The History of Our Club

The first game of Pickleball on the Gold Coast was played at the Tallebudgera Recreation Centre on Tuesday 28th November 2017. It all happened thanks in part to our founding president Margy Park who after searching the internet for somewhere to play came across Lorraine Christiansen from Brisbane, who was in the process of setting up Brisbane Pickleball and who went on to be their founding president. By chance Ellis also tracked down Lorraine around the same time, and she came down to the Gold Coast for the day and brought some paddles and balls and a few other newbies. They had so much fun and played again in early December including Roxanne who had discovered the game in the US.

On Tuesday 9th January 2018 Pickleball was mentioned on one of the morning TV shows and 2 interested listeners, Jamie & Deb, called Margy excitedly and were told they should come to the Tallebudgera Recreation Centre that day as there would be both an American (Roxanne) and a Canadian (Heidi) to help with the rules. A regular twice weekly schedule was started and soon after they were joined by a like minded Jose who was very pro-active and soon became addicted, and then Gabrielle became a regular as well. Heidi went back to Canada, and all those other original players went on to help grow the GCPA into what it has become today, and they all still play with us.

The original founding committee that did all the hard yards to get the club together, put their signatures on the paperwork to establish the Not For Profit organisation, signed the constitution and put their hands in the air to establish the first committee were Margy (president), Jose (treasurer), Roxanne (secretary) and Ellis (ordinary member). The GCPA was incorporated on 23rd March 2018.

More history details to come …