COVID-19 Hub

by Bowls Australia on November 23, 2020

The resource below is intended to provide an overview of the currently available information pertaining to the impact of COVID-19 on the Australian bowls community.

Updated: February 15, 2021

Important support resources for clubs, employees & participants

Guidelines for clubs & participants by state

All play and club trading is to be conducted in line with COVID-safe guidelines as advised by State and Territory government agencies.

COVID-safe guidelines:

Clubs:

The responsibility lies with individual clubs to ensure that:
- They are fully aware of and compliant with their own State or Territory Government and STA advice.
- All of these guidelines are adhered to and engage any staffing/volunteers required as necessary to fulfil the guidelines.
Hand sanitiser is to be made available at the entrance to the club and beside each green in use.
Disinfectant spray must be made available beside mat/jack boxes. After each use, all mats and jacks must be thoroughly cleaned before being used again.
Any club bowls that are loaned to players are to be thoroughly cleaned before and after use.
Clubs may need to implement a booking system to facilitate rink bookings, to conform with guidelines. Best practice is that a register of attendees is kept, just in case a communicable illness were to occur.
Any meetings held on the club premises should employ physical distancing of 1.5m between people and be limited to the number of people determined by the relevant state/territory social gathering limits.
Where possible, outdoor-accessible toilets should be open. At the very least, hand washing facilities should be available.

Bowls Activity:

Other than mats and jacks, bowls equipment cannot be shared between players (e.g. bowls, cloths, measures etc).
Disinfectant spray must be made available beside mat/jack boxes and between each use, all mats and jacks must be thoroughly cleaned by players.
Players should practice safe hygiene at all times, including washing hands for at least 20 seconds before and after bowls.
Strongly recommend that players should use spray chalk for indicating touchers (or at the very least, individual pieces of blackboard chalk without any use of saliva).

STA Websites:

Helping Hand Fund

BA is calling on the bowls community, and wider Australian community, to lend a ‘Helping Hand’ to bowls clubs left financially devastated by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Helping Hand Fund is an integral part of BA’s response to the $136.4M impact* to bowls clubs across the nation created by the COVID-19 shutdown.