Coogee Media

John V. Dick Reserve

Tennis Courts
The Reserve was dedicated to Randwick Council in 1945 by the New South Wales state government. At the time a lot of the area was taken up by 14 tennis courts, some of which according to press reports, had fallen into disrepair. So recreation use of the land seems to have pre-dated this dedication. A 1928 newspaper report of bagsnaching incident has two victims leaving the "Coogee Tennis Club" courts in Dolphin Street, Coogee.

The "Coogee Tennis Club", earlier iterations such as the "Randwick-Coogee Tennis Club", and the current management structure point to tennis having had a long history on the site, likely pre-dating other activities here.

Today, the major eastern portion of the reserve is taken up by five modern synthetic grass tennis courts of the Eastern Suburbs Tennis Association the building of the Coogee Tennis Club whose website says they have been on this site for "over sixty years", which perhaps accounts for the double-storied 1960s-style red brick building that used to stand on its Bream Street, frontage, and was recently replaced by a more modern multi-storied building that includes tennis facilities, the social club, and other activities.

Coogee Tennis Club and tennis courts

Lawn Bowls
A Coogee Bowling Club was soon formed after the Reserve's formal dedication. George Rush was elected president of the club; Paul Cocks, honorary secretary; Mr. C. R. White, honorary treasurer. The Club offered to lend £2,000 to Randwick Council free of interest to construct its two bowling greens.

In its heyday, the game of lawn bowls was notable for its adherence to strict codes of behaviour for players and the wearing white playing uniforms - it had a certain military air about it, perhaps reflecting the strong influence World War One and Two veterans had in the establishment of 20th century clubs.

Controversy
Controversy seemed to follow the club. The local Australian Labor Party branch, for instance, opposed the development of the bowling greens because it was felt that public parkland would be alienated, even though the local state Labor parliamentarian, Lou Cunningham, supported the bowlers. The Coogee Tennis Club disputed the idea that the tennis greens were in disrepair. Some in the community were rankled by the idea that the bowlers, being composed mostly of military service veterans, was more entitled than a tennis club, which tended to attract youth and younger adults. The most contentious issue was the status of women bowlers.

No Women Membership
The Coogee Bowling Club was an all male affair and right from the very beginning women were barred from membership, because it was said that women spoiled the harmony that existed between players. This was a sentiment that the secretary of the Women's Bowling Association. Mrs. C. Booty took great umbrage, saying that of 50 affiliated clubs, only three (including Coogee) did not share facilities with male clubs, and it was "an exploded theory that men and women did not mix in sport".

In the late 1950s there was fresh agitation to allow women to join, or at least allow members of the Coogee Women's Bowling Club to use their greens. Randwick Council sought legal advice to see if the terms of the club's lease could be changed to force the club to allow women to use the greens. The Club's president, Mr P. Messenger and secretary Mr A. Stevenson, said that they were not hostile to women bowlers "as long as they played somewhere else". Their rules requried a 75% majority vote to allow women and they said they doubted if even just 20% would agree! One of their number, though, could see into the future: Mr M. Illingworth, whose wife was president of the Coogee Women's Bowling Club, said: "I am a member of the men's club, and have repeatedly told them not to be selfish in their attitude. The women are asking to be allowed to use the greens for only one afternoon a week."

Women Move to Maroubra - Contentious
Women's use of lawn bowling facilities in the local area remained a contentious issue for a long time. Eventually, some of the women's supporters thought they had found a solution by creating women's only lawn bowls facilities by acquiring four acres of land within Coral Sea Park at nearby Maroubra in the early 1960s. This park was located on land that was once the the old Maroubra Speedway but had been acquired by the Department of Housing for a large public housing development. By 1960, the park was surrounded by hundreds of newly constructed, publicly-funded, homes. Some were being bought on mortgage, and some occupied by renters - people today who some pejoratively term "houso's". No matter, all had come to the area with the idea that the centre of this new community would be enhanced by the parklands and publicly available sporting fields within Coral Sea Park. They were not willing to see a major part of the park alienated, as they saw it, by a private sectional group. One of Sydney's earliest conservation battles, public agitation, meetings and representations to public office holders got under way. Eventually, in 1962 the state government and a majority on Randwick Council sided with the residents. The women bowlers were forced to look elsewhere and eventually acquired land at Tyrwhitte Street near Maroubra Beach.

Sea of White Uniforms
Coogee's bowling greens used to be a sea of immaculate white players' uniforms, especially on weekends. Inter and Intra club competitions were very serious affairs, and great pride was associated with winning pennants and cups. Eventually the Bowling Club folded, and its premises were taken over and renovated by a new group called the The Coogee Club, which is now an affiliate of the much large Randwick Club

These days, the rare lawn bowls competitions there tend to be much more relaxed affairs of "social" games notable for lack of uniforms. Purists would look aghast at games of "barefoot bowls". The popularity of outdoor dining in the post-Covid era has seen the once perfectly curated bowlings greens covered in outdoor seating with big umbrellas.

Covered Stream
Running under some parts of the southern side of the block is an enclosed storm water channel which dramatically emerges as a sandstone walled channel between the Tennis Courts car park and the Coogee Club building. It is part of what once was a stream that ran down from the heights of Coogee and Randwick to the northern end of Coogee Beach - large enough for the need for a bridge to be constructed across it in the 19th century. During heavy rain, it can be a raging torrent, sometimes spilling over and flooding the bowling greats and flooding parts of Dolphin Street, enough to wash cars away. The stream still empties as a storm water channel further east on the northern end of Coogee Beach.

John V. Dick Reserve flooded during heavy rain in 1999

John V. Dick Memorial
A part of the block, on the high side, fronting Bream Street Coogee (from the west of the Coogee Tennis Club building to the corner of Mount Street) is a long piece of land that looks like it was meant to be a passive recreation area that has fallen into disrepair. It has front sandstone gate posts that seem to have lost name signs at some stage and sandstone steps leading down to a long grassed area. It looks down on the courts and bowling greens of the Tennis and Coogee clubs. There are a number of 1950s style concrete and wooden park benches needing repair and repainting but still a couple of people were sitting on them enjoying the view and the afternoon sun.

Ambling along the impressive sandstone retaining wall that fronts Bream Street , I came across a bundle of greenery cascading down the wall. Moving that aside, I was surprised to come across an old but impressive carved monumental plaque with the inscription: "John V. Dick Reserve"

John V. Dick Reserve plaque on interior of Bream Street retaining wall

Who Was John V. Dick
After all this tramping around I thought I would like to know more about the unfortunately named John V. Dick.

A check of Randwick City Council's website showed that John Vincent Dick was the Mayor of Randwick from December 1938 to December 1940, and from December 1945 to December 1946. He was an Alderman for East Ward (which includes Coogee) on the Council from 1935 to 1959. He seems to have been on the conservative side of politics, first running unsuccessfully for a by-elections in 1932 and again in 1933, before being finally successful at the full 1935 municipal elections.

Alderman John Vincent Dick, c1955

I have not been able to discover what his occupation was, and when I checked the Australian War Memorial site, though he would have been in his early twenties, for whatever reason, he is not listed as having served in any of the armed services during World War One.

Political Policies
Among some of the issues he was concerned about included opposition to the establishing of TB (tuberculosis) Hospital at Randwick because of a community fear about disease spread, and he opposed allowing mobile wheeled fruit and vegetable barrows to operate in the municipality. He also seems to have been involved in the semi-official Australian Defence League (a forerunner of the World War Two Militia), chaired by the former Prime Minister William Morris Hughes. Dick was the Randwick representative.

Supported Improved Sporting Facilities
John Dick was a keen supporter of improved sporting facilities including upgrading of bathing sheds at Maroubra and Coogee beaches, and improvements to Coogee Oval. He was a big supporter of using the fields on what is now the reserve named after him for formal sporting facilities, despite agitation within the local community for it to be used as passive recreation. Consequently, the Coogee Bowling Club with bowling greens was established, as noted above. Dick addressed a lawn bowling function by opening it with the words "Hello fellow bowlers", which perhaps indicates which side of the debate about who should use the bowling greens, he was on.

Dick also wanted to see croquet and golf putting greens established there. A sandstone plaque on the south-eastern corner of the reserve names the three East Ward Alderman (A. T. Bedford, W. V. Cox and J. V.Dick), at the opening of the facilities in 1948, though John Dick's advocacy seems to have earned him the honour of having this relatively large public recreation reserve named after him.

The online The Ryerson Index to death notices and obituaries in Australian newspapers showed that he died aged 76 at the Prince of Wales Hospital, Randwick on 1st January 1969. This was confirmed by the New South Wales Births, Death and Marriages Index which lists him being born in 1883 (registered at Canterbury) to parents John J. and Amelia Dick. It also shows that he married Alma O'Hara (1896-1979) at Randwick in 1923.

Sands Sydney Directory for 1919 shows him living at Botany Street Randwick, 1920 shows him living at 14 Botany Street, Randwick and for 1921, 1922, 1923 shows him living at 161 Botany Street, Randwick. This is likely to have been his parent's home. By the early 1930s he and his wife were living at 14 Titania Street, Randwick, a three bedroom 1920s Californian-style bungalow, just over the boundary from Coogee though still within the boundaries of Randwick Council's east ward. The house still remains intact. His wife was still there when she died in 1979.

They are both buried at Randwick General Cemetery in plot RC., Row M 86.

References