Our Vision
Our vision is to be a socially and physically inclusive sports club, that not only promotes the sport of hockey but fosters its growth within our local community. We want to bring the benefits of physical activity, friendship, and healthy competition to all ages and abilities and make a positive and genuine difference in our members’ and community’s lives.
RDHC has been Rockingham’s leading senior hockey club since 1979. With the amalgamation of the Rockingham District Junior Hockey Association in 2007 and the move to the new Lark Hill facility in 2008, the club became the largest hockey club within the district. With a membership of over 450 members, we have teams in Hockey WA competitions ranging from J5/6 to Premier Division 3, including Mens weekend and Ladies mid-week Vets. We cater to players of all skill levels from beginners to advanced. We conduct our own Minkey/Grads (from ages 5) competition locally.
Rockingham is located 47 kilometres south of Perth, Western Australia. Rockingham boasts pristine beaches, excellent shopping facilities, cafes, bars and restaurants to cater to all tastes. The rail transport to the city takes 30 minutes.
We have a synthetic turf, grass fields and a clubroom facility, purpose built for our club. The facility includes a medical room, meeting room, parenting room, bar and canteen and social facilities. We have successfully hosted National and International events.
RDHC is excited for 2020: a new decade to celebrate the successes of the Rockingham District Hockey Club by continuing to promote the growth of the club and the sport.
A major milestone for the club was achieved in 2023 with the replacement of our turf, improved water canons, and additional training circles have been included in the plans to increase the longevity of the new turf. It will join the other improvements implemented around the club, including our new scoreboard (2019), roll blinds installed for supporter comfort, and the implementation of barrier nets (2023) for the protection of spectators.
2020 will see another chapter in the club, with our Men 1 sides being promoted to Premier side in 2023, with several of our members representing Western Australia in the 2023 masters season, and in the Mens under-18 Juniors 2023. Not to mention the success of our 11/12 girls in 2023 finishing as minor and major premiers. Our club continues to grow and develop senior and junior teams with a continued focus on developing Rockingham Redbacks into a club to be reckoned with.
With measures in place to make sure fiscal responsibility of keeping our facilities state of the art is upheld, RDHC is eagerly looking forward to retaining and growing our member base, providing excellent development opportunities for our Juniors, remaining competitive within the HWA competition and continuing to support our broader Rockingham district by offering a safe and progressive environment for the hockey community, their families and other lovers of sport. We aim to build on our positive social atmosphere beyond the turf, by making our clubrooms a noted place to socialise.
Our 2025 Board is making member satisfaction their priority, whilst trying to promote the ABC motto ACT, BELONG, COMMIT. We encourage all our members to have a hands-on approach to their club, by volunteering in areas of the club that they feel comfortable.
History
A collection of facts from past yearbooks, composed by 2020 Club President Alan Mills
The Rockingham Ladies Hockey Club was formed in 1969, when Laurel Carter gathered a team together. The club eventually expanded to three teams with the home ground at Shoalwater Oval. Games were played on Sunday mornings and opposing teams came from as far south as Dwellingup and Kwinana from the north.
The Men’s hockey club was formed 1974, after an advertisement in the local paper inserted by Laurie Doncon and Terry Tate, who were the instigators of their first team. They played in the Murray Districts competition against teams from, Mandurah, Pinjarra, and Harvey. Some primitive grounds in those days resulted in players dribbling the ball into cow dung then hitting it as the opponent tackled. The resulting adornment of cow dung on the uniform at least distracted the flies from the barbeque following the match.
In 1974 the Men joined W.A.H.A. and excelled into the ensuing years, winning the Guth Ardarth pennants and making grand final appearances on several occasions.
1978 saw the Ladies and Men’s clubs join forces and grow to more than 100 members with the first games under the combined banner played in 1979 . The Men after playing homes at Anniversary Park and Bungaree Primary School, were finally after some years, granted a home ground on the Rockingham Oval.
The Ladies played in the Murray Districts Association until the Coastal Districts Association was formed. Then in 1980, a team of dedicated players went to the metro to try their skills and succeeded in bringing home premierships in the following three years. A grand effort. This did not last long as WWAH would not give us home games. The Ladies went back to playing in the Coastal association.
In 1987 the club was incorporated and in 1989 moved from the toilet blocks, into our first clubroom built by members, after a big push to get constructed by then president Laurie Doncon. Over the next couple of years, thanks mainly to Martin Reddan who stuck at it, RDHC organised to have its own bar license. This and our own clubrooms remain today one of the main reason for our success as a club.
In 1993 the club was moved to a brand new, much bigger premises, at Stan Twight Reserve. During that time, because Rockingham is “so far” away from other clubs, the umpires failed to turn up to many games each weekend. The Committee at the time received 8 volunteers whom did WAHA umpiring accreditation and then WAHA allocated our volunteers to all home games. They received tremendous support and praise from visiting sides but after two seasons this project was dropped because of continuous debates by members with the umpires socially afterwards.
By 1995, RDHC trained at the naval base turf on Garden Island. This continued until September 11, 2001 when the Island went on shut down due to the terrible events in the USA.
1995 was also our club’s most successful year to date, as we took out the Byrne Judge Trophy – awarded to the most successful club in the WAHA. This was presented to the president at the time, Alan Mills, by Mark McGowan who has since been RDHC’s Patron for almost two decades.
The Committee in the early 90s spent a lot of time and effort drawing plans for turf facilities, offered at Council Ave, Shoalwater Reserve, and Gascoyne Ave Reserve before 1995 when the Lark Hill project was offered. A chance meeting between Alan Mills and Rhonda Ford, when they corned a couple of councillors at a winter sports event, expressed concerns that our top sides of the day had to travel to Joondalup for home games and that artificial turf was hockey’s future, made way for our turf facilities to be included in the Lark Hill Project.
1997 saw yet another milestone made possible by supportive club members. The club borrowed money to add to a grant to build our own flood lights for training at Stan Twight. This project was put into action by Neville Ford and Ken Heedes with the help of many other members.
2007 was the year of the historical joining of the RDHC Junior Association with the RDHC Senior Club. This was only achieved by hard work from both committees of the different groups and a change in the Seniors constitution to govern the rights of Juniors becoming members of RDHC. That season too, the Men’s 1B’s for the first time made finals. Congratulations was offered to John Wright (Coach) and the entire playing group.
After over a decade of planning, four presidents (Alan Mills, Brad Ball, Graham Creedon, and Peter Janczyk) and many dedicated committee members later, the turf we know at Lark Hill became a reality in 2008. 2009 was first full operational year on turf. With all RDHC teams now playing in the HWA association, RDHC had become arguably the best hockey facility in WA.
Our new turf and facilities were celebrated in 2009, when RDHC hosted the Japanese Women’s Tenri University side, who played against our Ladies’ tops side. Our Ladies also played in the Willow Bridge League, which is the highest level they’ve achieved to date!
In 2010 RDHC hosted two friendly games, Australia verse New Zealand, and one test match, The Hockeyroos verses The Blacksticks.
We continue to look onward, upward, and further, to ensure Hockey always has a home in Rockingham.