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 1985 and reports on the Country Championships for that year; it include. the following documents:

11171.16a Victorian Open Country Championships Report 1985
11171.16b Victorian Open Country Championships Team Entries 1985 - Contact BHS for Details
11171.16c Seymour Volleyball invitation to BBQ
11171.16d VCVC to Australian Volleyball federation re Australian Country Championships
11171.16e To NSW Volleyball association re National Country Championships
11171.16f VAVA Executive List
11171.16g VCVC AGM List of attendees
11171.16h From Rosedale and District Volleyball Apology for AGM
11171.16i From TVA re non attendance at AGM
11171.16j Volleyball Victoria proposal for petrol reimbursements
11171.16k VVI Where did my fees go?
11171.16l VVI Finacial Statement March 1985
11171.16m VVI Financial Statement April 1985
11171.16n ERE Embroidery order
11171.16o To Seymour Volleyball account for trophy engraving
11171.16p Notice of AGM April 1985
11171.16q Bendigo YMCA Volleyball list of executive
11171.16r To all associations re executive lists update
11171.16s South Australian Volleyball requesting feedback
11171.16t Secretary petty cash advance
11171.16u Australain Volleyball Federation re National Country Championships
11171.16v NSW Volleyball association re Australian Country Volleyball Championships
11171.16w Kanyana Volleyball Club re Lightning Spike Cup clash
11171.16x Australian volleyball Federation re regulations
11171.16y Volleyball Victoria Newsletter June 1985
11171.16z VAVA to AVF Change of Address
11171.16aa VAVA Re Asian Qualifying Tournament Oct 1985
11171.16ab Back line spiker and serve rules
11171.16ac List of Country Associations and statistics
11171.16ad Albury Wodonga Association Australian Country Championships Report
11171.16ae NSW Volleyball Association re Wagga Wagga National Country Championships
11171.16af U20 Country Volleyball Championships report 1985
11171.16ah U20 Country Volleyball Championships Team entry forms - contact the BHS for details
11171.16ai VCVC AGM Agenda
11171.16aj VAVA Minutes of Executive Meeting April 1985
11171.16ak VAVA Minutes of Executive Meeting August 1985
11171.16al VAVA Minutes of Executive Meeting March 1985
11171.16am VAVA Minutes of Executive Meeting July1985
11171.16an VAVA Minutes of Executive Meeting June 1985
11171.16ao VAVA Minutes of Executive Meeting May 1985
11171.16ap VAVA Minutes of AGM Meeting April 1985
11171.16aq VAVA Financial Statement Aug 1985
11171.16ar VAVA Executive Meeting Agenda Sept 1985