A Coledale institution needs your custom to survive, the Illawarra Flame reports
Coledale RSL urgently needs community support or the historic venue established in 1948 could close by the end of September.
About 80 people attended an extraordinary general meeting on Sunday, 21 August. “That’s about four times as many people as we’d normally get,” said secretary/manager Warrick Try, 80, who has spent the past few years juggling club renovations, Covid restrictions and wet weather in a bid to keep the Coledale RSL alive.
Four local volunteers stepped up to lead the club at the meeting. The not-for-profit’s board now includes Warrick (who agreed to stay on through a transition period), Adam Tegel, Simone Read and newcomers Jeramy Pope, Jarod Cunningham, Greg Todd and Glen Cahill.
Warrick said it was “a mixed day”.
“We are still in awful danger of closing. One of the options to consider is perhaps amalgamation with a larger group of clubs. Other than that, we will probably be closed by the end of September.
“The membership gave us approval to seek amalgamation with some larger clubs. And we have two expressions of interest.
“The business model of a small RSL club like ours seems to be on the way out. There have been 60 closed in NSW, and nearly 100 across Australia that have closed or amalgamated since Covid.”
The Coledale RSL's customers have changed in the past decade, as sea-changers, Sydney families and city commuters snap up coal miners' cottages for a couple of million.
Profits from the pokies have been “practically non-existent”, Warrick said. “Frequently we have days here where there’s only one person at a time playing… Then they get a jackpot, and it blows you out of the water. Particularly if it’s a large jackpot, it means that your profit for the whole week is gone.”
Members at the meeting refused permission to sell the club’s poker machines, however. “It means that we’ve actually got our hands tied a bit, as far as liquidity goes,” Warrick said. “It may have a reverse effect and force us into insolvency much quicker.”
Wet weather is another major threat.
“We’re very weather dependent and the outlook for this coming summer is dreadful because La Niña is supposed to carry on, with a wet summer all the way through to next March. If that happens, there’ll be many more venues like us that’ll just go out of business.
“We’re hanging on desperately now for an increase in trade in the coming spring.”
Residents could lose Coledale’s only restaurant that is open seven days, Warrick said.
“They’ll also lose the very good Coledale RSL Anzac Day ceremony. It will still be here, run by the sub-branch, but it won’t have the support of a club behind it, so it’ll be a very small operation.”
Built on an old soccer field, purchased by 18 locals each contributing £10, the venue first opened on 31 July 1948 as the Soldiers’ Memorial Club, to provide a centre for returned services personnel. For the past seven decades, the club has supported local groups via sponsorships and donations.
In August the Oysters Winter Swimming Club – which has made the venue its home for 50 years – held a fundraiser to ‘Save Our RSL’. The trivia night was the busiest the club has been in months.
“If the club could get even a little of this sort of patronage regularly we wouldn’t be contemplating having to close,” Warrick said.
A GoFundMe campaign launched on Monday, 22 August – check it out here.
Coledale RSL Club is at 731 Lawrence Hargrave Drive, visit the website or phone (02) 4267 1873