Woomera - Reminiscing (Part 3)
While all this was going on more and better facilities were being provided to existing and new sporting, entertainment and recreation clubs under the sponsorship of the Department of Supply, Woomera Board and the Woomera Entertainment and Recreation Institute (WERI). It was realised that to keep the calibre of people that was needed in an isolated place like Woomera, modern-day facilities had to be provided and they were. Facilities were divided into main categories of a like nature.
Cat. A. - Multiple use (ovals, theatre, swimming pools. etc) were
fully funded by the Department of Supply.
Cat. B. - Part club, part public, were part-funded by the Department
and part by the club.
Cat. C. - Exclusive club use. Funding was the responsibility of
the user club.
The Clubs often applied to the WERI for financial assistance to both build and maintain their facilities. The WERI then channelled the proposal to the Woomera Board with its recommendation, as the Woomera Board received the profits from the Community Store for this and other community purposes.
The WERI was originally called the WER Committee and had as its Management Committee a representative of the Management committee of the governing committee of each sport and recreation club. As the appointed (by the Superintendent) Chairman of this body, I considered this system to be too unwieldly as between 20 to 40 people were attending our meetings.
With the agreement of some of the older and wiser heads (take a bow Ray Armstrong), I wrote a new constitution dividing our Committee into a number of Sub-committees, each consisting of bodies of a like nature based on the category system. The Chairman of each Sub-committee became a member of the Management Committee of the WERI and brought forward recommendations on behalf of their organisations. I, as Chairman WERI, automatically became a member of the Woomera Board and, in turn, brought forward WERI recommendations where necessary. It was interesting to note that at the beginning, the delegates to the WERI were nearly all very parochial and thought only of their own clubs. Under the new system, this attitude gradually changed and the challenge of the broad picture became uppermost in their minds sometimes to the detriment of their own organisations.
The previously mentioned three grassed ovals with turf wickets came into use, but not before the first oval to be grassed - the Newman Oval- was nearly used out of existence. We had five Aussie Rules Clubs, four Rugby League, four Soccer and four Aussie Rules Junior teams all wanting to play on the Newman Oval every Saturday and Sunday during the winter months. Every body wanted, of course, to use the grassed oval. It was used from early Saturday morning to late on Sunday night. Thank goodness we didn't have lights on the oval in those days.
It is worth a mention that at this point in time, that Woomera was the only place in South Australia where Rugby League was played. Consequently, when they played interstate teams on a couple of occasions our players were accorded State status. The first time our team played a West Australian Under 19 Team heading for games in the Eastern States. They beat us 48 to nil. But our boys had represented South Australia.
Aussie Rules was the most popular football game - some would say the only true football - and was played on a Sunday. This was, of course, not conducive to a fit work force on Monday morning. While in Woomera over the Easter long weekend for the 50th Anniversary I drove my car to the Newman Oval, parked my car at the boundary fence and, ignoring the state of our once beautiful oval, closed my eyes and reminisced. On the boundary opposite to the dressing sheds I could visualise and hear Mary Hardy, Jan Davis, Gail and Daph Zehender, Rosa Lazic and a heap of other Village "ladies" screaming at the top of their voices "UP THE VILLAGE". In front of the dressing sheds were Shirley Smoker, Joan Lavender, the Morley girls and a heap of other Centrals "ladies" with a penetrating "UP THE MIGHTY CENTS". Over on the side of the Pimple - a natural grandstand - I could hear a slightly more sedate Avis Leverington, Flo Renton, Claire Surman and a heap of other Woomera West "ladies" calling "CARN THE TIGERS". I couldn't see the husbands as they were all probably hiding from their vocal wives. It seemed just like yesterday, especially as I saw them all during that weekend. The ladies had not changed at all, it was just that their husbands had got older.
Other facilities that we were able to get built, expanded or improved were the swimming pool complex, the Bowling Club, squash courts, tennis courts, netball courts, basketball courts, Pistol Club and range, Small Bore Club, Gliding Club (you still owe me a flight Ian), Archery Club, Baseball Club, Amateur Radio Club and so the list goes on.
At any one stage, there were 105 Clubs/Teams in a population of less
than 6,000 men women and children. Surely some sort of world record as
all clubs and teams were active and prospering. Talk about a sports-mad
town.
One of the highlights of this era was the building and then the
opening of the new Woomera Theatre on Friday, September 13, 1963.
It was my honour and pleasure to introduce Colonel Honeysett to officially
open the Theatre. We were lucky in those days, as these days the politicians
would make certain they got into the act. I was lucky to be able to get
some good southern acts for the variety show that followed. This was compered
by an old friend Bert Newton assisted by Gaynor Bunning and the
band was the HI Fi's.
In 1964, we staged the "Little Olympics" in Woomera. The purpose was to raise enough money to send one South Australian competitor to the Olympics in Tokyo. In those days the States were responsible for raising the funds to send competitors selected from their State to the Olympics and South Australia was lagging behind. This weekend was organised by the Woomera Sub-Branch of the Sportsmens' Association of Australia of which I happened to be president. Our major sponsors were WERI, the Woomera Board, the Dept of Supply, Airlines of Australia and Ansett Airlines.
In all, 99 sportswomen and men (all past or future Olympians) plus officials were flown into Woomera on Friday afternoon. A big two days of outdoor and indoor sport was arranged giving our locals the chance to compete against the best our country had to offer.
Friday night, Saturday and Saturday night were highly successful. Sunday's activities were mainly planned for the Newman Oval. The morning started with a fair bit of wind but not too bad. By starting time, the velocity had increased and by lunch time we had a full blown dust storm on our hands, you couldn't see your hand in front of your face. A great disappointment not only to the visiting competitors and officials but to my organising committee, local competitors and the people of Woomera who turned out in droves to see the action. That night at a function in the old theatre we were able to announce to everybody's surprise that we had still raised enough money to send TWO athletes to Tokyo. That was typical of the people of Woomera. All the appeals we participated in - Heart Foundation, Childrens' Hospital, Miss Australia Quest, Olympic Appeal, etc - we usually came out second or third highest money raiser in the State.
During the period 1961 to 1970 we, the WERI, brought many live shows to Woomera. Unfortunately, we had to heavily subsidise most of them. Patronage was not always as good a we expected for top class shows. Some of the more memorable were the Bert Newton Variety Show, the Horrie Dragie Quintet Variety Show, the Hawaiian Dancers, the Tahitian Dancers, the Tommy Hanlon "It could be you " TV show (two episodes filmed in the old theatre for TV), The Australian Ballet Co., the Australian Opera Co., RAAF and Army Bands, the Topless Africa dancers (50 of them - in Queensland they were made to wear bras, in Woomera we got what they advertised) and the list goes on.
I made many and lasting friendships among the entertainment and sporting fraternity during that time. One of my more embarrassing moments was while in Adelaide in 1963 on a scouting trip for variety artists for a concert, I was negotiating with the ABC Talent Dept and was offered a young singer for three concerts for 60 pounds ($120) plus airfares and accommodation. I declined as I was not very impressed with his ability or drawing power. The world heard quite a bit more about that young singer after that. His name is Kamahl. I can only plead insanity. After all, we didn't have TV in Woomera then.
Dick Zehender (The Big Zed)
ex 29 Carinya St
ex 1 Boorong St
Woomera SA
The Centre of the Universe
E-mail: zehender@ozconnect.net
(21 Jan 2001)
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Memories of Woomera |
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