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 1978 and reports on the Country Championships for that year; it includes the following documents:

11171.7a Circular to Associations - entry forms for Country Championships
11171.7b From Albury Wodonga seeking affiliation with the VCVC
11171.7c VCVC Financial Statement April 14th 1978
11171.7d Report on bulk purchasing of equipment
11171.7e Report on bulk purchasing of equipment
11171.7f Australian Volleyball Federation update on rules
11171.7g Proposed budget for running of 1978 Championships
11171.7h Letter from Bob Kenter Latrobe Valley re Tomas Santamaria Coaching
11171.7i Wangaratta Accomodation list
11171.7j VCVC Financial Statements Nov 1978
11171.7k Final report on bulk purchase of equipment
11171.7l Minutes of AGM at Geelong June 1977
11171.7m Minutes of meeting held at the Mont Matre Motor Inn St Kilda April 1978
11171.7n Application by the Mildura Volleyball Association to join VCVC
11171.7o Letter from Ballarat in a bid to hold the Country Chamionships
11171.7p Goulburn Valley Volleyball report on the country championships
11171.7q Letter from Latrobe Valley asking for copy of the constitution
11171.7r Thank you card on the death of (Eric) Walter Livingstone Hayman
11171.7s Notice of AGM Nov 1978
11171.7t Letter from the Castlemaine Festival asking for an exhibit
11171.7u Letter to VAVA President references to good work done by the coaching director
11171.7v Records Secretary Annual report Nov 1978
11171.7w Ararat Volleyball association asking to join VCVC
11171.7x Letter from Bob Kenter re Coaching Director's program
11171.7y Letter from Kyneton Volleyball Association re affiliation
11171.7z Goulburn Valley Volleyball asking for financial assistance
11171.7aa Australian Volleyball Federation advertisement for Executive Director
11171.7ab Ballarat Volleyball list of office bearers
11171.7ac Letter from tertiary PE student Bendigo asking for information
11171.7ad Letter from tertiary PE student Bendigo asking for information
11171.7ae Letter from the Melbourne Volleyball Council to VCVC
11171.7af Letter from Bruce D. Hulley and Co. - Australian Sports Development Promotion Programme
11171.7ag VCVC Coaching director's Program to Aug 1979