‘They said it couldn’t be done’: Pokie-free Petersham Bowlo thrives at 125 | michaelkoziol
When the Petersham Bowling Club’s new board of directors decided to ditch their poker machines in 2007, they were told it couldn’t be done. The business model relied on the money reliably delivered by the pokies, ClubsNSW advised at the time; what they really needed to do was upgrade them.
The club is known not just for surviving in an era when so many bowling clubs have bitten the dust, but for defeating two of Sydney’s seemingly unstoppable giants: poker machines and property developers. “The Petersham Bowlo is an inner west icon ... It was locals who fought to keep the club in community hands where it has thrived.”Two years later, the increasingly desperate board tried again with a plan to lease the lower green to Eddy Groves’ now-defunct ABC Learning for a childcare centre.“Bowling clubs are a favourite for developers because they’re usually f---ed and on the way out,” then board member Paul Wade told theat the time. “No one bowls here any more because they’re all dead.
“We had a lawyer, a landscape architect, a teacher – we were a motley bunch,” he says. “We had our first board meeting and went ‘Geez, what have we done? What do we do?’” Anthony Albanese, the local federal MP, released a statement in 2016 marking 10 years since the club went pokies free. The now prime minister said the club’s birthday was an opportunity to celebrate both the venue and the people who love it.
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