BULN BULN - THE CLUB
There are no actual official records (e.g. Team Sheets / Minute Books etc ) available about early teams but the following information has been gathered mainly from early newspaper reports.
The first reports of a team from the Buln Buln / Brandy Creek area go back as far as 1880. This is just three years after the Melbourne Suburban Clubs formed the Victorian Football Association in 1877.
Football in the Warragul District can be accredited to William Paul, a Train Guard on the just opened Melbourne to Sale railway line. He formed the Warragul Football Club in 1879 and then in 1880 organised games between Warragul / Brandy Creek and workers from local saw mills in the area.
Note 1 - Brandy Creek was also known as Buln Buln from 1874 - 1890
Note 2 - There were several large saw mills operating in the District in the early days.
It is not known when BBFC actually began playing in an organised cmpetition, but reports show of games between teams from Crossover, Rokeby and Bloomfield pre 1900. First games in an organised competition have been found in 1900, with reports showing games in the Warragul District Junior ( Reserve Grade ) Competition. It is assumed by the author that this competition consisted of the small Towns in the area as Warragul FC was now playing against the larger towns along the rail line. One of the teams in this "Junior" competition was Warrragul Rovers which appears to be of the players left over from the Warragul senior team. In the 1920's to 1948 Buln Buln was playing in the Neerim District Football Association which consisted of teams as far out as Noojee.
The current all red jumper with a royal blue V, has been worn since at least 1949, with some of the early team jumpers being black with a yellow sash (Richmond), an all dark blue jumper and an all light blue jumper. Royal blue shorts have been worn since 1976
Up until 1914 games were played in a paddock on the property of Count Von Hoorn ( a bit of European nobility in the club ) which was roughly located on the corner of Old Sale Rd and Brandy Creek Rd abour where the radio towers are located. The change rooms were one of his haysheds and the goal posts were small trees trimmed of their branches and left planted in the ground. They were once reported as not necessarily being in a straight line ???
After WW1 the club played on the school oval. This ground was notorius for three things. The flock of sheep that somehow always appeared on the oval when the opposition got a run on The rise in the centre of the ground which was such that a player standing at one end could only see the chest and head of a person at the other end. The pine trees overhanging the southern side of the ground where many a Buln player scored after marking the ball when it fell out of the tree branches whilst the opposition stood there waitng for the boundary umpire to signal out of bounds, when it clearly did not pass over the line.
In 1978 the Club moved to the present ground which was the old railway reserve This ground was mainly constructed by by the local community with the Shire contribution being a grader, a bulldozer and a tip truck when required. In the first year there were no new changerooms so the old corrugated shed from the school oval was transported over, and yes it did only have a dirt floor, but we had carpet on it !!!
The Netball sheds were constructed in 1980 and the Social Rooms added in 1985. The Change rooms were extended in 1990.
As one noteable old identity once remarked
" we've come from sheep shit to champagne "
