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 1982 and reports on the Country Championships for that year; it include. the following documents:

11171.12a South Australia v Victorian Country Volleyball Side Report
11171.12b VCVC representative Sides and entry forms for the Country Championships
11171.12c VAVA Executive Committee
11171.12d Guide for running the Country Championships
11171.12e Goulburn Valley Volleyball report on Country Championships
11171.12f U20 and U15 Championships reports
11171.12g Report by Chief referee on the 1981 U20 Championships at Warrnambool
11171.12h Notice of VCVC two day conference Oct 1982
11171.12i Bendigo YMCA Volleyball Booklet for the 1982 U20 and U15 Country Championships
11171.12j Montmatre Motor Inn St Kilda re two day conference
11171.12k VCVC Secretary report for Oct two day conference
11171.12l Entry fees for the Open Country Championships
11171.12m To Goulburn Valley Volleyball re Constitution and By-laws
11171.12n Notice of AGM of VCVC at Warrnambool
11171.12o Notice of 1982 Datsun State League in South Australia
11171.12p VAVA Survey on U17 Competitions
11171.12q Maffra Sale Association re insurance for players
11171.12r VAVA re Hamilton non affiliation
11171.12s VCVC Report for the months of July and August 1982
11171.12t ERE Embroidery re team flashes
11171.12u Kanyana Volleyball Club Invitation tournament
11171.12v Invitation to Executive Director and U17 State Coach
11171.12w Request from student re information on volleyball
11171.12x Hamilton Volleyball Association Information
11171.12y ERE Embroidery Account
11171.12z VAVA Notice of AGM March 1982