Rocky Bowl and Leisure, McKenna family, sell after 44 years of business

The McKenna brothers have sold The Rocky Bowl and Leisure Centre to a major entertainment provider in south-east Queensland. They opened Rockhampton’s first 10-pin bowling centre on Boxing Day 1977.

Paul and John McKenna are retiring after 44 years at the Rocky Bowl and Leisure Centre.

After more than 40 years of owning and operating The Rock Bowl and Leisure, the McKenna brothers have split and made a strike for retirement.

The three brothers, John, Peter and Paul have had the iconic Rockhampton business for decades, and have made many changes over the years.

Their parents first had the squash courts on the corner of the site, on Painswick Street in Berserker, and operated North Rocky Squashbowl Centre, adding in sauna rooms, plunge pools and spa jets.

The opportunity then arose to buy the vacant land around the squash courts.

The idea to build a bowling alley came about through a newspaper advertisement in The Morning Bulletin.

Their parents also owned The Ambassador Motel and John was reading the paper one day and there was an ad that said anyone interested in investing in a 10-pin bowling centre in Rockhampton, phone – and the phone number was for the motel.

John went and spoke to the man, Gerald Gillespie, who was staying at the motel, and they struck a deal.

The brothers spent nine months building the centre, often from 10pm or 11pm until 3 to 4am.

All of the tiles in the complex, which are still there today, were laid by hand and were done at night, using their car headlights.

The tiles were all laid by hand back in 1977.

The bowling centre opened on Boxing Day 1977.

Expecting a soft opening, it was far from it – it was chaos as everyone came out to see Rockhampton’s first 10-pin bowling alley.

Ten pin bowling was booming across the world and in 1980, they added more lanes and made it a 30-lane centre.

It was equally the biggest lane centre in Queensland and was the third largest in Australia at the time.

In 1984 and 1986, they hosted the Australian Adult Championships and the Australia Junior Championships for bowling.

The 1984 championships at the Rockhampton centre still holds the record for the largest number of entries in any 10-pin bowling tournament in Australia.

“They were a huge event, the centre almost ran 24 hours a day to handle the number of bowlers we had here for the tournament,” John said.

“We would finish about four in the morning and we would start again at 6am.

“And that two hour break gave us enough time to service the centre, oil the lanes, fix up a couple of machines that might have broken down and get ready for the next day again … And that went on for 15 days.”

Back in those days, the bowling lanes were timber, which required a lot of upkeep.

“Every two years you had to sand the lanes to get them level to within 40 thousandth of an inch and to take the oil out,” Paul said.

“The maintenance on the building …. these days it’s a lot different … they have machines to clean and oil the lanes.

“The technician stands at the end of the lane and pushes a button and the machine does it.

“In the early days we had to use buckets and mops with solvent and spray oil with hand sprayer and buff it on with nappies.”

Technology has certainly changed and advanced.

“Originally here we had overheard projectors, you had a score table with etched glass with the score grid on it and a china graph pencil,” John said.

“You would bowl and you would put your score there and a light reflected it up onto the timber screen.

“You had to learn to add up the scores yourself, you had to know how to score.

“Whereas today it is fully automatic, you just bowl the ball and it’s all there.

“A lot of people today don’t know even how to score the game.”

The centre has gone through many facelifts over the year.

“Things change over the years, bowling dropped back a bit, so eventually we took lanes out, squash courts out, moved from there to there, put in bumper cars, laser tag, added glow in the dark minigolf,” John said.

“It was one of those things, as circumstances changed, business changed and we had to change with it.

“Over the years we changed the centre to match what community expectations were.”

The McKennas had their official last day on January 19 as the centre has been sold to Australian company, iPlay Australia.

Reflecting on their time at the centre, the brothers say they have met a lot of people, and have seen up to four and five generations come through the doors.

“We’re going to miss a lot of those people we have been dealing with for years,” John said.

“We still have some bowlers here that were here when we opened … they are still bowling 44 years later.

“One lady by the name of Margie Seaby, she is one of the original bowlers, she was here when we opened and she is still bowling today in league, 44 years later.

“We’ve trained a lot of people, we have had some wonderful staff that have been with us for a lot of years as well.”

This publication has reached out iPlay Australia, which labels itself a ‘national leader in family entertainment centers’ about its plans for the centre.

It is understood the company, which is based in Ipswich, has plans to carry out more renovations, however all of the bowling and leagues remains unchanged for now.

“Ten pin bowling is still a great sport, it’s not only an entertainment for people to enjoy socially, it’s also a sport as well, there is still the 10-pin bowling association and bowling leagues, which is competitive competitions, junior associations,” John said.