60 years of the Carey Sports Complex – Bulleen

Helen Wolff, Archivist, and David Rimington Carey Heritage Committee member, past staff

This month 60 years ago, 2000 members of Carey community gathered for the official opening of the new playing fields at Bulleen (Bolin Bolin).

The name Bulleen originates from the nearby Bolin Bolin Billabong, which is believed by some to translate to ‘lyrebird’. The Bolin Bolin Billabong was an important meeting place for the Wurundjeri and surrounding Kulin tribes. The tribes gathered here every February while eels were plentiful, to discuss issues such as marriage, justice, trade and land management.

In 1957, Carey was invited to join the Associated Public Schools of Victoria (APS) competition. Despite fairs, fetes and fundraising to improve the School’s single oval, it was apparent that, as the Carey population grew, the sporting facilities at the Kew campus and the use of local venues such as Victoria Park were inadequate for competing on the big APS stage.

Eric Dunshea’s car with Gadsden stand in background circa 1961.

Before the APS offer was even made, the School Council had already started looking for possible sites for expansion. Looking further afield, in 1959, they came across a potential site in Manningham, more specifically, Bulleen. Situated on the northern side of Koonung Creek, it was a strange shape, but on a main road, had Yarra River access for potential water supply and was just over six kilometres from the Kew campus.

With the support of the Carey community, funds were raised to purchase the 34-acre property for £22,100, and the project gained momentum. The hard work began in March 1961 to construct four ovals, an Olympic standard athletics field with an eight-lane cinder track (a blend of fine ash, carbon and rock), two grandstands, changing rooms, a caretaker’s flat, and a dining room and kitchen to cater for visiting teams.

House Sports at Bulleen, 15 October 1962.

After three years of preparation and construction at a cost of £150,000, the opening ceremony was to coincide with the House Athletics Sports; however, heavy rain caused the athletics to be postponed. Despite the weather, Eric Dunshea, then President of the School Council, handed over the new and wonderful Carey playing fields to S L Hickman, the Headmaster. It was formally and officially opened by Mr (later Sir) Arthur Rylah as Deputy Premier of Victoria, who remarked that the complex was the ’best playing field set-up of any school in Australia, possibly in the Southern Hemisphere’.

But they were indeed initially stark fields, open to the elements, with only a few trees. Despite extensive drainage and water reticulation works, the biggest issue was going to be flooding, which was likely to occur from the Yarra coming across the parklands and carpark and taking out all the ovals via the billabong. In the floods of 1971, Bulleen was under water for 10 days. The entire athletics track washed away! The track was resurfaced and used until 2006. From then on, curators instead marked out an athletics track on Dunshea Oval: an approach that continues to this very day.

The great flood of 1971!

Since its official opening 60 years ago, we have seen the construction of the Gerard Cramer Physical Education Centre (1987) and Geoffrey Stevens Swimming Pool Complex (1992) to further complement the wonderful facilities.