THE rich history of the East Albury tennis courts was revealed when the club took the wraps off its $406,000 clubrooms on Sunday.
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More than 120 past and present club members turned out for the celebration of the development that replaced a portable from the old Albury Base Hospital dating back to the 1970s.
East Albury Tennis Club stalwart Colin Johnson explained at the opening that the courts were seen as being on the wrong side of the tracks when the only through traffic were cattle on the way to the saleyards and those dumping rubbish at the tip, now Alexandra Park, more than half a century ago.
“Sometime between late 1951 and the end of 1952, a grant of a piece of land on the north-east corner of Short Street and Old Sydney Road (now Borella Road) for use as tennis courts was made by Albury Council to the East Albury Newmarket Progress Association,” he said.
“On May 25, 1953, 34 people including members of the East Albury and Newmarket Progress Association and two executive members of the Albury and Border Lawn Tennis Association met in Mr Joe Klippel’s garage to form the East Albury and Newmarket Tennis Club.
“It is ... unclear as to when construction commenced on the tennis courts themselves, but one of my sources recalls a Mr Quast with his horse and dray carting clay and buckshot from a quarry on Nine Mile Hill (just past the Norske Skog paper mill at Ettamogah) in mid-1953.
“The official opening of the tennis courts occurred on Sunday, May 2, 1954.”
Johnson’s history lesson also highlighted the first clubhouse — an open-fronted building with a dirt floor, commonly known as the tennis shed.
The toilets were another matter, and required two extraordinary meetings just to settle on a location.
Mr Johnson said at the 1971 annual meeting it was moved that the “in-coming committee give a high priority to a new clubhouse”.
“In May 1972 a transportable building was relocated from the old Albury Base Hospital and converted into a clubhouse,” he said.
“The club took out a bank loan for $1200 (equivalent to $16,500 today) to pay for this new building, and by October 1976 it was fully paid for.”
East Albury stalwart Jo Takle said it was a similar story with the latest addition to the courts, with the club raising $250,000 for the project.
