For an academic who studies the importance of sporting venues, it seemed almost too good to be true when Dr Kate Kirby stumbled upon a little-known tennis court named after Australian tennis legend Rod Laver.
The low-key clay court on Main Street, Park Avenue, Rockhampton – 1,900 kilometers from the 15,000-seat Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne – is accessible to any player with the initiative to get the key from a convenience store across the road.
For much of the past 80 years, the court built by Roy Laver for his tennis-loving sons attracted little attention, despite being the birthplace of an Australian sporting phenomenon. It’s actually Australian tennis’ answer to the float stand at Sir Donald Bradman’s childhood home in Bowral.
Dr. Kirby, whose doctoral thesis on high-performance sport in the Queensland region ended up containing a passage on the field of Laver, was surprised on two levels.
The first was that, having grown up herself in the birthplace of the ‘Rockhampton Rocket’, she had never heard of the court before.
Rod Laver has 11 Grand Slam singles titles. (AAP Image: Lukas Coch)
The second was that, although it had been lovingly maintained by a group of dedicated volunteers over the past 35 years, the court was not and still is not protected by a heritage feature. About 15 years ago, the adjoining former Laver home was sold and moved by owners unaware of its importance.
“I was surprised,” Dr. Kirby says of the court’s uncertain status.
“This field shows that Australia’s best athletes can come from anywhere in the country.
“You don’t have to live near a metropolitan city, next to the best facilities to become one of Australia’s best and most loved athletes.”
According to Rod Laver, the construction of the court was not only an expression of fatherly love, but a move to ensure that Roy Laver’s athletically gifted children shared his passion for tennis.
In fact, this is the second short Laver – the first, made from anthills on a cattle farm in remote Langdale and requiring daily watering, perished shortly after the Lavers moved, first to Marlborough and then to Rockhampton.
In Rocky, the Laver family lived in a classic Queensland neighborhood on a block chosen by Roy Laver for its ability to accommodate the yard that he and his sons Trevor, Bob and Rod had duly built with dirt and silt trucked in from the Fitzroy River.
Rod Laver (center, holding sign) was a schoolboy at Park Avenue Elementary School when his father Roy built a clay tennis court in the backyard of the family home. (Provided)
“This time we set up our field for night play by stringing four 1,500-watt bulbs on an overhead wire in the center of the field,” Laver wrote in his autobiography.
“Any of us kids who broke a light bulb with a lob or a smash were up for it.“
The court attracted local players, including another future Grand Slam champion, Mal Anderson. The youngest of the Laver boys by four years, Rod was sometimes kicked off the field and had to make do with kicking against a wobbly wall, whose unpredictable bounce developed the reflexes and footwork that would later serve him well as a pro.
According to Laver, the most fateful visitor to the court was Charlie Hollis, the Army veteran turned tennis coach who would change his life. Sweetened with rum and milk, Roy Laver convinced Hollis to coach his sons for free and, in time, he would play a role in the rise of not only Laver, but also Anderson, Fred Stolle and Roy Emerson.
Rod Laver (seated, bottom) with his family, left to right: brother Bob, mother Melba, father Roy and brother Trevor, in the years before the Lavers moved to Rockhampton. (Provided)
Laver’s memory of what followed still resonates:
“The first time Charlie saw me, I was 10 years old and he was putting Bob and Trevor through their paces. I had slipped out of bed to watch them and was watching them through the fence in our yard when he spotted me. Before I could run away, he said to Dad, ‘Oh, let the little bugger have a shot. I can see he’s as sharp as mustard.” And there, under the 1,500 watt bulbs, barefoot and in our pajamas, Charlie and I kicked, and I hit that ball over the net more times than I hit it.”
Eleven Grand Slam singles titles and 80 years later, promising juniors can still swing by Main Street Park Avenue for a taste of that rare thing: a clay court in Rockhampton.
Sue Young’s eyes light up when asked what Rod Laver means to the Rockhampton tennis community. “He’s a true gentleman…and he’s my hero,” Young says. She is a member of the Rod Laver Tennis Club and one of the current Rockhampton court keepers.
Indeed, the club itself was formed in 1991 amid fears that the pitch, then in poor condition, would be bulldozed and rebuilt. Over the next 35 years, with financial assistance from the local parish and a positive attitude, the club restored the ground to its former glory and maintained it admirably.
Among other Rod Laver Tennis Club volunteers, Sue Young has spent decades lovingly maintaining the clay court built 80 years ago by the Laver family. (ABC: Russell Talbot)
Young people that only one in ten locals know about the court, a problem the club has tried to solve with signage and the rebranding of the entire club, previously known as the Park Avenue Parish Social Tennis Club.
“Playing on clay is amazing,” Young says. “I believe it’s the only clay tennis court available in the Rockhampton community. It’s different from playing on other surfaces.”
And yes, she says, the stories about it being accessible via an old-fashioned honor system are true. “We have a little store across the road, Foodworks, which has held the key for 25 years now,” says Young.
Court keys
“You can just go there and ask for the court key here. You come, open it, use it and just give (the key) back. It’s open to the community seven days a week.
“We wanted it to be very accessible to the community. Some people like to say Melbourne has the RLA, but we have the RLC here in Rockhampton.”
To this day, Young says, promising junior players destined for bigger and better things are eager to experience a clay court. But like many community club members, she worries about what the future holds.
Rod Laver Court has undergone decades of repairs to keep the local sporting landmark alive. (Provided)
“As the members of the tennis club get older, we sometimes worry that the younger generation won’t step up to take care of it,” Young says.
“Will it be here in 20 years? The current members are now reaching their 60s. It’s a bit worrying, and it would be a shame because the experience of playing on a clay court is incredible. I don’t know how we’ll do it and how we’ll get the younger people interested in coming and helping maintain the court.
“It takes four or five hours a week (of work) to get the court ready for use.”
Preservation of the courts
She says the club is very open to any measures that would ensure the preservation and continued use of the court, but would “want to look at the parameters of the heritage listing” to ensure appropriate guardrails are in place. For members, it is above all a place to play.
Laver, for his part, came back several times, including an impromptu stunt in 2012. “I think I screamed when he left,” Young says. “He gave us a big hug and said he totally appreciated the effort we were putting into keeping the field looking so good.”
Rod Laver chats with volunteers at the Rod Laver Tennis Club in 2012, when he made his final pilgrimage to the court his father built for him as a young boy. (Provided)
Young says it’s “a bit disappointing” that neither the local council nor Tennis Queensland are helping the course, either financially or by promoting its central role in Queensland’s sporting history.
“No one is interested and I find it surprising that people aren’t interested,” Young says. “It’s not even on the list at the tourist information centre. Tourists would love to come and knock. It might keep people in Rockhampton for another day. The club is only small and our time is taken up keeping it nice and playable.”
Battle for heritage classification
Dr Kate Kirby says that ideally the court would be heritage listed in such a way that it continues to function as it does now, with full scope for play, but cannot be altered or built on.
Dr. Kate Kirby stumbled across the story of Rod Laver’s courtship while completing her doctorate in philosophy. (ABC: Michael Lloyd)
“Rockhampton doesn’t have a local heritage register, so what I’m most interested in now, given Laver’s reputation and the cultural value of this court to the community and to Queenslanders in the future, is to focus on trying to get it listed at the Queensland (state) level,” Dr Kirby said.
Although Rockhampton Regional Council confirmed it had “no position” on the heritage issue, Mayor Tony Williams said given the court’s history and Laver’s status in the local community, it was “prudent” that the court be preserved for future generations.
“We’ve positioned ourselves as a sports center, and why don’t we look at your history and someone like Rod’s and have that history of that land in the Park Avenue area, that would be a great example of what that history could look like – building on the future and preserving the past,” Williams said.
“That would have my full support and, I would say, in principle, that of the city council as well.”
In the absence of a local heritage register, heritage protection of Laver Court should be driven by the Queensland Government. (ABC: Russell Talbot)
Whatever happens, Sue Young and the other Rod Laver Tennis Club volunteers will keep the court tidy and accessible to the public for as long as possible.
“We can only hope and keep pushing,” Young says. “I hope in 50 years it will still be there.”
