Williamstown RSL has scrapped plans to develop the club into a five-storey apartment block in a bid to fight its way out of debt, opting instead to continue making the club more community based.
RSL Victoria had given the sub-branch the option of redeveloping or closing as the latter struggles to repay a reported $2.6 million debt.
Williamstown RSL’s new president, Bruce O’Brien, a Vietnam veteran and former bank manager, said that thanks to community and member support and a new committee, the financial decline had been arrested.
“The new committee’s most important aim is to save the Williamstown RSL site from redevelopment,” he said.
“The club has been on its current site for almost 100 years and is looking forward to celebrating its centenary.
“The club can’t achieve this milestone without patrons using its facilities and becoming financial members, costing only $30.”
He said the club’s gaming room patronage had increased 30 per cent in the past two months and several local clubs had approached the RSL about entering into shared membership arrangements.
Williamstown RSL currently hosts Timeball Club, Way Out West, and the Williamstown Jazz Club, and it’s looking at extending its involvement with other community and sports groups.
“The new committee has identified sponsorship opportunities, which will provide a winning scenario,” Mr O’Brien said.
From next year, social memberships will be available to local sports, social and benevolent clubs.
Mr O’Brien said that in the past 20 years the club had been transforming from an organisation of mainly retired veterans to a social club for the community.
“This change was anticipated, and hoped for, by our founding diggers, all of whom wanted to turn the club over to the citizens of Williamstown once it had fulfilled its duty as a gathering place of comfort and support to war-weary members,” he said.
“They all had in their minds that when the time was right, the club would be turned over to the community … that’s happening right now.”
