Welcome to the latest Petanque Australia Newsletter, bringing you news, updates and highlights from across our petanque community.

August has been another positive month for Petanque Australia.

We are delighted to welcome Port Macquarie Petanque Club to the Petanque Australia community.

The addition of another club is a positive sign for our sport, and we look forward to supporting Port Macquarie as they become part of our national petanque community.

Congratulations also to New South Wales, our 2026 Champion State, following their victory at the PA Interstate Challenge conducted at Subiaco Petanque Club last weekend.

Thank you to Subiaco and its volunteers for hosting the event, and to all the players, officials and volunteers who contributed to another successful Interstate Challenge.

Behind the scenes, work continues developing a revised Petanque Australia strategy, with a clear focus on growing our petanque community and improving the services and support we provide to our leagues, clubs and members. This is a work in progress, with the next stage involving a focus group drawn from across our sport to help test the direction and shape practical priorities for the years ahead.

We have a strong foundation to build on, including a very encouraging current 94% licensed player retention rate. Our challenge now is to build on that strength — welcoming more people to our sport, supporting our clubs and volunteers, and continuing to improve what we offer our members.

Plenty is happening across our sport and plenty to be positive about as we continue building the future of petanque in Australia.

Regards,

Roger Maddern
President
Petanque Australia
Email: president@petanqueaustralia.org.au

This month we caught up with Murray Blackburn-Smith, President of the newest club in Australia, the Port Macquarie Petanque Club.

Welcome Murray, it’s great to see a new club established in NSW. How did it all come about?

Thank you. We are delighted to finally have a dedicated home for petanque in Port Macquarie.

For several years, a number of local groups have played informally across the region, including U3A, Alliance Française, and our “League of Nations”, a group of petanque devotees with origins in many different countries.

The idea for the club grew from a simple vision: to bring those players together into one welcoming community.

Several people have been instrumental in making that happen. Bruce Wyatt and Celeste Rowlands, who first played in Canberra, introduced many locals to the game through U3A after relocating to Port Macquarie.

Jean-Luc Delandemare and Adele Jones from Alliance Française strongly advocated for a local club. 

Mel Fleming and Lynne Arjava, who have travelled to Newcastle most weekends for several years to play competitively, also bring valuable experience and generously agreed to become founding members.

At our inaugural meeting to form the club, players expressed strong and unanimous support.

Together, these efforts helped turn a long-standing local interest into a formal club, giving Port Macquarie players a stronger base from which to grow the sport in NSW.

That is a strong foundation of local support. How are you planning to build the club from here?

The camaraderie among our members is outstanding, and we are building on a real wave of enthusiasm.

We have also had such a great welcome from our fellow club Boules Artistes in Sydney, with encouragement and help, and generous donations of equipment and piste-wear.

Many thanks to Victoria O’Connor and her members.

And thanks too to our Port Macquarie Hastings Council. They have been great, investing in decorative surrounds and new gravel for our piste, their maintenance team ever willing to help out.

Most of our members are new to formal competition, so our immediate focus is to create regular opportunities for people to play, improve, and enjoy the game together.

Last Sunday we held the first of what will become a weekly club competition, the Port Mac Jack, and it was encouraging to see the standard of play lift while the fun and banter remained.

We also offer social play three days a week, along with a skills training session that we plan to expand as membership grows.

Petanque has traditionally been seen here as a retiree game, so one of our priorities is to introduce it to a broader cross-section of the local community.

Early days… but how do you hope the club will make its mark on Australia’s pétanque map?

Port Macquarie is already a popular holiday destination, and we would love to see it become a pétanque destination as well.

Our message is: put your boules in the boot and come to Port. We have an ideal outdoor climate for year-round play.

We also hope to form links with sister clubs across the country and to create a wider petanque network of associate members.

If I project 5 years ahead, I hope by then that we have many members playing in competitions around Australia.

Who knows, maybe we may have developed a State Champion, or even an Australian Champion.

Go Port Macquarie!!

Photo Credit - Rob McCluskey (McCluskey Lens and Light)

Photo credit - Rob McCluskey (McCluskey Lens and Light)

The PA Interstate Challenge showcases Australia’s finest at Subiaco
 
The NSW Navy team claimed Champion State honours at the 2026 PA Interstate Challenge after a strong weekend of petanque at Subiaco.

The 2026 PA Interstate Challenge brought four states and eight teams to Subiaco Petanque Club on 29-30 August for a weekend of high-quality competition to crown Australia’s Champion State.

Across the weekend, players contested men’s and women’s triples and doubles, along with mixed doubles and mixed triples, producing a consistently strong standard of petanque.

After two days of competition, NSW Navy and WA Gold (pictured below) met in the final, where NSW Navy claimed the title after a marathon men’s doubles game that provided a fitting finish to a closely contested event.

A wonderful venue, generous hospitality, excellent weather and terrific sportsmanship made the weekend a memorable celebration of interstate petanque.

Congratulations to NSW, our 2026 Champion State, and thank you to Subiaco Petanque Club, its volunteers, officials and everyone who contributed to such a memorable Interstate Challenge.

Attention now turns to the National Championships in Adelaide in March 2027, while excitement is already building for the 2027 PA Interstate Challenge, to be held in Victoria in August, with the venue to be announced.

You can also support our Team Australia players by making a tax-deductible donation at:

asf.org.au/campaigns/petanque-australia/world-championships. 

We are pleased to welcome Ross Coleman to the Petanque Australia Board as a Director and our new Treasurer.

Ross brings extensive financial and governance experience, together with a long-standing commitment to community sport.

A qualified accountant and Fellow of the Institute of Public Accountants, Ross has enjoyed a 50-year career across accounting, business consulting, rural services and real estate, including operating his own management accounting practice.

Ross has also made a significant contribution to sport, serving on a range of local sporting committees and holding leadership roles within pétanque for more than a decade, including with Adelaide Hills Pétanque and the South Australian Pétanque League.

At the national level, he managed the Australian Trans-Tasman teams in 2025 and 2026 and is currently supporting the Australian team in their preparation for the 2026 Men’s World Triples Championships in Thailand this November.

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