Sunshine Croquet Club

What remains now is memory and in time too that memory will fade, except for small fragments. In this case, all that holds of the once thriving Sunshine Croquet Club is a slowly fading Sign and once immaculate Greens that are losing a battle to weeds. There is a couple of small Benches, adorned with mosses and cracked concrete slabs where once the small but welcoming Clubrooms nestled but apart from the Sign nothing else to testify of the lore that stood. The Club closed a few decades ago, though the Greens and wooden Buildings lingered for a time until by the onslaught of neglect, graffiti attacks and potential fire risk, they had to be removed.

In my younger years, I'd come here on a Saturday arvo' with my Grandparents and in the basking sunlight watch this gentle, though at times quite earnest, game be played. I can readily recall munching on home-made scones n' jam with liberal doses of thick cream - a real treat at the time and being fussed over by some of the 'olds' as I called them with affection. Some evenings, and during mid week, there would be games of Cards, usually Euchre, played in the comfy Clubrooms. In the winter there'd be a Kero' Heater to keep the room warm and of course cups of Tea was the 'only' beverage of choice (Coffee was an anathema)!

The former Club was located at J R Parson's Reserve - a large open recreation area in the western Melbourne suburb of Sunshine. The Reserve has two Ovals, one quite large that host a Cricket Club (Grand United) and an Aussie Rules Football Club (Albion - the Cats). There is also the Sunshine Tennis Club with its Courts and an Athletics Club use the Reserve. In years past Little Athletics would be held on the smaller of two Ovals on a Saturday morning. The larger Oval (used for Cricket & Football) is known as the Keith Miller Oval after the famous and great Australian Cricket all-rounder of the 1940s and 1950s, (who grew up nearby). Next to the Croquet Club was a rickety Hall that housed the Sunshine City Band for many, many decades, until in fairly recent times the Hall sadly burnt down of which nothing remains, and the Band practices elsewhere.

In the winter months, when Albion play their Home ground matches, quite a crowd attends, whilst in summer a more sedate but no less enthusiastic mob come along to watch Grand United play Cricket often under a hot Sun and north wind. The Tennis Courts are invariably busy on weekends most of the year and you'll often see folks out Kite flying (I usually do once a week with my now very old but still intact Kite) or bringing their children to romp n' play.

Overlooking all of this, as seen in the photograph, is the Sunshine Grain Silos - the tallest structure in Sunshine which can been seen for some distance. There are twenty Silos and a Tower in the main concrete clad structure with an additional (and smaller) five aluminium Silos nearby. The Silos are still constantly used and at times when you are in the Grounds or nearby you can hear quite a low toned hum eminating from the processing of the Grains - in Season it's quite busy.

Another feature of the Reserve is a small, but sturdy stand of towering Eucalypt (Gum Trees) that are reminder that Sunshine (part of an ancient volcanic plain) was once clothed with patches of these iconic Trees.

Yet, it is the Croquet Club that for me brings upon the fondest of memories. Fortunately, the Sport itself is thriving with a number of Clubs not only in Melbourne but the State and Country as a whole.