In addition to the bowling greens, it now occupies a sprawling 2.4 hectares of land over three levels, with a main lounge and sports, gaming and bowlers lounges, 440-capacity auditorium, function rooms, a-la-carte restaurant, bistro, coffee shop, and parking for 620 cars.

Mr Michael Moody, the Club's General Manager for the past 15 years until his retirement last month, has witnessed the growth of the club first hand, and has been instrumental in its success.

"No matter how quickly we respond or design for more space, our club is still too small," he said. "We recently held one of our promotional draws for a Holden Monaro, but had to close the car park early at 5pm as we couldn't let in any more people. The club was standing room only."

Michael spent 36 years in the club industry, working at various clubs before accepting the Manager's position at St John's Park Bowling in 1988. He is passionate about the club's role in the community, but is concerned about the industry's future.

He pulls no punches in commenting, "I can see this club industry going back into the 80's if something isn't done. We might be alright if the Government can get its nose out of our business".

"We've been attacked by all sides including minority groups, and we need to lobby and promote the fact that we're giving away money to our communities. Obviously most people don't realize this," he said.

Michael believes that David Costello as Chief Executive of Clubs NSW is a great asset for the clubs.

"He understands the industry and should be able to get the clubs together to work together."

Gaming success

With a club's success based on poker machine profit according to the Department of Gaming and Racing, St John's Park Bowling obviously understands their players and selects top performing machines. They are rated number 12 in the state according to the Department's figures.

St John's Park Bowling offers Club Keno, Club Tab, and a total of 388 machines, comprising 358 pokies, a 10-station Roulette King and four Blackjack multi-terminal devices.

Michael said, "Anyone who says that clubs don't need poker machines to make a profit is in dreamland, and the new legislation certainly doesn't help us. We'd love a few more machines but with the cap, we can't get them anymore."

They are currently installing ticket printers on all the machines, and replacing those that cannot be converted.

The pokies comprise mainly IGT and Aristocrat brands, while the best performing machine is the Roulette King, which is distributed in Australia by Global Gaming Industries.

"We installed the Roulette King in early November last year, and it paid for itself in four months," said Michael. "It exceeds all of our gaming machines in terms of profitability, and naturally popularity." Roulette King is the only multi-terminal gaming machines with ‘live ball' action which allows it to compete with casinos.

The machine is in a prime location with the other dollar machines, and tends to attract the late 20's to early 40 year olds.

"As the return to the player on Roulette King is high, the popularity is obviously going to be there too. The club only retains around 2.7%, yet it is our most profitable game." There's a certain amount of skill involved with casino-style games, which is why the multi-terminal machine percentage returns are much lower than the pokies.

"Our machines are set at 91% return, and blackjack does well but we're lucky to make a 1% profit on them."

Build and they will come

The growth and history of St John's Park Bowling is a fascinating one. The club was renovated twice at substantial cost, and then demolished and completely rebuilt to cater for its popularity in the community. Membership currently stands at 21,000.

No one could have imagined that the facilities began with the opening of the first green and clubhouse built with voluntary labour in an area surrounded by orchards and poultry farms, way back in 1951.

Although the first clubhouse was seen as a temporary one, the committee had aspirations to make St John's Park one of the best bowling clubs in the state. This meant having facilities that rivalled the more established clubs.

In 1970 the first extensions were completed to cope with the increasing number of members. By 1987 it became apparent that further extensions were required, particularly as the suburb's population doubled from 1981 to 1986. However, the $1.8 million funding required at the time was a substantial investment that caused the board some nervousness.

"I started with the club in 1988 during one of its major growth periods, and agreed with the plans," said Michael. "We received $1.1 million from the bank, which was the bare minimum required to achieve our objectives."

The extensions began in April 1989 and were completed a year later by New England Constructions, and were expected to service its members for quite a few years.

However, it soon became apparent that the club was still too small. The changes and additions from 1990 to 1997 included purchasing land for a third green and car parking, and planning the next major project which would take the club into the next century.

"We began a complete re-build on a new club in 1997," explained Michael. "Everything was demolished. The project was completed in two stages and finished in 1999 at a cost of $24 million."

To ask Michael what he regards as his greatest achievement, he refers to the growth of the club and this particular period of time in the history of the club.

"Our profits have continued to rise, even when we were re-building the club and only had limited facilities available," he said.

"The club realized a profit of $5 million in 1999-2000, the first year after the club was finished. I think this is an excellent achievement for a bowling club, and we have made over $4 million a year ever since."

Compare this to a decade prior. Back in 1987 they made $100,000. In Michael's first year as Manager, the profits more than doubled to $247,000, which was only a year later. He has good reason to be proud.

In addition to the club's financial success, in May St John's Park Bowling Club became the 2003 Premier League Champions. Australian and International representatives from the best 11 bowls clubs in NSW compete to play for this prestigious title. The 2003 Final Series was played at Charlestown Bowling Club in very poor weather conditions, with St John's Park winning the series.

A keen golfer - not a bowler - Michael is replaced as General Manager by Mr Reg Coleclough. "I'm confident that Reg will continue to further the great work of the club."