Historical information

Volleyball has been played in regional Victoria since the early-1960’s. During those early days, most competitions, like the founders of our great sport, were run by, or in conjunction with, the YMCA.

Competitions were running at the Ballarat School of Mines and the YMCA’s of Bendigo, Geelong and Warrnambool. In August 1966, an invitation was extended by the Victorian Amateur Volleyball Association to play in the first State-wide event at Monash University. Geelong and Bendigo accepted the invitation with Melbourne represented by Sisu.

For Bendigo players at least, this was the first exposure to ‘international rules’, which prevented upward scoops with open hands, introduced an action called a ‘dig’ and seemed to penalise most overhead actions using the fingers as ‘double hits’!

Over the next few years, the sport expanded through the YMCA movement with weekly competitions starting up in Ararat, Warrnambool and Latrobe Valley. The Victorian Regional Council of YMCA’s proposed the first Victorian YMCA Championship in Warrnambool on 30th March 1968 with an entry fee of $4.00 per team.

The sport continued to grow with additional regional associations affiliating with the Victorian Amateur Volleyball Association (now VVI) who provided the coaching and refereeing assistance needed to raise the standard of play. In 1970, the YMCA Championships started to give way to the Victorian Country Championships with the first ever event held in Bendigo.

In 1973, a re-organisation of the VAVA saw the proposal to create separate Victorian Country and Metropolitan Volleyball Councils. The VCVC was established in 1974 and took over the organisation of the Victorian Country Championships.

For the next 10-12 years, the Country Championships grew in stature with the inclusion of two divisions for open men and women and junior divisions for boys and girls. Representative teams successfully contested Australian Country Championships between Victoria, South Australia and New South Wales on several occasions.

In October 1985, the VCVC voluntarily wound up the Council and handed the responsibility for the Country Championships back to Volleyball Victoria, who by that time had full-time State Executive and Coaching Directors.

Since that time, the Long Weekend in June has continued to be the date of the major annual volleyball event for most regional associations, even though in 1986 the Junior Country Championships were wound up in favour of state and national schools events. A number of regional associations have ceased to exist, as have a number of regional tournaments. Regional leagues were created in both the Gippsland and Central, North-West regions, with Gippsland the only one to survive. Some associations have successfully competed in the State League competitions at various times.

Following the experience gained by a number of regional administrators working on the Sydney Olympic Games, a proposal to revamp the Victorian Country Championship was put to VVI in early 2002. Later that year, the Volleyball Victoria Country Championships Commission was formed to implement the recommendations of the review and take control of the event into the future.

These championships now provide regional players and officials an opportunity to participate in a consistently well-managed event, using many international protocols and a high standard of presentation.

Without doubt, this event now ranks as one of the best volleyball events in Australia.

Source: 2022 Country Championship regulations

The management of the Country Championships by the Victorian Country Championship Commission certainly achieved the objective of raising the standard of presentation, and delivering a consistently high quality event. However, the demands on Host Associations began to take their toll, with several Associations declining the opportunity to host the event due to the high workload. Similarly, the workload of the volunteer Commissioners also took its toll, with the Commission unable to fill casual vacancies. In 2023, the Commission handed the organisation of the Championships back to VVI, who with paid staff, were better equipped to manage the event.

Physical description

This item contains Correspondence of the Council in 1976 and reports on the Country Championships for that year; it includes the following documents:

11171.5a Letter from Swan Hill Volleyball Association President
11171.5b Letter from the ehuca and District YMCA Youth Clubs
11171.5c Letter from VAVA re contact details of country associations
11171.5d Letter from the Swan Hill Volleyball Association
11171.5e Letters to and from the VAVA and VCVC
11171.5f Invoice for Olympic Team Appeal Biros
11171.5g Invoice for Olympic Team Appeal Biros to all Associations
11171.5h Letter to the Echuca and District YMCA Youth Clubs
11171.5i Letter from the Warrnambool Volleyball Association
11171.5j Letter to the VAVA
11171.5k Country Championships, Roster for Referees and Draw
11171.5l Country Championships Team Registrations 1976
11171.5m Voting Slips to approve Albury Wodonga to join the VCVC
11171.5n Letter from Geelong Volleyball association
11171.5o Letter of apology from VAVA for non attendance at the Country Championships
11171.5p Letter from the Goulburn Valley Volleyball Association
11171.5q Letters to and from the Ballarat Volleyball Association
11171.5r Letter to the VAVA Treasurer Mark Perrott
11171.5s Letter from the Geelong Amateur Volleyball Association Registration fees
11171.5t Letter from VAVA Treasurer Mark Perrott
11171.5u Three letters from the VAVA and Department of Youth Sport and recreation
11171.5v Study of Voluntary Workers
11171.5w Letter from Latrobe Valley Volleyball Association
11171.5x Letter from Ballarat Volleyball re their tournament
11171.5y Notice of AGM Sept 1976 at Ballarat
11171.5z Goulburn Valley Volleyball Association Letter Office Bearers
11171.5aa Three letters from the VAVA
11171.5ab Letter from Ballarat Association requesting a referee
11171.5ac Letter from Geelong Volleyball re monies paid
11171.5ad Circular from VAVA Chinese Reciprocal Visit