Built by bowlers.
Kept by the town.

“The genial Doctor”

Dr Josiah Corlis, a Canadian-born doctor living in Bangalow, is spotted bowling on the Lismore green. The local paper predicts Bangalow will soon have a green of its own.

“It will not be the genial Doctor's fault if there is not a bowling green at Bangalow before many months pass.”

The club is formed and the money is raised

In March the new club's secretary writes to Grafton asking what their green cost, saying “a club has just been formed”. By May the club has £200 towards a green, raised by a personal canvass by Dr Corlis, and lets the contract to lay it.

The first annual ball

About 70 couples dance to the Bangalow Town Band at the A. & I. Hall to raise money for the green. Robert Campbell is president and Dr Corlis vice-president. Fifty members have taken responsibility for the green, and the club announces it will make all members' wives honorary members, with part of the green set aside for them.

“Ready for play”

After raising £120 in bonds for a pavilion, the club's first green, beside the public school ground, opens for play. The club's own history recalls a corner of the school ground leased for £1 a year and a clubhouse with a tin roof and hessian sides.

“The father of bowls in Bangalow”

Visiting Grafton bowlers give Dr Corlis the title that stuck. That June, a Sydney touring team visits “the baby club at Bangalow”: 34 bowlers, newly affiliated as the 23rd club in the NSW Bowling Association. The club even offers the town water from its well.

The women clear the debt; the town mourns its founder

In 1914 a ladies' committee runs a ball to clear the debt on the green. When Dr Corlis dies in July 1922, aged 82, flags fly at half-mast at the bowling green. In 1925 Arthur Beckinsale moves the clubhouse and builds a new pavilion free of charge.

Dances on the green, palms and Diggers' Day

Open-air dances are held on the green in 1928 and 1929. In 1932 two bangalow palms are planted beside the pavilion, “the emblem of the Bangalow club”, and the club starts its Diggers' Day carnival for returned soldiers, held each Armistice Day. The club wins the Flick Trophy in 1933 and 1934.

Twenty-five years

The club celebrates its Silver Jubilee with a carnival. Speakers name the families “synonymous with Bangalow Bowling Club”: the Corlises, Robert Piper, O. Virtue, James McNeill, T. S. McCrae and Arthur Beckinsale.

A small club gives big

With only 34 members, the club gives £52 to the Red Cross Prisoner of War Fund and puts £44 into War Savings Certificates.

Bangalow Women's Bowling Club

On 9 September 1952 a meeting is called at Bangalow to form a ladies' bowling club. In September 1954 the Bangalow Women's Bowling Club is officially opened, with ten visiting rinks, president Mrs C. Barnes and patroness Mrs Lentaigne.

A new clubhouse is approved

Byron Shire Council approves a new clubhouse on the present site, designed by F. J. Board & Son of Lismore. The old timber clubhouse is moved across from the Byron Street site. The club's own history recalls that by 1964 it had outgrown the school grounds and moved here, starting with two greens and a clubhouse with a bar.

“I believe the Bangalow Bowlers who originally selected and bought this land then constructed the clubhouse on which it sits alongside its picturesque lawn bowling green, would be thrilled…”

A stage, a deck and room to grow

In 1974 the clubhouse is extended to the north, with a stage added at the east end. Further extensions follow in 1990–91, and a deck in 1997. The club's history also credits its greenkeeper Roy Hulbert with helping introduce Tifdwarf grass to bowling greens in the early 1970s.

The town saves it once before

The club, by now the Bangalow Bowling & Sports Club, closes because of insolvency. The community raises the money, and it reopens about four months later.

Bowls, netball, open mic and a whole town

The club becomes “The Bowlo”, home to the town's soccer, rugby, netball, cricket and angling clubs, Wednesday netball training on its courts, an open mic with a 26-year history, and, by 2022, about 2,000 members.

Amalgamation and closure

On 13 November 2022 members vote 289 to 192 to amalgamate with Norths Collective, and the amalgamation completes on 14 June 2023. On Friday 24 October 2025 the Bowlo is closed, and the town begins its campaign to bring it back.

On the way to heritage listing

Byron Shire Council notes the Bowlo has been a hub “since it was established in 1910” and commissions a heritage assessment. On 19 February 2026 Council votes 8–0 to list the site as a local heritage item. The listing now awaits State Government approval before going on public exhibition.