HISTORY

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1982

The new boat ramp was opened in 1982, less than three years after the club was formed. The committee had lobbied with great success, and much of the manual work was done with the assistance of the early members. The plan to build the new ramp, also included the parking area, installing the electric bbq's, and building the playground. The angling club worked hand in hand with the Venus Bay Foreshore Committee, and while not agreeing all the time, the end result was a success for Venus Bay.



From the beginning, there has always been a "Fish-A-Thon". This competition was always the biggest competition of the year with the best prizes. In the early days of the club, the Fish-A-Thon was held in January, and 200 entries were common. At that time you had to enter the competition each day. Sponsorship and advertising made these events very successful. However it became more difficult to get sponsors in the early 1990's, and the event suffered. In the 1980's these competitions had major prizes such as a boat with motor and trailer. One such boat was won with a "secret weight fish", the winning fish was a trevally of just 235 grams. In the early years of the club, many inter-club competitions were held with local clubs. Some of these clubs have also struggled with membership. These events were keenly contested, and we hope to regain some Shields that were used in these competitions. We hope that in the future, we will again be able to have these inter-club contests.

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1983

In 1983, there was much angst amongst anglers when the government first moved to classify marine parks along the Gippsland coast. Recreational fishermen joined commercial fishermen in opposing this plan. Professional fishermen feared losing their livelihood, recreational fishermen feared that they would not be allowed to fish in these areas, and local people along the coast, believed their towns would die without a fishing industry. People rallied all over Gippsland, and protest crowds of 300 to 400 people were common. The Venus Bay Boating & Angling Club was very vocal in opposing the planned legislation, to the extent of supporting professional fishermen who had license's to fish Anderson Inlet.

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Early 1980's

In the early 1980's, the club purchased a caravan to have on site at the ramp during fishing competitions. The caravan acted as an office for entrance fees and a weigh in point on competition days. The caravan had to be "manned" at all times during competitions, and sometimes committee members had to sleep in it overnight for security reasons. At this time there were no shops at Venus Bay, and the club sold bait, tackle, some soft drinks and pies from the caravan. This helped raise funds and made the club strong enough, financially, to have great prizes and trophies for their competitions. The caravan was old and heavy, and problematic to tow it to the jetty for fishing competitions. The caravan had to be stored at a committee member's house, and a four wheel drive was required to tow it. While it did raise a lot of funds for the club, it also caused a lot of problems. There was also a conflict of interest after the general store opened in Venus Bay. Some funds were also used to purchase a small "safety boat". The boat was on hand when competitions were held, and also used by members when the channel markers needed replacing. The cost of maintaining the boat, and the little amount of use it was getting, forced the club to re-assess it's importance, and after a number of years, this boat was sold and most of the proceeds were donated to the State Emergency Service, who were the responsible rescue service for Andersons Inlet. Channel marking has always been a priority of the club. Early days saw members getting long, straight tea-tree trunks, and placing them each side of the gutter that leads to the main channel. Metal squares and triangles were fixed to the tea-trees, to give boats a guide. Seaweed and weather made it an everlasting task to keep the channel marked. Wally Diss, Alan Tyley, Doug Rosynski, Bruce Evers and Greg Thomas, were among the many who kept the channel marked in the 1980's and 1990's. The old channel ran west of the boat ramp, along the muddy bank towards the drain. The silt build up along this bank has caused boats to now travel east from the ramp where the water is now a little deeper. The club has worked towards having it's own club rooms since it started. Many approaches were made to council for loans to build these rooms, and many approaches to donate land for this purpose. From 1979 to 1994 all committees worked towards this goal. As plans for the Venus Bay Community Centre were on the drawing board in the late 1980's, the council decided not to grant loans or land for this purpose, but to direct the club to use the Venus Bay Community Centre.

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Early 1990's

The club struggled in the early 1990's. The committee worked hard, but people lost interest, and the competitions and meetings were poorly attended. Consideration was given to closing the club in 1994.

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1993

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1994

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1995

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Late 1990's

In the late 1990's, the retaining wall behind the jetty was removed, and the mooring area again filled with silt.

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1998

The club survived but there was little activity until 1998. Doug Rozynski called for a meeting and formed a committee to revive the club, and in doing so, steered the club to where it is today. There were many changes to the committee over the following years but under Doug's leadership the club started to move forward and membership grew slowly. Competitions started getting more entries, and social events were well attended. When the club was reformed in 1998, the word "boating" was dropped from the name and it became known as the "Venus Bay Angling Club". The club caravan was disposed of after the club was reformed in 1998.

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2001

At the Annual General Meeting (AGM) in 2001, Stuart Shelton replaced Doug Rozynski as president. Doug accepted that his work was done, he had been successful in reforming the club, and it was Stuart's turn to take the club further. Stuart began the task of building the club membership, taking the club to a more social level where members mixed together regularly. The club also started to be more actively involved in improving facilities for members and visitors. Due to the persistence of Alan Tyley, and Tony Burgess, Ports & Harbours provided yellow buoys that marked the channel in 2001. These buoys were put in place by Alan, Tony, and other members of the "One Armed Bandits" fishing club, a club that was formed, around 1995 at the time when the old Venus Bay Boating & Angling Club was in "recess". Work was also done to remove the broken tea-tree markers that had become dangerous.

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2002

In 2002, the committee elected Gerald Batt and Ian McIntyre as safety officers. Gerald and Ian maintained the yellow buoys with the help of Gippsland Ports. These buoys moved with very high tides and broke away in storms. Keeping the channel marked required constant work. These buoys have since been replaced with the red and green channel markers, and are maintained by Gippsland ports, the responsible authority for Anderson Inlet.

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2005

In 2005, the club decided to approach council, with the proposition of building a fish cleaning facility on the jetty, next to the boat ramp. Gerald Batt and Bob McCracken designed and built the fishing table in late 2005. Gerald applied for a grant through the community grants program and the club received $800 from council. Bob did the welding and fitting of this facility. The cost of bringing water to the jetty was $800, and all material and labour for the table itself, was provided by Bob and Gerald. This facility was built for the use of all anglers, not just members of the club.

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2006

At the committee meeting of the Venus Bay Angling Club held on the 6th of June 2006, the committee passed a motion for the club president, Alick Purchase, to explore the possibility of building a storage area / club rooms facility on council land adjacent to the boat ramp. While the club had been using the community centre for it's AGM, and other social events, it was not a place where trophies could be displayed, and the club still relied on David Walsh of Rod Bendings World, as a competition base and for membership enrolments. The club needed a "Home".

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2007

Gerald Batt returned to the committee in 2007 as Vice President, after a two year absence, and was appointed as Alick's assistant, to deal with council matters, on getting the clubrooms up and running. Gerald spent many hours through 2007, dealing with council regarding the lease of land adjacent to the jetty, the planning permit, the building permit, and the application for a council grant to assist in the building of the facility.

With the success of these negotiations, the concrete slab was poured in November, and the shed was erected in December 2007, to lock up stage. This had been the aim of the club since it's beginning in 1979. While the "Fisherman's Shed" is not as grand as some previous committee's plans, it is a great asset to the club, and to Venus Bay.

In December 2007, thanks to the generous donations of goods and services of our members, and supporters of the club, the club was able to plaster the walls, fit a kitchen area, tables and seating for our members and visitors, and shelving for our perpetual trophies.

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2008

The ceiling and the picnic table and benches went in during 2008.

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2009

In early 2009 a verandah was built and the pavers were laid.

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2018

In August 2018, the South Gippsland Shire Council was forced to close the existing jetty due to safety concerns about the ageing structure. The Shire, the Venus Bay Angling Club and the Victorian Fisheries Authority worked quickly to plan a 24 metre floating pontoon to replace the jetty which was announoced in October 2018. Following some load testing and interim improvement works the old jetty was temporarily re-opened in November 2018, so it could be used for summer.

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2019

The old jetty was demolished in April 2019 and the new floating pontoon began construction in May 2019. In December 2019, the floating pontoon was officially opened.