmly welcomed by both locals and visitors to the area. The addition of a beautiful dining space cements the club even further into life of the community by making it a destination at all times of the day and all times of the year, offering a location suitable for casual dining right through to the celebration of special events.”

Deck Café Whale Beach Surf Life Saving Club

What began as a move to feed volunteers on Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays and free up some volunteer time has evolved into something special, says Whale Beach Surf Life Saving Club treasurer Andrew Darley. The former Sunday barbecue is now being run by Richard Simec, owner and operator of Frank’s Bar and Cafe, in nearby Avalon.

Simec, who swims at Whale Beach, worked at the Ripples venue and was once venue manager at Avalon SLSC running the kiosk and restaurant, saw that despite summer approaching there was no food and beverage offering at the beach following the closure of the Boathouse Deli.

Unlike most other clubs, Whale Beach Surf Life Saving Club owns the building so, if agreed by the management committee, it could decide on its own outsourced F&B arrangements and open up the deck to the public. The idea was put to a vote of the management committee and in less than two weeks Simec was pouring his first coffee and cooking up free egg and bacon rolls for volunteers while charging visitors $11 and members $9.35.

“Richard feeds the patrol under the tent and the club can get a percentage of those other takings,” says Darley. “It started so well Richard asked to extend his hours. We extended it again and again over summer and it is now operating six days a week.

“Richard and I have started working on the agreement for beyond the end of this (summer) season.”

The tight menu still offers free egg and bacon plus a variety of pastries, pies and sausage rolls from a local bakery, upscale but affordable toasties with housemade barbecue sauces, kransky hotdogs and bircher muesli.

“We’ve come to an agreement now to continue on until the end of the year and I think … with 146 car spaces I think it’s going to be more of a destination,” says Simec who has opened nine hospitality venues and is well-known in the community.

“It’s been a phenomenal success, last weekend was just incredible, the number of people, happy customers in a nice, chilled vibe, in a glorified kiosk. I’ve done fine dining and I’ve had restaurants - you just bring back all those principles into a food and beverage venue that can be done well.

“The whole idea is to do it really simply, to offer a few items of quality, keep the prices low and have a symbiotic relationship with the beach, the club and myself.”

The new proposal will see the kiosk run six days a week (Tuesday-Sunday) during school holidays and five days (Wednesday-Sunday) until the end of April.

“He is confident he can make it a viable business during the week and during winter,” says Darley. “I am prepared to work with him from the club’s perspective as treasurer to make sure he has a viable business and that we have a viable food and beverage offering that’s servicing our members and the community because we also play a societal role, not just focused on club needs.

“We wanted to go into this in a way that was low risk for us and low risk for the supplier. It was a bit of a gamble because we weren’t sure it was going to work or not.”

Building works are also taking place around The Strand, including at the old Ripples group restaurant where Simec once worked, and tradies on the now-residential construction site will also patronise any new offering.

“I wanted three main things out of this,” Darley concludes. “I wanted a revenue stream for the club, I wanted to feed the patrol … and I wanted to make sure there was something in it for the members that would encourage new members to join as a lot of our members are associates and encouraging more membership means facilitating more interpersonal connection and societal engagement in a post-Covid environment.

“And because Richard’s a local, because he’s been running a local cafe for a long time, we are confident that we can make it a destination that people will come to and enjoy the fabulous beach that is our piece of paradise.”

Deck Cafe operator Richard Simec and his partner Tess Harris at Whale Beach SLSC.

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Lounging about

A cosy lounge bar space can be a real attraction for a large number of club guests, but getting the furnishings right is key to pulling off an area that will make your patrons stay a little longer. Vanessa

SOMETIMES A LOUNGE bar can be overlooked as a space within a club that doesn’t need that much attention. Especially when compared to areas like bistros, restaurants, gaming rooms, bars, and function rooms, simply because they’re not an overt revenue generator like those spaces.

But lounge bars are a vital component of a clubhouse for members and guests, and help extend their stay and spend, as well as providing a versatile space that can be used differently by various groups of people.

Benjamin McCall, club manager of Bargo Sports Club on the outskirts of NSW’s Southern Highlands, had this front of mind when he decided to create a new lounge bar space as part of a larger refurbishment in December 2021.

“We wanted to create some new areas and spaces within the clubhouse,” he says. “We wanted to give people options if they might feel a bit happier to sit in an area that wasn’t surrounded by TVs and having sports going on around the place; somewhere they can actually sit and have a conversation.”

Creating a mood

The new lounge bar at Bargo Sports Club, which is part of the CMNL group, is a dark and moody space and lends itself to night-time activation. A richly patterned carpet and moody floral wallpaper feature wall sourced from Donnelly Designs set the scene, alongside grey painted brick walls. Warm-toned timber furnishings with

Cavasinni takes a seat at the table.

dark accents from Design Choice helped add warmth, as did spotlighting and lantern-style candles on the tables. Those tables are a mix of round tables for smaller groups, plus leather bench seating around larger rectangular tables that allow for any configuration of groups. The final component of the lounge bar is a new fireplace, surrounded by light timber panelling, which is already getting a workout.

“We’re just outside the Southern Highlands and we’ve got the cool climate down here where we can see cool weather all year round. So, it’s a nice space to sit there and have a meal or a drink later in the night and you’ve got the fireplace going,” says McCall.

The club manager says he distinctly chose darker, more intimate tones throughout the lounge bar to create a mood that invites a different kind of occasion to the club.

“Those furnishings definitely help generate the mood of the area itself.”

It’s already being utilised by many guests enjoying the club’s reputable cocktail list or sharing a bottle of wine in the space. McCall says his team has also been surprised by the different demographics that have frequented the lounge bar.

“There’s been so many people that you wouldn’t expect to be drawn to that part of the venue, which has been quite great to see as well,” he says. “For example, we’ve had more of your sports bar type of person in there, because they’ll come out for dinner with their wife and they feel much more comfortable sitting in that space. It’s really good to see.”

Apart from those looking for a quiet spot to enjoy a drink and a little conversation, the space can also be booked for small private functions, such as birthdays. Club members have responded well to the new space, and it’s been a huge boon for the club, extending visitor stay within the venue.

It’s achieving wonders for us. It’s giving our club an extra add, it’s a different space that we’ve been trying to create.

Ben McCall, club manager, Bargo Sports Club

“It’s allowed us to have a space where people don’t have to be in the eyeline of sports TVs or your general club settings. It just gives them an alternate space to move towards and actually sit there until late night, which is great,” states McCall, who designed the space.

“It’s achieving wonders for us. It’s giving our club an extra add. It’s a different space that we’ve been trying to create, and I think it’s been achieved in that room.”

Comfort and use

At Armidale City Bowling Club in the Northern Tablelands of NSW, two adjacent lounge spaces have just had a furniture refresh. Club CEO Walter Sauer said the old furniture in the space was too heavy and cumbersome for older members who would frequently use the lounge space in front of the bar to have a meal, and an adjacent lounge next to the gaming room as somewhere to have a coffee and some refreshments. Bar stools were also an issue, as they had flared legs that proved to be a trip hazard.

“The furniture that was put in at the last refurb just wasn’t quite suitable. By that I mean, some of the armchairs were just too low for some of my older members to get in and out of. It was just too difficult. There were also a lot of coffee tables, which again makes it difficult if you want to eat or have snack in the lounge area. So, I thought I just need to cater to my people and to work with whatever else we’ve got going on in that space.”

The whole area needed a bit of a rethink to make it more user friendly. Sauer visited the Nufurn exhibit at AGE last year and got to work with the commercial furniture company’s business manager Kathy Sollars on finding a suitable and sleek solution for his two lounge areas.

The latest furniture trends

Kathy Sollars from Nufurn shares two big trends she’s seeing in club furniture.

Sustainable materials

“Something that I am excited to see is the increased use of fabric that is made from recycled plastic bottles. One linear metre uses approximately 32 recycled plastic bottles, which is enough to cover one chair. Sixty bottles would cover a tub chair.

“Everest is the latest fabric from the Wortley Group and is produced entirely from 100% recycled polyester. One lineal metre of Everest contains a minimum of 32 post-consumer recycled 500ml PET-bottles and conforms to the Global Recycled Standard for the use of recycled materials in textiles. It’s perfect for the eco-conscious consumer.

“Also, our timber suppliers are finding that they have to turn to different types of timber as the classic Beech is becoming harder to source. With this in mind, Nufurn is continuing to increase our aluminium ‘wood’ look chairs. Re-creating timber products in aluminium is reducing the impact on our forests and we can offer a 12-year warranty and increased longevity of their furniture for our customers.”

Softer lines, brilliant colours

“Other trends that I bought back from the Milan 2022 furniture expo was softer lines and curved backrests. Timber products are moving away from traditional stain colours and increasingly using blue and wine colour stains, which makes for an interesting colour palette.”

“I find that senior club members prefer to have a chair with arms to assist them in getting up,” advises Sollars. “As such we decided on the St Tropez Chair, a combination of dining/tub/arms/ modern chairs, which was just perfect for what the club was looking for.

“Another part of the brief was that the upholstery had to be easy to clean and hardwearing but still look inviting. We choose Wortley-Marlo vinyl which almost has a leather look about it. It’s easy to clean and has stunning colours which fit perfectly into Armidale’s décor.”

The two spaces now have new square tables and the chairs are made from an aluminium single-mould frame with a faux-timber look. There are different tabletops as well, with a marble effect on one while another features a timber slat effect. The stools also use the fauxtimber aluminium single-mould frame, with slats across the back and vinyl seating. Colour choices were also crucial to ensure differentiation between the adjacent lounges.

“Another important factor was that the club wanted to have two separate spaces, the lounge and in the front of the bar, so we choose to make this statement with vinyl colours. We went with a

lighter colour for the lounge and a darker colour for the area in front of the bar. This way, we are keeping the whole area flowing and cohesive,” explains Sollars.

Sauer agreed, saying he wanted members and guests to be able to visually differentiate between the different spaces.

“It needs different zones and different looks and different areas. We’re creating small, cosy spaces.”

Members are very happy with the new furnishings, posting on social media about the new look and the ease of use of the new chairs.

“They tell us how good the new furniture is, and how easy it is to get in and out of and move around now, whereas before it was just too heavy, too cumbersome to do.”

The spaces are well frequented by older members, as well as mothers’ groups and their young children during the day. At night, entertainment is enjoyed in both lounge spaces, including trivia.

While a lounge space can be easy to overlook when compared to areas of your club with higher turnover, paying a little bit of attention to the interiors of your lounges can make a big difference to your club’s bottom dollar.

It needs different zones and different looks… We’re creating small, cosy spaces.

Walter Sauer, Armidale City Bowling Club

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Reaching NEW heights

The growing push to create high-performance centres for sporting clubs across the country is reaching its peak, writes Grant Jones.

AS IF AUSTRALIA wasn’t sports mad enough. Hundreds of millions of dollars are now being spent around the country on world-class facilities for sporting clubs to take their game to the next level.

From ARU and NRL to AFL and basketball, the race is on to build the biggest and best centres of excellence for today’s modern sports club.

Here’s a list of what sporting fans and their teams will be enjoying in the years to come.

AFL Adelaide Crows

The Adelaide Crows Football Club announced its new $80 million HQ in mid-2022, choosing Thebarton Oval to house a world-class facility for both the men’s and AFLW teams and the community.

The men’s team will train on Thebarton’s main ground, set to be the size of Adelaide Oval, and Kings Reserve would be home to the Crows’ AFLW side and will have dimensions similar to the MCG.

“Aside from being a state-of-the-art headquarters for all players, coaches and staff, it will be our AFLW team’s home ground, having dedicated facilities for both athletes and spectators,” Crows chairman John Olsen said. “We’ve made a request of government [for funding] and we wait with bated breath.”

The new Crows HQ to be unveiled by 2025 will include an indoor artificial grass training field, new council community hub, a museum and cafe, plus a skateboard park, playground and soccer pitch-sized turfed area. It will also feature hydrotherapy, rehabilitation and medical amenities and publicly accessible allied health services such as physiotherapy.

Sydney Swans

The Sydney Swans start season 2023 with a bang, walking the short distance from their new $70 million HQ at the former RAS Royal Hall of Industries to the SCG on March 23, where they will meet Hawthorn in their first home match.

The high-performance training facilities and community centre in the 1913 red-brick heritage building features a build by FDC with soaring 12m ceilings, plunge pools, gym, change and shower rooms and indoor training facilities on a 40mx60m artificial turf surface.

It will also house a lounge for the Swans men’s team, women’s team, the QBE Sydney Swans Academy as well as community partners. There is a dining space overlooking the centre training field that will be activated for member functions and a Swans’ museum is currently being built.

“Central to Sydney Swans HQ is the ability to offer elite facilities for both our men’s and women’s teams, as well as more than 700 young athletes, boys and girls, engaged in the QBE Sydney Swans Academy,” says Sydney Swans Chief Operating Officer, Drew Arthurson.

There are also meeting rooms, a media room, offices for coaches, doctors and physios and administration. Players will also be able to use a creche, full kitchen and prayer/contemplation rooms built into the existing historic turrets. A 20m lap pool

has also been constructed alongside the former RAS Showbag Pavilion.

“Community is also at the core, with three non-profit partners residing rentfree alongside us: Lifeblood (Blood Bank); the GO Foundation; and the Clontarf Foundation. In addition, we are excited to welcome a commercial gym partner into the facility, with 98 Gym opening a new centre in March,” Arthurson says.

“Beyond the RHI building itself, we have also constructed an international standard basketball and multi-purpose court. This court will be co-managed by Hoops Capital, the owners of the Sydney Kings and Flames basketball teams. The court will cater to community and elite players alike, whilst also providing a valuable asset that school and community groups, and sporting associations, can access.”

This project received support from the Federal Government, NSW Government, the AFL, the Sydney Swans Foundation and its donors.

NBL

The Swans’ new Royal Hall of Industries base in Moore Park will also play host to Hoops Capital, owner of the Sydney Kings and Sydney Flames basketball teams.

The international standard basketball and multi-purpose court adjoining the Swans HQ will enable Hoops Capital to deliver on grassroots development right through to the elite level of the sport, with a particular focus on female participation and pathways.

Sydney Swans Chief Operating Officer, Drew Arthurson, said the partnership will see a crossover of some of Sydney’s premier sporting teams.

“We’re thrilled to be working with Hoops Capital, and in turn the Sydney Kings and the Flames, to deliver a flagship sporting hub in Sydney’s east,” Arthurson said. “The adjoining basketball court will be a showpiece for basketball in Sydney’s east and an elite facility that is available to the whole community.”

Fans of the Swans, Kings and Flames are set to benefit from the new partnership, with discussions already underway on adding value to memberships.

“This is the first step to a multifaceted partnership with the Swans,” said Paul Smith, chairman and majority owner of Hoops Capital.

The Sydney Kings and the Sydney Flames will continue to train at their respective facilities in Auburn but both teams will use Hoops Capital East when required.

NSW Minister for Sport Alister Henskens welcomed Hoops Capital to the highperformance facility.

“Featuring training, education and

administration facilities, this centre of excellence will be world class and ensure the Swans, Kings and Flames continue to challenge for premierships,” Henskens said.

Hoops Capital will also open Hoops Park EQ, comprising four street courts at the Entertainment Quarter opposite the Royal Hall of Industries, to provide outdoor hoops facilities for community use.

NRL Parramatta Eels

Parramatta Leagues Club, which owns the Parramatta Eels, will diversify its reliance away from poker machines by leasing commercial and retail space in a new $65 million rugby league facility in suburban Kellyville.

The Eels’ centre of excellence will be the largest dedicated rugby league facility in the country, with five playing fields. It is due to be completed in 2024.

“Kellyville Park will not only provide a

world-class, high-performance facility for the Parramatta Eels NRL, NRLW and Elite Pathways teams, but will also be a precinct that will enable our club to connect with the local community, cater to the changing needs of one of the fastest-growing regions in Australia, and increase participation across all forms of rugby league for boys and girls from grassroots all the way up to the elite levels of the game,” Eels chief executive Jim Sarantinos said.

The NSW Government contributed $33 million to the build, with $15m from the Commonwealth, more than $10 million from Hills Shire Council and $4.5 million from the Eels NRL club.

NSW Minister for Tourism and Sport and Western Sydney Stuart Ayres said investing in projects like the Centre of Excellence will benefit the game for generations to come.

“The opportunity to run community rugby league programs and NRL/NRLW programs side by side will play a major role

in being able to grow the sport and enable strong engagement with our elite athletes and the local community,” Ayres said.

Stage 1 is already completed with five new NRL Grade Fields, and a temporary modular facility used by the NRL team and Eels administration. Stage 2 is construction of a Community Centre and Match Facility for standalone NRLW matches while Stage 3 includes construction of a 6000sqm high performance centre to house state-ofthe-art training and administration facilities for the Parramatta Eels NRL and NRLW teams.

Roosters

In January, the Sydney Roosters unveiled its Centre of Excellence in Moore Park, which is set to be the Sydney NRL club’s home for the next 25 years.

The Nick Politis Centre of Excellence runs along the entire eastern grandstand of Allianz Stadium and houses a state-ofthe-art gym, lecture theatre, sauna and recovery pools. The Roosters also unveiled The Foundation Room, a club museum containing artifacts ranging from its first season in 1908 to the present.

The club announced the state-of-the-art facilty would be named after Nick Politis AM, club chairman since 1993.

“It’s no secret how much the Sydney Roosters means to me, and I am genuinely humbled to see my name at the entrance to our wonderful new Centre of Excellence,” Politis said.

“I take so much pleasure from my involvement with the club, and would once again like to thank my board for this wonderful honour.”

A bust of Politis will take pride of place in the main entryway to the facility, a few hundred metres from the AFL Sydney Swans’ new HQ. The Roosters have called Moore Park home since games were first played there in 1908.

Wests Tigers

Wests Tigers’ Zurich Centre, part of the new $84.5m Concord Oval Community and

Pictures: Roosters Digital for NRL.

Sports Precinct, was unveiled late last year.

The new HQ will house Wests Tigers’ NFRL team in addition to its inaugural NRLW team and will include several community initiatives which will focus on inclusion and diversity, as well as grassroots development.

The Zurich Centre provides new recreation spaces for Sydney’s rapidlygrowing inner-west population and includes a basketball court, playground, café and community rooms.

Wests Tigers CEO Justin Pascoe said the project is a huge plus for the area.

“We are so fortunate as an NRL club to have such a wonderful facility, one that is the envy of other sporting bodies worldwide,” Pascoe said.

The NSW Government contributed $64.6 million towards the precinct redevelopment, including the Wests Tigers Centre of Excellence.

Minister for Sport Alister Henskens said at the opening in December that he believes the complex is a game-changer for Sydney’s inner-west.

“From community engagement to high performance outcomes, this facility has reinvigorated the Concord Oval precinct which will help grow the sport and provide local pathways for our future NRLW and NRL stars,” he said.

The players’ centre of excellence will complement Tigers supporters’ new home at Rozelle after Chinese developer Heworth amended plans for the derelict Balmain Leagues Club site. Heworth’s new mixed-use project will include a Wests Ashfield Leagues Club, which amalgamated with the former Balmain Tigers Leagues Club and is now part of newly renamed Holman Barnes brand.

ARU

The NSW Rugby Union opened its Centre of Excellence late last year with the facility made possible by $20m in funding through the NSW Government’s Centres of Excellence Program.

Located at the University of NSW David Phillips Sports Complex at Daceyville, the

centre was built by Kane Constructions and features training facilities, function spaces, meeting areas and shared offices.

The Centre of Excellence also features a new international standard rugby field, 500sqm gym, medical facilities, team theatrette, analysis room, recovery spaces including hot and cold pools and sauna, and administration spaces.

The facilities will allow NSWRU to run its men’s and women’s high-performance and pathway programs.

“This investment by the NSW Government is part of our $1 billion community sports infrastructure boom which is delivering the best grassroots facilities, while ensuring sports teams such as the Waratahs, can compete for titles for

years to come,” Minister for Sport Alister Henskens said.

“A key component of the project is the dedicated multi-purpose community facilities that enable NSW Rugby to expand their grassroots sport programs, initiatives, and engagement.”

NSWRU CEO Paul Doorn said the Centre of Excellence will be a game changer for rugby in NSW.

“This state-of-the-art facility will benefit the Waratahs and rugby across NSW for many years to come and heralds a new era for rugby in NSW,” he said. “This new facility combined with our return to our brand-new home at Allianz Stadium demonstrates the sky truly is the limit for the Waratahs and NSW Rugby.”

Wests Tigers new Zurich Centre in Concord.

The great amalgamation debate

There is a dilemma facing small clubs across the country as they hit yet more financial hurdles. Angela Saurine investigates.

IT WAS THE issue that divided a town. On one side was the Bangalow Bowling Club board, which wanted to join forces with Norths Collective in a bid to save the venue from financial ruin

On the other stood a group of concerned locals, who strongly opposed handing control to a Sydney-based conglomerate, with fears it would add more poker machines and sell the much-loved community hub off to developers. In the lead-up to the vote in November debate raged across the village in the Byron Bay hinterland, with heated discussions on social media. In the end, promises of a much-needed cash injection won the members over, with 289 voting for the amalgamation and 192 against.

It wasn’t the first time the club, established in 1910, had found itself in a precarious financial position. It had been forced to close its doors due to insolvency in 2012, the community raising hundreds of thousands of dollars to repay creditors and

administrator fees, plus selling several EGM licences, before reopening four months later. Things were going OK before Covid hit, but the repeated lockdowns, closely followed by months of rain and the devastating Northern Rivers floods took their toll.

In January 2022, after a dire warning from their accountant, the board contacted ClubsNSW which suggested Norths Collective would be the best cultural fit.

“A lot of big clubs are just pokies, pokies, pokies,” Bangalow Bowlo president Atosha Clancy says. “Norths were much more community focused than a lot of the other big players.”

Over months of community consultation, once-reluctant members gradually started to come on board. One regular bowler, who initially said the merger would happen “over his dead body”, cried tears of relief after the result was announced.

“We had $550,000 of debt and the reality is that if this hadn’t

Bangalow Bowling Club GM Chris Watson with Norths Collective CEO Luke Simmons.

been on the horizon, we may have been forced to shut our doors,” says Clancy, who took the reins at the height of the vitriol in September, after the previous president resigned.

“There was an awful lot of noise on Facebook,” she explains. “It became very political.”

Club management had tried its best to make the venue viable, with everything from weekly Thai food nights with chef John Verano – a presenter on Fuel TV’s Snow Chef – to comedy gigs, live bands and functions ranging from weddings to wakes. Partly inspired by the much-touted pokie-free Petersham Bowling Club, a Keep the Bowlo Local group was formed, urging the community to give it a chance to take the club over and turn things around.

Petersham’s current president, George Catsi, even travelled to Bangalow for a Q&A with former 7.30 Report host Kerry O’Brien, who lives in the region. But Clancy says the poker machine-free Sydney club was very different.

“It doesn’t have a championship grade bowling green, they don’t support community sporting clubs and that LGA has a massive permanent population and public transport to the door,” she says.

In a statement on the Keep the Bowlo Local website, the group says it was “truly disappointed and dismayed” at the outcome. “This is a completely avoidable and unnecessary loss of a community asset, which Bangalow may live to regret in the future when things inevitably don’t turn out as ‘promised’,” it says. “The Bowlo could have flourished and succeeded under a fresh new board of directors with appropriate skills and experience, with an achievable and solid plan, and the drive to implement it, while providing generous support to local sporting clubs and the community. Sadly, our club’s future is now out of our hands.”

But it’s not the first time the club faced financial difficulties, in February 2013 the debt-stricken club put out a call for “business

OPTIONS FOR STRUGGLING CLUBS

COMMUNITY OWNERSHIP

Locals took over Petersham Bowling Club in 2007, getting rid of all poker machines and re-emerging as a familyfriendly venue with live music and regular events.

AMALGAMATION

Bangalow Bowling Club, Lane Cove Club and Beecroft Bowling Club are among those venues that have merged with Norths Collective.

PRIVATISATION

Fassifern Sports Club, an amalgamation of six clubs that owned the Boonah Bowls Club in Queensland’s Scenic Rim, sold the property to a prominent local farming family. It is reopening under private management with a new restaurant.

LEASING TO A PRIVATE OPERATOR

City of Canada Bay has leased out Five Dock Bowling Club to a private restaurant operator with new synthetic greens open for competition play and barefoot bowls. It no longer has EGMs.

CLOSURE

Coledale RSL Club closed in December despite valiant efforts to keep it alive, including merger talks and a Go Fund Me campaign. Meanwhile, The Croatian Club purchased Concord RSL site, which had gone broke, and is now undertaking a massive refit after plans were approved by City of Canada Bay.

partners” for assistance, then a month later the board sold off a 3000sqm parcel of land next to the town’s sporting oval. Ongoing financial pressures failed to ease over the next decade as the debts mounted to the tune of $600,000 with the club finding itself on the verge of insolvency.

Mergers are a scenario being played out over and over again – with varying degrees of opposition. The not-for-profit Norths Collective began its life as Norths Group when North Sydney Leagues Club amalgamated with North Sydney Bowling Club in 1996 and took over Seagulls at Tweed Heads in 1998. Norths Bowlo was given a multi-million-dollar refurbishment and reopened as The Greens North Sydney in 2014. Two years later it merged with Lane Cove Club which morphed into The Alcott Lane Cove in 2018. In 2020, Norths amalgamated with Beecroft Bowling Club, turning it into Hamptons-inspired eatery The Verandah and is also in merger talks with Killara Bowling Club.

It’s a sad fact that, without such unions, these beloved clubs are in danger of dying out. A study by the University of NSW School of Built Environment found the number of bowling clubs in Sydney fell from 210 in 1980 to 128 in 2022. Many that have survived have relaxed their rules to appeal to social players and reinvented themselves as hybrid sporting clubs with occasional barefoot bowls, live music, entertainment and dining to attract a more diverse crowd.

While Norths Collective CEO Luke Simmons concedes clubs have become over-reliant on gaming, he says revenue allows

them to put money back into local sporting organisations while emerging facial recognition technology can help those who have self-excluded to keep away from pokies. Meanwhile, Kingscliff local Chris Watson will continue to manage the club, and the number of machines at Bangalow will increase from four to 10 in the next year or so, adding one every year until it reaches the agreed cap of 15, with the EGMs hidden behind a wall.

Simmons says it’s important for potential merger clubs to consider their options early when they are in a position of strength not desperation.

“Sometimes it’s about recognising this process is going to take nine to 12 months, so it’s not something you can leave until the very end because you will go insolvent before that and go into administration, then developers will come in and sell the land off,” he says. “We don’t come in and look at it as it’s going to be a block of flats in two years’ time. We’re all about making clubs relevant and running them into the future. We really need to diversify to be responsible and sustainable.”

And with 60,000 North Collective members, he says the Bangalow community shouldn’t be worried about the site being sold to developers. “They wouldn’t vote for it because they wouldn’t want that to happen to their own local club,” he says.

Chef Jack Stuart and Emily Lochran at THE BOWL at Boonah Bowls Club in Queensland’s Scenic Rim.

Picture: Peter Wallis

Despite its long history, Bangalow Bowling Club faced a grim future without the help of Norths Collective.

A winning $25m renovation

New restaurants, bars, foyer, an event centre and huge sports bar, pave the way for Western Sydney’s new international gateway, writes Grant Jones.

WHEN ST MARYS Rugby League Club first opened its doors on Melbourne Cup Day in 1982, few would have thought that 40 years later this community club would be unveiling a $25 million redevelopment project.

With a new Western Foyer, Saints Event Centre and Saints Sports Bar, the project was a long-term vision of the board which now marks a significant milestone in the club’s history.

“Bringing this vision to reality has been extremely satisfying and rewarding for all, and to say that the club is excited by the result is an understatement!” St Marys Rugby League Club CEO Rod Desborough said. “The architect nailed the brief, and the new facilities are on par with the very best in the industry.”

Located in the growth corridor of Western Sydney, the forward-thinking club continues to evolve in response to demographic change, major infrastructure projects and the arrival of the new Western Sydney International (Nancy-Bird) Airport.

The Saints Event Centre will cater to a future population boom and increasing demand for event space. The additional meeting and conference space also now positions the adjoining Holiday Inn Sydney St Marys, owned and operated by St Marys Rugby League Club, as the preferred accommodation choice for Western Sydney’s corporate market.

The brief to Bergstrom Architects, with a build by FDC, was to create a “wow” factor with a new entrance and facade, one that would create

a real presence and a sense of excitement and anticipation; an American-style sports bar with a strong focus on the audio-visual presentation of all sports; and a world-class event centre that offers the very best in design, comfort, fully integrated audio-visual technology, and a sophisticated ambiance.

The main entrance has been reorientated with an impressive and distinctive façade while the grand foyer features LED walls with 3D cascading waterfalls and marine life.

The new Saints Sports Bar offers patrons the ability to watch every big game, race, fight, or match on a massive 4.8m x 2.7m screen, or any of the 45 4K LED screens in the bar. It also has 18 beers on tap, plus signature cocktails and wine on tap, and a sports bar menu featuring all the favourites, such as pizzas, pastas, wings and sliders.

The long-awaited Saints Event Centre offers six rooms, over 500sqm of flexible, stylish and contemporary event space with a state-of-the-art audio-visual technology. It is designed for multiday conferencing and gala events and will cater to the future population boom and increasing demand for event space as major infrastructure projects are underway and the new Western Sydney International (Nancy-Bird) Airport progresses.

The additional meeting and conference space also now positions the adjoining Holiday Inn St Marys, owned and operated by St Marys Rugby League Club, at the forefront of corporate hospitality.

Bao buns. hoisin smoked duck breast, pickled ginger, bean sprouts, shallot & coriander salad with chili sambal mayo.

Turmeric & cumin spiced squid. sriracha thousand island dressing with rocket, fennel, ruby grapefruit & sliced lime at the new venue.

Arana patrons get their just desserts

Learning to bite off a major renovation in manageable chunks next time around came from previous experience. By Grant Jones

A DECADE AGO Arana Leagues bit off more than it could chew when the Brisbane club decided to renovate the whole bottom level of the venue all at once. Lesson learned. This time around a refresh of the club is taking place in phases with the first stage just complete and design tweaks currently being made to Stage 2 – which will enclose an outdoor space.

“It was just time for a refresh for the cafe and this time around we just decided to bite it off in manageable chunks,” says amiable CEO and 15-year club veteran Glynn Wallis.

The project duration, with a design by BSPN Architecture and build undertaken by Ashley Cooper Construction, took 16 weeks and cost $2.4 million.

When the doors reopened there was a larger refreshed café, gelato bar and kitchen redevelopment plus expanded and refurbishment gaming room consisting of new layout, new gaming bases, screens and updated wall and floor finishes. Space between EGMs has also been well received in the refurbed gaming room.

“It looks fabulous, I can’t believe how good a job they did of it,” Wallis says.

The cafe with its bright, spacious interior also features a fully redesigned menu which includes the dessert and gelato bar. Mainstream menu items include breakfast dishes and toasted sandwiches alongside bao buns,

nachos, plus traditional items such as pizza and burgers.

“We have chefs back in the kitchen now and we have made it a more efficient kitchen with a full menu,” he says.

A full kitchen crew means a brunch selection including crab and salmon croquettes and a sweet potato and lime waffle. Wallis says the new fit-out and food has been a hit with the 20,000-plus members and visitors post-covid.

“We are still refining the menu. We are probably going to put a few more dishes on,” Wallis says. “When we put fish and chips on the menu, out they flew!”

Located next to the main playing field, Stage 2 will include an extension of the first floor which will be enclosed with glass walls and a mezzanine level and the proposed separation of the sports bar from the dining area. That will also include a new menu which is yet to be decided.

“Trying to find a menu price that people will pay is certainly a challenge right now,” Wallis says.

Further planned works include a proposed car park and façade facelift. That facelift will also include improved access to the clubhouse for pedestrians via a new entrance plaza and drop-off facility.

It’s a long way from the first clubhouse of West Arana Hills Junior Rugby Leagues Club which opened in an old cow paddock in 1972. That’s half a century ago.

menu items include breakfast dishes and toasted sandwiches alongside bao buns,

plus traditional items such as pizza and burgers.

It looks fabulous, I can’t believe how good a job they did of it. The cafe with its bright, spacious interior also features a fully redesigned menu which includes the dessert and gelato bar. Mainstream

nachos,

Glynn Wallis, Arana Leagues CEO

Salvatore Coco started performing in clubs at a young age and is now a familiar face as a host at club events.

Q&A Salvatore Coco

Making his Australian TV debut in 1993 as the witty wise guy, schoolyard entrepreneur Con Bordino in the hit series Heartbreak High, Salvatore Coco has also starred as notorious enforcer Harry “Hammer” Hamoud in the 2011 Silver Logie award-winning Underbelly III – The Golden Mile. His feature film lead roles include the wide-eyed optimistic talent agent Joey Grasso in Shirley Barrett’s Walk the Talk, a comedy set on the Gold Coast, Melina Marchetta’s Looking for Alibrandi, Dein Perry’s Bootmen and Gregor Jordon’s award-winning Two Hands. salvatorecoco.com.au

Do you remember your first appearance in a club?

My club performances date back to when I was a teen as part of Greg Anderson’s The Electric Horseman under his guidance as a Keen Kid. We would perform all across the country at all the major clubs. As a Keen Kid, the group would do so many variety shows in the club arena and at corporate events.

How important have clubs been in your role as a performer?

Clubs have taught me the importance of being a performer and the relationship we have with our audiences. Clubs gave me the tools to understand the fundamentals of stage etiquette and presence.

What other roles do you have in the club space?

My main role within clubs at present is hosting and emceeing roles but in the past my purpose was as a variety artist and soloist.

What changes have you seen in the club over years?

Clubs over the years have now evolved to become a hub for all ages to enjoy. Clubs are vibrant, inviting and are a place to enjoy various forms of live entertainment.

What role do you see clubs playing in the community?

Clubs are a way for locals to congregate in a safe environment where there is plenty to do i.e. bars, bistro, auditoriums and some even have theatre/cinemas.

What’s your favourite thing to do in a club when you are not enceeing or performing?

Generally I enjoy and admire the advancements that clubs have made to their establishments and I thoroughly enjoy dining and spending an evening at a club.

What gigs do you have coming up in the club space?

At this stage all my gigs are within the wedding industry although as we get to the end of the year I’ll be back to doing more hosting work within the club scene.

Entertainer and MC

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