club history

Early Beginnings

The journey began in the late 1960s when the Macedon Football Club was forced off its Greene Street Oval home ground (now Clifford Reserve) due to substandard conditions. To keep local sport alive, the Gisborne Shire partnered with local farmer George Robinson and the Clarke family on a series of land swaps—ultimately creating Tony Clarke Reserve in honor of the family's patriarch.

The Shire Council established the Tony Clarke Reserve Committee of Management to manage the development and administration of the new sports precinct. Areas of the land were allocated to the respective clubs, with two (2) tennis courts and the football and cricket oval becoming operative in 1971. 

Bowling Club Start Up

The Bowling Club was granted the site of the current green, along with land to the west reserved for a future second green. Local residents and the Scott brothers led the effort to clear and prepare this western area during regular weekend working bees. 

After a 1971 public meeting, progress began with a $5,000 Shire Council grant. Excavation on the western site was halted when the council ordered the area remediated, forcing work to move to an alternative site where drainage, ditches, and fencing were completed.

Following a prolonged hiatus caused by severe weather and significant disagreements with the Shire Council, work on the green was halted, and the Club officially disbanded in 1979.

Real Progress

In 1982, the local RSL and Lions Clubs convened to assess the viability of establishing a bowling club. Strong community attendance led to unanimous approval, the election of a committee, and immediate financial pledges to begin work. The project faced a major setback shortly after, when the February 1983 Ash Wednesday bushfires devastated the Macedon region.

In mid-1983, the Macedon/Mt Macedon Bowling Club Formation Committee met and established the Community Advancement Co-operative Society Ltd. This co-operative was formed to fund the purchase of the "Drop-In" building—a post-bushfire social centre at Tony Clarke Reserve—for the new club.

The Shire Council approved moving the "Drop-In" building to its current location, subject to conditions including bricking the exterior, concreting the verandah, and upgrading the facilities. Additionally, the existing bowling green had become overgrown and required major remediation, bringing the total estimated cost for the project to $29,000. 

With backing from the local Lions and RSL Clubs and funds raised through volunteer events—like street stalls, Bingo, pool nights, and carpet bowls- the Club prepared for launch. 

The clubrooms officially opened in 1984, and by 1985, volunteers had restored the Bent Grass bowling green for official play.

The Fun Begins

Entering the Central Highlands Bowling Association in 1986, the Club competed in Division 4 and secured its first premiership in the 1987/88 season. 

Key facility upgrades followed over the years: new playing surfaces were installed in 2000 and 2010 (the latter including asbestos removal from the ditches), and major site improvements were completed in 2009 with bitumenised car parks, improved drainage, and a new Colorbond fence and gates.

In the early 2000s, Bowls Australia revised dress regulations to allow Clubs to wear  unique coloured Club uniforms. In 2006, the club adopted a rustic logo alongside red and blue team colours to align with neighbouring sports clubs. It later refreshed its identity in 2021 by introducing the Cats logo, bringing it in line with the feline-themed Macedon sports teams.

During the early 2020s, Bowls Victoria restructured its regional boundaries to improve administrative efficiency. As part of this reform, management of the Central Highlands area transitioned to a single region-level Board of Directors, established as the Ballarat Highlands Bowling Region. The 11 Central Highlands clubs formed the Highlands Playing Area.

In 2021, planning began for a long-term redevelopment of the clubrooms.