Federation Week Melbourne 2017

Australian Greenkeepers Federation Week 2017

By Warren Maynard, Secretary
Victorian Greenkeepers Association

It felt like yesterday the Australian Bowling Greenkeepers Federation celebrated its conference week in Canberra in 2014, but the three years went quickly and now it was Melbourne’s turn to hold this prestigious event.

MCG Turf Tour Federation Week 2017

Autumn, for me the best season in Victoria, was the time of the year Fed Week would hit Melbourne for five days where greenkeepers from across four states would converge on the best city in the world.

Over 100 people from Victoria, NSW, South Australia and Queensland come together for a week of educational seminars, machinery displays, sports tours and competitive but fun bowls. (The partners attending also enjoyed a fun program, as seen below.)

Day one was held at the oldest bowling club in Australia, Melbourne BC. Today was about meeting up with colleagues that we hadn’t seen in three years and playing a few games of bowls. The cooler weather and the beautiful but heavy bent grass greens took the guys from the northern states by surprise but they soon adjusted and day one of Fed Week was a great way to kick start the week.

Day two we headed north to Moonee Ponds BC, set in the beautiful Queens Park. The day kicked off with an informative presentation from Syngenta.

From there we hit the greens again for some more bowls and enjoyed playing on very nice tifdwarf greens.

Day three started bright and early at the iconic Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG). The buses pulled up out the front and the tour started with Tony Gordon (Arena’s Operations Manager) taking the group on a tour of the drop in pitches followed by a walk across the arena and a look around the facilities.

From the mighty MCG we walked across the bridge to visit the home of the Collingwood Magpies, the Holden Centre. Former player and footy legend Anthony Rocca lead the group around the state of the art facility and chatted about everything that goes on with the Magpies and their training.

From here it was back on the bus and a trip over the West Gate Bridge to the big successful club of Altona BC. We sat for lunch and a presentation again from Syngenta before the group hit the tiff greens for an arvo of bowls that was interrupted slightly by light rain. After dinner it was jackets on for the very chilly night test match.

Day four we headed down Bridge Road to the inner eastern club of Richmond Union. The morning was started with a presentation from Turf Culture followed by Ground Science. After some informative talks we hit the greens for a day of bowls before the busses picked the group up before dinner to allow everyone time to get ready for the nights activities, the Yarra River Cruise.

The cruise was a highlight of the week for some as the three hour cruise took us up Melbourne’s iconic Yarra River. It was the perfect opportunity to mingle and talk to everyone in a relaxed social environment while enjoying nice food and drink.

The final day of the week was held at the Melbourne Cricket Club Bowls Section in Hawthorn. This day was the trade day with all our sponsors setting up displays around the club with some machinery demonstrations after lunch.

We also had presentations from Colin Campbell Chemicals and Rainbird before we hit the greens for the final matches of the week.

The day was wrapped mid-arvo so we could get ready for the final activity on the Fed Week calendar, the Presentation night.

The night was held at Etihad Stadium, the second main football arena in Melbourne. We kicked off with pre dinner drinks on the boundary line of the oval, with a photo slideshow on the stadium’s large scoreboard screens.

Then it was up to the room for speeches from all the state presidents and finally all the winners of the bowls games were presented with their awards.

Fed Week 2017

Congratulations to all the Championship winners, including NSWBGA Singles winner Peter Watts, and Fours champs Martin Gosper, Mark Bateman, Mark Wilcher and Pat Chorley. Congratulations also to South Australia for making it a three peat in the Test Series.

The night was a great way to reflect on the week, let our hair down and say our goodbyes to fellow greenkeepers and friends from across Australia. The week was amazing, the weather was perfect, the clubs presented well and everyone had a ball with high accolades going to the Vic boys for such a well organised and successful event.

We now look forward to 2020 where we hit the Gold Coast for a week that we all love and can’t wait to be involved with once again.