Diamond Valley Little Athletics Centre

Diamond Valley Little Athletics Centre is one of the largest little athletic centres in Victoria, Australia and is based at Willinda Park, Greensborough
Little athletics is an Australian sporting event comprising a subset of athletic events, specially modified to suit the abilities of children (aged 5 to 14).
Little A's, as it is affectionately referred to by those who enjoy it, is not just about winning, but also about having fun, making friends and getting families involved in healthy activities. It is little surprise, then, that the motto of Little Athletics is: "Family, Fun and Fitness".
Little Athletics recognises that children vary widely in shape, size and athletic ability, and is thus one of few sports that successfully caters for them all.
Little Athletics an Australian Institution
During the September 1963 school holidays, Trevor Billingham a maths and science teacher from Geelong who had a long association with senior athletics made the first attempts at conducting coaching clinics to attract boys from secondary school to join senior athletics. At the time there were no women's clubs in the Geelong area.
Much to Trevor’s surprise the majority of children attending the clinic were boys and girls of primary school age.
Around a month later three of these boys attempted to compete on the opening day of the 1963/64 senior athletic season at Geelong. As Arena Manager Trevor Billingham had to tell them that because they were Under 12 they were too young to compete. The look of disappointment on their faces would come back to haunt him a year later.
In 1964, two Saturday morning clinics were again held during the September school holidays. Once again the majority of those attending were children of primary school age.
Remembering the three boys from the previous seasons opening day, Trevor suggested to many of the younger children attending that they continue to come on a Saturday morning to take part in a morning competition as the senior competition was not held until the afternoon.
At a meeting of the Geelong Senior athletic centre, Trevor proposed that a morning competition be held for primary school aged children commening on 3 October 1964.
On that fateful day, 80 children turned up at Landy Field Geelong despite the weather being extremely wet and windy and took part in a short program of running events. From that simple beginning, athletics for under 12 boys and girls developed at a phenomenal rate. Little Athletics created tremendous interest; by 1967 the Victorian Little Athletics Association was formed.
Little Athletics started during an era where organized “out of hours” sport generally didn’t exist for children attending Primary Schools
The success of the Little Athletics movement has encouraged many other sporting organizations to devise junior programs for primary school aged children.
Diamond Valleys Pioneers
The Coburg Little Athletics Centre was established in September 1966, becoming the fifth Little Athletics centre to be formed in Victoria.
Many of the original members of the Centre came from municipalities other than Coburg and this caused some initial troubles. In fact a large group of members were a dedicated band of children and their parents from the Bundoora area who drove across to McDonald Reserve in Bell Street, Coburg each Saturday morning to compete as the Bundoora Little Athletics Club at the newly formed Centre.
At this time the relatively new Shire of Diamond Valley was rapidly growing and interest in sporting pursuits for children such as football and athletics was spreading quickly.
The Bundoora club was a dominant force both on and off the track, amongst those that shone on the track was Robyn Boak in the Under 12 age group. As an 18 year old Robyn was to win a gold medal as part of the Australian 4 x 100 metre relay team at the 1974 Commonwealth Games. While Robyn was too old to compete in our inaugural year her family was heavily involved in establishing the Macleod club which her siblings competed for.
After initially being involved in the formation of Coburg the Bundoora group decided that it would be better to establish a Little Athletics Centre closer to home rather than continuing the trek to Coburg each Saturday. This caused Coburg Centre to initially fold at the end of their first season.
Centre Formation
The driving force behind the centre being formed was Bundoora resident Pam Telfer; an Australian Javelin Champion and 1962 Commonwealth Games representative. Pam visited local schools and businesses to sell the concept of Little Athletics in the Diamond Valley area and along with other Bundoora Little Athletics Club parents, Maurice Wellington and Shirley Fraser organised the inaugural meeting of the centre at All Saints Anglican Church, Greensborough on 10 May 1967.
This meeting was a resounding success being attended by over 200 people including Olympians Ron Clarke, Pam Kilborn & Jean Roberts and “pledges” of over 600 children as being available to compete.
An Interim committee meeting was held two weeks later, appointing an executive committee that successfully applied for our centre to become the 8th Centre affiliated with VLAA following centres from Geelong, Bendigo, Corio, Sandringham, Coburg, Traralgon and Warrnambool.
On 30 September 1967 the first competition of the Centre was held at Willinda Park, preceded by a march of athletes through Main Street, Greensborough and followed by an official opening ceremony conducted by Roy ‘Monty’ Vale MLA for Greensborough.
The primary school approach had been used for starting new centres prior to ours, however in addition to contacting schools our centre used saturation advertising in the lead up to the first competition. This approach is credited for our becoming the largest centre in our first season with in excess of 1300 athletes
Clubs
Thirteen Clubs; St Mary’s, Diamond Creek, Eltham, St Martin’s, Macleod, Greenhills, Greensborough, Bundoora, Watsonia Heights, Montmorency, Watsonia, St Francis and Briar Hill competed on the Centres first competition day.
Over the ensuing 40 years some of these clubs disbanded, left the centre or amalgamated and other clubs such as Rosanna, Kangaroo Ground and Yarrambat-Plenty have joined us or been created.
Today there are eight clubs competing at the Centre:
* Bundoora
* Diamond Creek
* Eltham
* Greenbriar (amalgamation of Greensborough, Greenhills and Briar Hill in late 1960s)
* Rosanna (joined from Heidelberg Centre in 1979)
* St Marys
* Watsonia United (Amalgamation of Watsonia and Watsonia Heights in 2008)
* Yarrambat (established 2007)
Willinda Park, Greensborough
Diamond Valley Little Athletics Centre competes at Willinda Park, Greensborough which is within the City of Banyule.
When the centre formed in 1967 work began in earnest to find a suitable home. While the view was held that any existing reserve in the shire would be suitable, A K Lines Reserve in Watsonia sat on the top of the list.
Prior to the centres first competition on 30 September 1967, Willinda Park which until that point in time had not been allocated to any sporting club was offered as a home to the centre by the Shire of Diamond Valley with Linda Holmes blessing.
Apart from two seasons when track improvement work was being undertaken; 1973/74 when the centre competed at A K Lines Reserve, Watsonia and 1999/2000 when competition was held at MeadowGlen International Athletic Stadium at Epping, the Centre has called Willinda Park home.
Famous Diamond Valley Little Athletes
Over 10,000 children from the surrounding area and sometimes from further a field have spent time as little athletes at Diamond Valley. While all have enjoyed their experience, some have gone on to bigger and better things. Former little athletes at Diamond Valley include:
* Peter Beames - 1986 Commonwealth Games medallist (Triple Jump)
* Suzanne Broadrick - 2000 Olympian
* Ian Campbell - Olympian and Commonwealth Games silver medallist in Triple Jump (Edmonton 1978)
* Adam Dale - Test & ODI Cricketer
* Peta Edebone - three time Olympic Games medallist in Softball
* Lizzie Gardner - Winter Olympian
* Peter Moore - Two times Brownlow Medallist
* Carli Renzi née Lewis - 2010 Commonwealth Games wrestler
* Jodie Rogers - Commonwealth and Olympic Games Diver
* Shelley Sandie née Gorman - Olympic Basketballer
* Max Hudghton - Afl footballer
* Jarred Malloy - Afl footballer
* Matthew Collins - Afl Footballer
The Top Centre in Victoria
At the Gala Awards Dinner held on Saturday 19 July 2008 as part of the Victorian Little Athletics State Centrefest at Ballarat, Diamond Valley Little Athletics Centre was awarded the prestigious 2007-08 Victorian Little Athletics Centre of the Year Award. This award was the culmination of a busy year in which the Centre celebrated our 40th anniversary and experienced unrivalled success both on and off the track.
History Book
More than 40 years have now elapsed since that first competition at Willinda Park on Saturday 30 September 1967 and while other centres have disappeared or their glory days little more than a distant memory, Diamond Valley remains as one of the largest and leading centres in the state.
To commemorate the 40th Anniversary of the Centre a history book was written. The book titled "Saturday Morning A Time to run a time for Fun" written by Andrew Edney and Andrew Brasier was launched on 9 December 2009.
This history of the Centre contains information derived from Centre and Club archives, personally held information and interviews with current and past athletes and officials. While every effort was made to accurately capture the complete history of the centre, including personal approaches and public notices; to those who were not contacted or for that matter their contribution to the centre or their club is not included, we can assure you that your contribution has not been forgotten, only a lack of time, space or surviving documentation prevents it's mention.

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