October 23, 2023
World War I was yet to begin and Kingaroy Shire was just one year old … but down in Blackbutt, everyone was thinking about football!
The proud 110-year history of Blackbutt rugby league was celebrated on Saturday night with a dinner at the Blackbutt Memorial Hall.
It’s amazing to think that rugby league was first played in Blackbutt in 1913, just five years after the first professional competition was held in NSW.
The evening was compered by local councillor – and former footballer – Gavin Jones.
Current club president Rowan Winterfield welcomed the crowd, which included two-well known guest speakers: former president Barry Richardson and Ray Moore, who was involved with the club about 45 years ago.
Over the years, Blackbutt rugby league has gone through changes and competitions, playing as Blackbutt-Kilcoy for a stretch as well as Blackbutt-Yarraman.
Blackbutt won its first club premiership in 1924, and were South Burnett premiers in 1968 (defeating Kilkivan-Goomeri 16-4), and in 1973-74 (when Blackbutt-Kilcoy defeated Murgon 15-10, and Kingaroy 10-5).
More recently, the Timbertowners have struggled to field teams, with many players joining Nanango Stags’ sides.
But after a short break, Timbertowners’ juniors returned to the SBRL competition in 2022, proudly wearing the club’s green, brown and white jerseys.
The celebration dinner on Saturday night included raffles and an auction to help raise funds to support these junior teams.
Among the auction items were a string of Timbertowns’ water bottles, some of which contained surprise amounts of hidden cash!
There was also memorabilia galore, collected across more than a century, for guests to peruse.
- Related article: A Big Win Worth Remembering
 |
 |
