Boggabilla Town and Country Club — So Much More Than Just a Club
- Community
Eight-and-a-half hours north west of Sydney, there’s a wee town on the NSW/Queensland border called Boggabilla.
Firstly, great name. Rolls off your tongue.
Secondly, bloody resilient people.
Thirdly, which may blow your mind (it did mine), there’s not a single letterbox to be seen in the whole of the town!
I drove into town, and the Club is right there on your left when you come in from Moree — the Boggabilla Town and Country Club. There was no time to sleuth.
As I walked towards the entrance, an Australia Post sign is prominently mounted on the side of the Club. As I entered, I was warmly welcomed by Secretary Manager Tony Gerry, who has been at the Club for 20 years.
Behind Tony, nestled in the corner in all its glory, I see the post office. Adjacent, a room with parcels, pigeonholes and letters.
Tony tells me Boggabilla’s post office shut down around 2017 and the Club was approached to take on the licence so the town could continue to receive post locally, rather than travelling for it.
Can you imagine, if in Sydney, Newcastle or Wollongong, we were told you will no longer receive your mail to the front of your house, you will have to physically go pick up your mail from an outlet?!
Post Manager and hospitality extraordinaire, Shannon Roberts, suddenly appears. Her shift was starting. We say hello, shake hands and she immediately puts the deep frier on, for a Dagwood Dog that was ordered by a member who is yet to enter the Club.
Tony explains that not only has the Club taken on the post office licence to fill a community gap, they also moonlight as a chip shop. That’s because in this town, there is only a petrol station and the Club.
Then, in walks the President, Carl McGrady, and both he and Shannon take me on a tour of the town. Put tour operations down on that list of what this beating heart of the community is offering. Five-star review from me!
Carl and Shannon tell me about the rise and fall of rugby league in the community, the changes they’ve both seen from being born and bred in Boggabilla, along with the trials and tribulations of those COVID years and trying to get across the border to a supermarket.
We talk about innovation like it needs to be world leading. I think it needs to be fit for purpose, suit the communities that you serve as clubs, and as this little club is testament to — fill the gap where there’s no one else left to fill it.
