est 1971
We are proud of our history
In 1970 Redlands Junior Rugby League Club was formed at a meeting in the Cleveland Hall.
There began a 25-year stretch of hard slog, raising funds to build a club from scratch.
The Clubs base was the Cleveland Showgrounds, by 1972 the club was seeking a permanent home. Application was made to Redland Shire Council to lease six hectares in Wellington Street where the Redlands Hospital now stands. There was local objection to this proposal and then in 1978 Council Chairman suggested the Pinklands area on Cleveland Redland Bay Rd, Thornlands be utilised.
Pinklands was nothing but bushland but the club seized the opportunity and secured the lease. It took commitment and dedication of its members requiring an enormous amount of funding and contributions of hard yakka and free time.
$10,000 made way for enough bushland to be cleared to make playing fields, however this wasn’t enough land to make two fields. Council was reluctant to release more land but finally agreed to release an extra 30 metres to create two fields.
The club secretary secured a $71,000 grant from Federal Government, which was the largest sports grant to that time.
1974 was the first year Redlands held a Miss Redlands event - the winner, Miss Frances Jarrett, went on to win the Miss Junior Rugby League against 23 other contestants, the ball was held at Cloudland.
Before the members moved into the new clubhouse they were situated in the area that is now the gym and dressing sheds. Member for Bowman, Con Sciacca officially opened Redland’s Clubhouse on September 16, 1995.
Redlands had a referee by the name of David Manson who started his referring career at Redlands and went on to ref NRL and State of Origin games.
