St Kilda barefoot bowls: Bowling with a twist at St Kilda Sports Club, Melbourne
It is possible to try barefoot bowling in Melbourne at several bowls clubs. The iconic location is the St Kilda Sports Club, but the St Kilda barefoot bowls phenomenon has spread further afield.
The St Kilda Bowling Club, while not quite in the same league as the MCG, is a Melbourne sporting institution. On the edge of Albert Park, the club has been going since 1865 and its clubhouse is a fine piece of Victoriana. Now officially known as the St Kilda Sports Club, the main sport in question is the sedate pursuit of lawn bowls.
14 fantastic experiences that make the most of your free time in Melbourne
- Get the very best views – on a hot air balloon flight over the city.
- See the changing colours of the river – on a sunset kayaking tour – with dinner. (Highly recommended ✅)
- Feast and see the sights at the same time – on a four course dinner cruise along the Yarra River.
- A genuinely excellent street art tour, led by prominent street artists. (Highly recommended ✅)
- The also superb Aboriginal heritage, plants and bush food tour in the Botanic Gardens. (💲 Great value 💲)
- Best of Melbourne bike tour – you can see more on two wheels than walking.
- Hidden laneways bar crawl OR foodie discovery tour OR chocolate and dessert tour.
- Combo ticket for Australian Sports Museum and MCG tour.
- Hassle-dodging advance tickets for the Melbourne Skydeck, Melbourne Zoo, the Ice Bar (with cocktails) and Sea Life Aquarium.
St Kilda Sports Club bowling
It has a stuffy reputation, does lawn bowls. It’s seen as the preserve of the retired and grey-haired. Well, St Kilda lawn bowls is a bit different, and provides one of the more unusual activities in Victoria.
A while back, someone realised lawn bowls was a nice easy sport to play in the Melbourne sunshine amongst friends. Perhaps with a beer on the table by the side. Slowly, the Bowling Club became a bit of a hang out. People played lawn bowls in bare feet in Melbourne’s favourite beachside suburb.
St Kilda barefoot bowls
Now the barefoot bowling is so popular that bookings have to be made in advance to get a space on the green. Barbecues are fired up by the side, easy-going tunes by the likes of Groove Armada are played over the speakers, and the beers are washed down at an impressive rate.
At St Kilda, lawn bowls itself is very much secondary for all but the most competitive players. The whole point is to spend time with friends, doing something that everyone can do, and nobody is necessarily any good at.
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- Great Ocean Road tour – with koalas 🐨.
- Brighton Beach, Moonlit Sanctuary and Phillip Island tour – with penguins 🐧.
- Yarra Valley wine tour – with gin, cider and cheese 🍷.
- Grampians National Park tour – with bushwalks and LOADS of kangaroos 🦘.
- Mornington Peninsula tour – with hot springs bathing 🛀.
- Wilsons Promontory tour – with all manner of native wildlife 🦘🐨.
- Dandenong Ranges steam train ride – plus wildlife at Healesville Sanctuary and chocolate-tasting in the Yarra Valley.
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Barefoot bowls in Australia
This is by no means something confined to St Kilda. Barefoot bowling is something that has caught on at bowls clubs across the country. Other good spots include the Clovelly Bowling Club at Clovelly Beach on Sydney’s Bondi to Coogee Clifftop Walk. It’s also possible to try barefoot bowling in Melbourne CBD at the City of Melbourne Bowls Club in Flagstaff Gardens.
To book barefoot bowling at the St Kilda Sports Club, the details are on the club website. It costs $200 per two hour session, or $20 per person for groups of fewer than ten people. A club member will explain the basics of how bowls works for complete novices.
Nearby, you can also practice your golf swing at the Albert Park driving range.
More ways to keep fit in Australia
Visit the Harold Holt Swim Centre in Melbourne.
Walk the Tabletop Track in Litchfield National Park, Northern Territory.
Swim at Greens Pool near Albany, Western Australia.
Take on the stairs at the Jenolan Caves in New South Wales.
Canoe Katherine Gorge near Katherine in the Top End.