Warringah Bowling Club on Sydney’s North Shore saved from collapse
The true reason behind Sydney’s 122-year-old Warringah Bowling Club’s collapse has been revealed – and a last-minute rescue plan by investors has pulled it back from the brink.
A beloved 122-year-old bowls club on Sydney’s North Shore has been saved from financial collapse after securing a last-minute rescue deal led by the company’s director and a slew of investors.
Warringah Bowling Club in harbourside suburb Mosman first entered voluntary administration in August after the directors were handed $100,000 in penalty notices from the ATO for unpaid tax debts, the court heard.
The club also owed $2m to secured creditor Judo Bank at the time of the collapse, $40,000 to employees and $325,000 to other unsecured creditors, including the tax office.
The tax debt went unpaid due to problems switching accountants and because the ATO’s reminders and demands were addressed to a former treasurer who left in 2008 and passed away in 2019.
It comes as the club chairperson Leo Macpherson won a Federal Court order on Friday to immediately end the club’s administration, arguing that the company was solvent.
He said director Richard Hart and a group of investors had hatched a plan to form a shell company to buy out the club’s $2m secured debt, pay all unsecured creditors in full and inject working capital to keep the business trading.
The club’s assets included $25,000 in cash, bar and restaurant equipment and inventory worth $18,000, gaming machine entitlements, and two lots of real property on Bradleys Head Rd which Mr Macpherson claimed had an estimated value exceeding $10m.
Administrator Mr Billingsley told the Supreme Court that he anticipated “an up-to-date valuation of both company properties will reveal significant value greatly exceeding the total sum of the secured debt and the unsecured creditor claims”.
The company’s two main sources of revenue are rent received from a childcare centre that operates on one of its properties and trading revenue from its club activities, mainly from the sale of food and beverages.
But the court heard its operations were “modest”.
“Although in years gone by it has operated at a profit, in recent times it has operated at a modest loss,” the court decision read.
Company documents reveal the business recorded a loss of $197,161 in FY25, $37,585 in FY24 and $165,715 FY23.
Ultimately Justice Stewart declared the business solvent, finding that with the shell company’s funding and agreement not to call in the loan for 12 months, the club could pay its debts as they came due.
Mr Macpherson also sought orders for the administrators – Michael Billingsley and Anthony Wright of Olvera Advisors – to personally cover the legal costs of the proceeding, and to block them from claiming administration fees or expenses after November 5.
But the administrators countered, claiming $642,268 for their work up to November 30.
They did not oppose ending the administration, but fought the orders that they personally pay for the legal costs. The court will decide the final legal bill at a later date.
The club, which started in 1903 and has around 530 members, runs a range of activities including food, drinks, sports, and community events and has continued operating “business as usual” under administration.
Just months before the administration the club appealed to locals to “come in for a beer and a meal” warning it was hanging on “by its fingernails”, with plans to revive the venue with new pickleball courts.
Warringah Bowling Club was contacted for comment.
