Our History

It was in June 1936, as the economic conditions were starting to recover that a public meeting was called in the Lidcombe Town Hall and a committee was formed comprising the Hon. JT Lang MLA., the Hon. JH Gander, MHR., the Hon. SA Lloyd, MLA., CW Phillips, J Cronin, GL Gamble, AR McVicar, MT Guildfoyle, GN Shirt, F Wilson, EA Wyatt and J. Littlejohn.

These men gave their time and effort to form the Lidcombe Bowling club. The original green consisting of 6 rinks was built mainly by relief workers, and materials and filling was carted in drays provided by CW Phillips. Total cost was £1348.6.1. CW Phillips was elected Foundation President. An old Army hut was erected adjacent to the eastern end of the Lidcombe RSL Club. This served as a Clubhouse for the following seventeen years when the basic structure of the Clubhouse as we know it today was opened by Mr. W Carson, President of the Royal NSW Bowling Association in 1953.

During the life of the Lidcombe Bowling Club we have been fortunate to have many of our members as prominent Civic fathers with many well known parks and streets named after them. It would be remiss in compiling this resume if it failed to list some of those members whose names have been perpetuated on the Board of Honour in Council Chambers, Hospitals, and various Clubs throughout the district - N Wyatt, F Wilson, E Norman, A McVicar C Phillips, H Brown, P McLaughlin and T Keegan.

In 1937-38 Lidcombe won the Metropolitan Grade 4 Pennant, an achievement which was repeated in 1946-47.

In 1963, the Lidcombe Ladies Bowling Club was formed and Mona Cooper was installed as Foundation President. The Ladies have added a change to the general atmosphere, both inside and out on the green, especially when we look back on the days when it was a men's domain and we played three teams home and three teams away (and no trophies), and the players retired to the Clubhouse for afternoon tea complete with silver candelabra, comprising fresh scones, jam and fresh cream provided by Miss Fell.

In 1976 a government edict required the various clubs to be formed into a Company; and this required the rewriting of the Constitution and often altering, adding to and deleting and with many "Special" meetings the new Constitution was acceptable to the Licensin Court and the Club became a Company in December, 1982. It was about this time the Club's western boundary was established and the portion of the park was purchased from Council for the recreation and enjoyment of the citizens of the community.

Due to the foresight of the various committees and later, Board of directors, the club has been fortunate in purchasing many properties adjacent to Club premises and these have stood the Club in a secure position in difficult times.

In 1997, Lidcombe Men's Bowling Club won the Zone 12 Grade 6 Pennant

In 1998, Lidcombe Men's Bowling Club won the Zone 12 Grade 7 Pennant

In 2000, a “What If” committee was formed to look at future options for the development of the Club.  Negotiations commenced with Lidcombe RSL, Lidcombe Catholic Workmen’s Club (now Dooleys) and Sydney Bulls Rugby League Club to discuss amalgamation options, and in September 2001, the three organisations gave presentations to the members of the Club.  The members were asked to consider the three options, with a fourth option to reject all three proposals also to be considered.  Initially, the members decided to further investigate an amalgamation with Lidcombe RSL.  However, any amalgamation would only be considered after Lidcombe RSL had bought their property from the Sub-Branch

In March 2002, a presentation was made to members of the Club to enter into an agreement with a developer to demolish the houses owned by the Club at 5, 7, 9 Mark Street and build a block of 18 units.  The proposal was that the developer would be responsible for the cost of all plans, contracts and legal fees.  The Club would receive six of the 18 units plus a car park of 30 spaces to be constructed under the small green.  The only snag to the proposal was that 7 and 9 Mark Street were zoned “private recreational” and they would need to be re-zoned “residential”.  The members voted 65 to 7 in favour of the proposal.  The request to re-zone the houses in Mark Street was submitted to Auburn Council in October 2002, and the request was approved at the Council meeting on 4 December 2002.

In August 2003, Clubs NSW established Club Biz to distribute funds to small Clubs to improve and enhance their premises.  The Club applied for funds to have the premises painted, and to buy a new carpet.  It was also proposed to install a big screen TV with a projector hung from the ceiling.  The Club received a grant of $18,000 towards this project.  The carpet alone cost $18,960, so the Club decided to fund the rest of the improvements from its own funds.  The enhancements were completed by the end of 2003.

Meanwhile, the re-zoning of the houses in Mark Street which had been approved was still waiting approval by the Department of Planning.  Negotiations had commenced with Council prior to submitting a Development Application which was planned to be submitted by the end of 2004.

A ceremony was held on Sunday 8^th August 2004 to name the main green the “Cooper Green” in recognition of the contributions to the Club made by Wally and Gertie Cooper, and Geoffrey and Mona Cooper over many years.  Wally and Mona Cooper were no longer alive, but we were fortunate that both Gertie and Geoffrey Cooper were able to be present at the ceremony.

In 2005, Lidcombe Men's Bowling Club won the Zone 12 Grade 5 Pennant.

In April 2005, a Development Application was submitted to Council to build a four storey residential flat building containing 23 two bedroom units with 28 car spaces for residents and 30 car spaces for the Club to be located under the top green.  Council responded with a number of objections in July 2005.  Then, early in 2006, Auburn Council announced that they were developing a plan for Lidcombe Town Centre, and requesting input into the plan.  Following feedback from the plan which, if passed would allow us to build a higher building, we decided to withdraw our development application in May 2007. 

In 2008, Lidcombe Men's Bowling Club won the Zone 12 Grade 7 Pennant

Council expected the draft LEP to be gazetted in 2009.  However, this timeframe proved to be unattainable, and the draft plans were not exhibited until November 2009 with feed-back required by January 2010.  The LEP was finally approved at the end of 2010.

In 2011, Lidcombe Men's Bowling Club won the Zone 12 Grade 4 Pennant, and was runner-up in the State, losing to Molong in the State Final.

The Development Application for an eight storey building comprising 82 units was pre-lodged in May 2012.  Following feed-back from Council, the final DA (for 8-9 storeys and 79 units) was submitted on 16th April 2013, and the DA was approved by Council on 16th October 2013.  Development commenced in October 2014, and the building was completed at the beginning of October 2016.  10 units were handed over to Lidcombe Bowling Club and rented out in December 2016.

The top green was levelled and covered with road base to become a car park.  A DA is being submitted to formalise the use of the land as a car park.

The next major development will be installation of a bistro, and refurbishment of the Club.  This is expected to occur by Christmas 2017.