Introducing Our Club

Our Character

What’s our Club like? Welcoming and friendly is a reputation that we cherish. Newcomers often comment on this. We hope we are non-judgemental and we’d like everyone to feel part of the same Club. Playing games at the Club every week with teams randomly drawn mixes everyone up. We want to avoid smaller cliques only playing within one another. If you like playing as part of a regular team there are plenty of opportunities to do this playing at competitions. In the end most members are just out for a good time!

Our History

Camberwell Petanque Club was started by Don Miller and Christian Draschler on 5th September 1998. It had 13 members and an unused area at a bowling club in St James Park, Hawthorn.

Construction of proper pistes started on 13th November 1999. Don called a mate at Boral and got gravel delivered by the truckload, all 120 tons of it. With help from Christian and others over the next two weekends they levelled 20 pistes. An extraordinary achievement! The first game was played the very next day.

Publicity was needed and the first edition of "The Petanqueur" came out in mid 1999. The Club was growing so the Council provided CPC with a small tin shed to house some tables and chairs. This started the delightful weekly BYO dinners under the trees and stars (and occasional rain).

The Club continued to grow and CPC moved to its wonderful new clubhouse at Lynden Park in 2011. John Paul Ernst master minded pulling up acres of fake grass and building 24 magnificent pistes. This time the tons of stones were FREE. On the other hand that didn't make them any easier to spread.

A new era had begun. CPC is now one of Victoria's top Petanque clubs. Trip Advisor even has Lynden Park described as a 'hidden oasis'! The Club continues to grow adding shelters for the pistes and this new website to encourage the great game of petanque. A more detailed history can be found here.

Our Members

The Club is larger than many other clubs with now around 100 members which is about 10% of Victorian players. On the other hand a typical weekly Club game might involve only 20-30 members at a time so in practice it is not overwhelmingly large. Regardless of numbers we're a happy lot, we put this video together last year.

Our players cover a variety of skill levels. From newcomers, to those mainly interested in playing social Club games, to those who enjoy joining in competitions held around the State and finally to those who play at a high championship standard. All these people play together in our weekly Club games, there are no leagues or divisions. So as a newcomer you may well be playing with an expert and together you may well win one of our weekly prizes!

Our Members include all age groups and backgrounds and we are particularly keen to welcome younger players. You will be encouraged to learn the game and it’s few rules and hopefully will follow on from our current youngest Member who in 2017 represented Australia in the Junior World Petanque Championship in China. Well done Zac!

Our Facilities

Since moving to Lynden Park we have added 3 attractive shelters which makes playing more pleasant if the weather is not brilliant. And the Council have just completed a major upgrade to the areas surrounding the pistes, including seating and landscaping. The modern Clubhouse has great catering facilities and heaps of room. We have a close relationship with the Council and are grateful for their continuing interest in us. We play petanque with them every year, they are quite competitive!

How The Club Is Run

If you want to know how the Club is run, who is on the Committee and what’s going on visit ‘Managing Our Club’ here.

PFA and VPCI

If you want to know about the structure of our sports peak bodies, Petanque Federation Australia (PFA) or Victorian Petanque Clubs Inc (VPCI), see here.