Woonona’s wartime women paved way for bowler and OAM honouree Helen Pittman 85 years later

Woonona’s wartime women blazed a trail for the likes of bowler Helen Pittman, when they formed the club only months before the start of World War II in 1939.

Helen, who was recognised with a Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) in this year’s King’s Birthday Honours List, said as a volunteer and bowler, the club had become an important part of her life.

She first became a volunteer for the Russell Vale Public School Parents and Citizens’ Association in 1971 when her eldest child started school.

“When I joined the P&C, when my first child went to school, I became secretary of the P&C very quickly,” she said.

She went on to become involved in many sporting, community and church organisations, which included the Woonona Women’s Bowling Club – the South Coast’s oldest women’s bowls club and among the longest serving in NSW, having been formed in the months leading into World War II in 1939.

“I joined in 2000 just after I had retired from work and it was the same year I volunteered at the Olympic Games,” she said.

“I was within the administration area where it spread over not the two weeks of the Games, but the many weeks before that when we were signing in overseas visitors.”

Helen said it wasn’t the sportsmanship during the Olympics but rather her husband who inspired her to take up bowling.

“My husband was a bowler, and he encouraged me to join the women’s bowling club, which I did. I was only there about a year and a half when I became secretary,” she said.

Helen was secretary for 20 years and publicity officer for three years for the women’s club, which is attached to the Woonona Bowling Club – a club that has been going for 130 years.

“The bowling club is very old itself – it’s one of the oldest in the state, but the women’s bowling club is the oldest on the South Coast,” she said.

“The committee was formed in 1938 but because there was a NSW Bowling Association, the ladies in 1938 applied to affiliate with that.”

She said in May 1939 the club finally became affiliated.

“It started off really with only half a dozen ladies whose husbands were involved in the actual bowling club,” she said.

“Then the following year in 1939, the NSW Bowling Association president came down and had a meeting with the ladies, and that’s when we then were affiliated, and that’s the date we take our birthdays from, and that’s why we’re 85 this year.”

She said there was a small celebration this year to mark the occasion for a club that would have been a relatively new concept amid a male-dominated sport 85 years earlier.

“We were the first club [in the Illawarra] and then after that, other clubs joined in,” she said.

“Wiseman Park was many years later, then Windang and Bulli – so there was quite a few, but they came in all after us.

“A lot of them have since closed down unfortunately, but we’re lucky enough to be still operating.”

She said she believed one of the reasons the club was still going was due to financials.

“Woonona Bowling Club has a lot of assets – they own all the land and they own all the greens, whereas other clubs didn’t actually have any assets, so I think that’s one reason why Woonona has been able to continue on,” she said.

“Also, they’ve always had a good roll-up of members who have supported the club.”

She said with new management, the club had changed over the years, with the men and women now combined.

But some things haven’t changed.

“Our longest women’s member now has been with us 59 years – she joined in 1965,” she said.

“Her name is Eileen Symes and she’s 92 this year, so she must have been quite young when she started playing.

“I often ask her, ‘How did you manage?’ and she says, ‘Oh, well, it was my day out once the children went to school.’”

She said the club had been particularly important throughout her own life, having worked hard to keep events happening, including organising an annual charity day with the help of a team of other women.

“In my time over the years from 2000, when I started keeping a record of how much we’ve given to different charity organisations, we’ve raised $160,000 up until 2021,” she said.

Helen said there had been many strong friendships formed over the years, at one time even calling themselves The Friendly Club because of how they looked after each other.

“It’s been a part of my life for quite a long time and it’s important to me to keep it going,” she said.

“It’s great to see how much we’ve progressed since those five ladies started the club in 1938 and we’ve been very honoured to be able to keep it going.”