Many of you may be aware, and some may remember, that many years ago The Dubbo Kangaroos had their own fully licenced club situated diagonally opposite Number 1 oval. The season of 1987 finished with a bang with first grade winning the Central West premiership. The weekend celebrations were long and hard, however there turned out to be a most unpleasant ending to that special week. On the Friday after our win the bank walked in, locked the doors, and took away the keys. Unfortunately that was the end of our club. At this time interest rates had risen to around 19% and I believe this was the cause of the Club falling behind with the Bank. This left us with a dreadful dilemma because, not only did we not have a meeting place, there was nowhere to hang our memorabilia and Honour boards. Unfortunately these had to be placed in storage.
Over the next few years many ideas were put forward as to how our lost club could be replaced but unfortunately from purely a cost point-of-view these were all well outside the club's available finance. For many years I have had a close friendship with Tony Kelly the then General manager of Dubbo and I had frequently discussed our lack of club facilities with him. One day in 1996 I received a phone call from Tony asking me to meet him inside Number 1 oval. This seemed a strange request but I kept the appointment and found him sitting on a seat in front of the Grand stand. He pointed across to the public toilet on the other side of the ground and said: "I think you could build a club house around that toilet block because I'm sure Council would be willing to ratify this." I thought this to be a strange request and gave it some considerable thought over the next few days. I then approached a colleague of mine by the name of Bruce Dunne who had drafting and architectural experience and owned the appropriate software. He volunteered to draw up some plans and after several discussions he produced a design that was submitted to council. Unfortunately the design was not acceptable to Council, the message being that the design must be closer to the design of the Grandstand. Hence Bruce then re-designed his plans with the current veranda and curving roof on the top. Plans were then re-submitted and duly acceptable. Although technically the Clubhouse belonged to Council we were granted permanent residency with the right to sub-let to other sporting or social bodies at a reasonable cost on the undertaking that we meet the estimated maintenance costs that may occur over the years.
Understandably it took some time to convince all club members that we should proceed but finally 100% support was given. We set a date, which I think was late 1996, to commence building and Steve Neave, being a builder by occupation, volunteered to supervise. This was when the magnificent club spirit and the camaraderie shown by all club members from Colts through to First Grade came forward. From then on virtually all manual work was undertaken on a voluntary basis by club members who turned up 7 days a week, when possible, to assist. We managed to have the club finished and ready for opening by the first round of the 1997 season.
The only real cost to the Dubbo Club was for materials used and, if I remember rightly, the overall cost was in the vicinity of $42,000.
The reason I have put this short history of our current Club House together is to remember the wonderful club spirit that emerged during that period of time and I would like to think that this spirit still remains within the club and if ever needed would once more appear.
No one should forget the support we received from Tony Kelly, the late Tony McGrane then Mayor of Dubbo, Bruce Dunne for his designing expertise, the late Gerry Peacock for granting us $10,000 funding, Steve Neave for overseeing the whole project and every member of the club who gave their time so willingly.
Shan Abbott (Former President).
