The COVID-19 pandemic has claimed another victim with the impending closure of what was once a popular club of the Nowra region.
The Club has been open only three days a week since the second wave of COVID-19 closures, and despite this including the fishing club raffle Friday night, popular charity bingo Saturday night and members’ draw on Sunday, still isn’t financially viable enough to justify the upgrades needed for insurability.
The Board of the Bomaderry Bowling Club, the club that amalgamated with Bomaderry RSL Club in 2015, made the call that the RSL, which opened in the 1950s, would cease trading at the end of this financial year.
Bomaderry Bowling Club secretary manager Garry Wilbraham told the South Coast Register: “There are a number of factors. The cost of running the building [is one of them] and we are only using about 30 per cent of it [the building].
“The fact also that the club, after the second bout of COVID hit the area in last August, has only reopened three days a week, has made it hard.”
“The overall lack of patronage … we lost our Chinese caterers two and a half years ago when the first COVID wave hit and we have been unable to secure anyone else to take over, so we’ve had no food for two years.
“There have also been compliance issues with the building, due to its age, and complying with Fire and Safety regulations.
“And to get our insurance renewed in May 2021 we had to reseal the top car park or we wouldn’t be covered,” said Wilbraham.
The club has given the Bomaderry RSL Sub-Branch, which owns the building, five months’ notice of its intentions to leave the facility.
Wilbraham said that member activities currently run out of the RSL will be transferred to the Bomaderry Bowling Club, along with the liquor and gaming licence, which covers its 54 gaming machines.