Club Industry Stalwart Remembered

In the late 1960s, the local Cabramatta rugby league football club played out of a former dairy farm known as Lunns’s Paddock, but sadly it was at risk of folding.

“We were meeting in the old clubhouse at Cabramatta football field when Bob gave us the bad news — the local council had refused to let us keep selling alcohol at the ground,” recalls fellow Foundation Member Jean Graff.

“That was our main source of income to field teams. We were devastated.

“Then Bob said, ‘we’ll build our own club and sell whatever we want’. His brother Neville was sitting beside him, Eddie Graff was there, too.

“We didn’t really think it was possible, but we wanted to support Bob. He made it sound like it was possible.

“A few years later, after so much hard work from all of us, he told us at a meeting that we had one last chance to get the license. 

“The local hotels were opposing the application, but at the very last minute, we won. Bob told us we’d been granted the license and that we would build the club. We were so excited. We hugged each other and cheered like we’d won the lottery.

“After all that work, we’d done it. We helped Bob make his dream come true. Not everyone gets to do that. He is the reason the club exists today.”

Lots of hard work is an understatement. The journey involved enrolling members, signatories, debentures, applications, failures and ultimately triumph. 

It brought together the Kelly, Jack, Forsyth, Osborn and Mann families of Cabramatta. With his sister Judith also by his side, Bob rallied an entire community. That’s where his lifelong passion for building successful community clubs began.

At the official opening of the newly built Leagues Club in September 1975, he (as Secretary Manager) and his brother Neville Jack (Chairman of the Board) were joined by their families and the local Member of Parliament and then Prime Minister Gough Whitlam and his wife Margaret for the formalities—it proved to be a welcome abatement for the PM with “the dismissal” to follow a short six weeks later. 

In 1984, Bob’s attention turned to a small sailing club in Sydney’s south, at the mouth of Botany Bay. Yarra Bay 16ft Skiff Sailing Club, once known for junior sailing and competitive 16-foot skiff racing. 

The Club was then on the brink of bankruptcy. With strong support from then-President Roy Ferguson, who would become his lifelong friend, he rebuilt the Club—restoring profitability and creating a welcoming space for the La Perouse community.

He worked tirelessly alongside the Indigenous community of La Perouse, encouraging and supporting many onto the Board of Directors and into community leadership roles. 

He is still held in high regard and with great respect by the community. He ensured strong financial backing for junior sailing, establishing ‘learn to sail’ programs that continue to this day—giving young people access to that wonderful sport.

Later, Bob provided mentorship to the management and Board of St John’s Park Bowling Club during a pivotal time. Under that guidance, the Club expanded from a partly dirt car park and moderate premise into the thriving community hub and bowling powerhouse that it is today.

After relocating to Tasmania to reunite with his brother Neville, he was elected as a Treasurer of Sandy Beach Bowling Club. He quickly identified issues with the Club closely sharing its name with another Sandy Bay Bowling Club in Hobart - which included the banks sometimes mixing accounting records.

He gathered support from locals and members, and led a process that culminated in renaming the Club to Beauty Point Bowling Club, as it is known today. Over the course of five years, the Club business turned around from many years of loss to strong, sustainable profit and banking general accounts. 

Following many fulfilling years in Tasmania, the then-Board of Cabramatta Leagues Club undertook a major Club renewal and dedicated, in perpetuity, the football field viewing wing of the building as the newly named Bob Jack Bar. One is best placed to have a cold ale at hand when watching the Two Blues run out. 

His love for rugby league brought he and wife Brenda back to NSW in the early 2000s. He spent his final years in the beautiful Northern Rivers beachside town of Kingscliff.

It didn’t take long for him to once again volunteer his time—enough that the members of Kingscliff Beach Bowling Club elected him to their Board of Directors. There, working closely with CEO Phil Kelly, he helped guide the Club from financial hardship and a complex real estate deal into the financial strength and vibrant presence it enjoys today.

In the final pages of his memoir, Bob reflects that while his countless hours volunteering for community clubs—especially in board or executive roles—came at some personal and family cost, he remains forever proud of the decisions made for the greater good of the clubs and their communities.

Bob Jack is survived by his wife Brenda, five children, eleven grandchildren and nine great grandchildren.