A Brief Overview of Southern Suburbs Club's History

One Sunday afternoon way back in 1945 there was a meeting held on the verandah of Fred Hansen's house in Romeo Street and a club was formed and officially called Southern Suburbs Sporting Club. This was changed to Southern Suburbs Football Club a decade later in 1955. The very first president was Fred Hansen, Les. (Slip) Winton was treasurer, assistant treasurer was John Downie and Sylvia Cocking was secretary. The junior football players commenced playing for the club in 1945 and seniors kicked off in 1946. The very first coach of the senior football side was Laurie Coleman after he was released from the RAAF at the end of the war.

In the early days of the club Harley Denning and George Bennett worked tirelessly selling tickets to raise money. At this point in time we all sold tickets and met every weekend down at the old Railway Hotel and Post Office Hotel. Tom Noble owned these pubs and was very good to the club by way of looking after players by giving them free board and lodging until they found jobs.

When Mackay Junior Rugby League formed in 1966, Southern Suburbs was one of the original clubs.

In 1971 it was decided that we should have a place to call home and went on the look out for some land to buy. After lots of searching it was agreed to approach Harry Schaffer who had land in Milton Street. With some financial assistance from Norm Deakin from Bakers Creek Car Wreckers we were able to raise enough finance to purchase a block for 5,000 pounds. At this point we made a deal with Harry to purchase more land when and if the money became available. We actually brought two more blocks of land from him.

A lot of negative comments were made about building a club in a residential area and Sir Albert Abbott who was mayor at the time was extremely helpful in getting the approval to build. Sid Spreadborough who was the Sargeant of police and in charge of licensing was a great help in acquiring the license. With the land as collateral we obtained a loan from the bank and W.H. Paxtons who were the XXXX distributors went guarantor for the loan to build the clubhouse.

It was a very proud day when the clubhouse was officially opened in May 1973, but we had actually started trading the Thursday before Easter. The committee worked on a volunteer basis. This got a bit out of hand and we engaged the services of Ken Shailer as our 1st manager. Being the first licensed club in the district we gained in popularity quickly. There was a small kitchen on the side of the building and our very first caterers were Mrs Paul and Mrs Blackford (both these ladies have grandsons who play for the club today) and to their credit they were turning out up to 260 meals a day on most weekends.

Within the 1st year of trading we had amassed in the vicinity of 1000 members and the club couldn't handle the volume. Already the building was too small to hold numbers at peak times and the cold room couldn't cope so we had to build an additional cold room at the back of the club in its own shed.

We kept plodding along and as soon as more money was available in 1984 we extended the clubhouse. Three additional 3 bays (original size was 5 bays) were built onto the back, and this configuration lasted until the 1st major extension in 1995.

In the original application for the licensed club back in 1973 we had power points installed everywhere in anticipation for the poker machines. Finally in 1992 poker machines came to Mackay. Our original allocation was for 29 machines but over the years the number of machines has grown. The profit generated from these has made us the financially secure club we are today. Our financial position has allowed us to sponsor various sporting bodies in our area. This year each of the schools in our area has received a grant for sport.

In 1994 we had money in the bank and had recently acquired the services of Stuart Doonan as manager. We also had Stuart at the Club back in 1968 as captain coach of the A Grade side. After plenty of consultations with members and the committee we sought out various southern companies to give us a design criteria and quotes for a major extension. Ultimately we decided to stay local and secured the services of Whitsunday Design & Drafting Pty Ltd. The 1st major extension was designed, Bernie O'Mara was the overseer and John Foster Projects carried out the construction at a cost of approximately $1.6 million. We paid cash for the extension. In 1997 because of continued growth another extension went ahead. This was the outdoor entertainment area. 1998 saw yet another improvement being undertaken by the club by way of extending the poker machine area to house 90 machines, new toilets and the introduction of a Sports Bet lounge and Keno area.

Since it's inception the Club has had 35 Life Members, Fred Hansen was the first to be awarded this membership. Our first Patron was Tom Noble, but because of business reasons he relinquished this position after a short time and Des Menzies accepted the honour and is still the Club's patron today. Back as far as 1951 there was a young lady who played vigoro for Southern Suburbs Sporting Club, this young lady is still very much involved with the Club today - her name Eunice Armstrong nee Mooney. Johnny Bickmore has been a faithful and long time member of the Club and we all have fond memories of his tune "Daisy".

Southern Suburbs has the honour of being one of the best clubs in rural Queensland. This success only comes about from plenty of hard work, loyal people, good management and very careful planning. Current extensions will improve facilities for Souths patrons and members.