Rod Laver’s father built him a backyard tennis court 80 years ago. Now locals are battling to save it

For an academic who studies the significance of sporting places, it seemed almost too good to be true when Dr Kate Kirby stumbled upon a little known tennis court carrying the name of Australian tennis legend Rod Laver.

The unobtrusive clay court on Main Street, Park Avenue, Rockhampton — 1,900 kilometres away from the 15,000-seat Rod Laver arena in Melbourne — is accessible to any player with the initiative to obtain the key from a grocery store across the road.

For much of the last 80 years, the backyard court built by Roy Laver for his tennis-mad sons has attracted little attention, despite being the birthplace of an Australian sporting phenomenon. It is, in effect, Australian tennis' answer to the tank stand at Sir Donald Bradman's boyhood home in Bowral.

Dr Kirby, whose doctoral thesis on high performance sport in regional Queensland ended up containing a passage on the Laver court, was amazed on two levels.

The first was that, having herself grown up in the birthplace of the "Rockhampton Rocket", she'd never previously heard of the court.

The second was that, despite being lovingly maintained by a dedicated group of volunteers for the last 35 years, the court wasn't and still isn't protected by a heritage overlay. About 15 years ago, the old Laver home abutting it was sold and relocated by owners unaware of its significance.

"I was surprised," Dr Kirby says of the court's uncertain status.

"You don't have to be living near a metropolitan city, next to the best facilities to become one of Australia's best and most cherished athletes."

According to Rod Laver, the construction of the court was not just an expression of fatherly love but a move to make sure that Roy Laver's athletically gifted children shared his passion for tennis.

In fact, it is the second Laver court — the first, which was made from ant hills on a cattle farm in remote Langdale and needed daily watering, perished not long after the Lavers relocated, first to Marlborough and then Rockhampton.

In Rocky, the Laver family lived in a classic Queenslander on a block Roy Laver chose for its capacity to accommodate the court he and sons Trevor, Bob and Rod duly built with soil and silt trucked in from the Fitzroy river.

"This time, we fitted out our home court for night play by stringing four 1500-watt light bulbs on an overhead wire down the centre of the court," Laver wrote in his autobiography. 

The court was a magnet for local players, including another future grand slam champion, Mal Anderson. The youngest of the Laver boys by four years, Rod was sometimes kicked off the court and had to content himself with hitting against a wonky wall, whose unpredictable bounce developed the reflexes and footwork that would later serve him so well as a pro.

According to Laver, the most fateful of the visitors at the backyard court was Charlie Hollis, the army veteran turned tennis coach who would change his life. Sweetened up with a rum and milk, Roy Laver convinced Hollis to coach his sons for free, and in time, he would play a part in the rise to the top of not just Laver, but Anderson, Fred Stolle and Roy Emerson.

Laver's recollection of what followed still resonates:

"The first time Charlie laid eyes on me, I was 10 and he was putting Bob and Trevor through their paces. I'd crept out of bed to watch them and was peeping at them through the chicken wire perimeter fence of our court when he spied me. Before I could run away, he said to Dad, 'Aw, let the little bugger have a hit. I can see he's keen as mustard'. And there, under the 1500-watt bulbs, barefoot and in my pyjamas, Charlie and I had a knock, and I got that ball back over the net more times than I didn't."

Eleven grand slam singles titles and 80 years later, promising juniors can still drop by Main Street Park Avenue to sample that rare thing: a clay court in Rockhampton.

Sue Young's eyes light up when she's asked what Rod Laver means to the Rockhampton tennis community. "He is a true gentleman… and he's my hero," Young says. She is a member of the Rod Laver Tennis Club and one of the Rockhampton court's current custodians.

Indeed, the club itself was formed in 1991 amid fears that the court, then in a state of disrepair, would be bulldozed and built over. In the 35 years since, with some financial assistance from the local parish and a can-do attitude, the club has restored the court to its former glory and maintained it admirably.

Young figures that only one in 10 locals even know of the court, a matter the club has tried to address with signage, and the rebranding of the entire club, previously known as the Park Avenue Parish Social Tennis Club.

"Playing on the clay court is amazing," Young says. "I believe it is the only clay tennis court available in the community in Rockhampton. It's different than playing on other surfaces."

And yes, she says, the stories of it being accessible via an old-timey honour system are true. "We have a little shop across the road, the Foodworks, [that] has held the key for 25 years now," Young says.

Keys to the court

"You can just go over there and ask for the key of the court facilities here. You come over, open it up, use it and just return [the key]. It's open to the community seven days a week.

"We wanted it to be very accessible to the community. "Some people like to say Melbourne has the RLA, but we have the RLC here in Rockhampton."

To this day, Young says, promising junior players who are destined for bigger and better things are eager to experience a clay court. But like a lot of community club members, she is worried about what the future holds.

"As the tennis club members get older, sometimes we are concerned that the younger generation aren't coming forward to look after it," Young says.

"Will it be here in another 20 years? The present members are reaching our 70s now. It is a bit of a worry, and it would be a shame because the experience of playing on a clay court is amazing. I don't know how we address and how we get younger people interested in coming and helping look after the court.

"It is four or five hours a week [of work] to get the court ready for use."

Court preservation

She says the club is very open to any move that would ensure the court's preservation and ongoing use, but would "want to look at the parameters of heritage listing" to make sure appropriate guard rails are in place. For members it is, above all else, a place to play.

Laver, for his part, has been back several times — including an impromptu hit in 2012. "I think I screamed when he left,' Young says. "He gave us a big hug and said he totally appreciates the effort we go to to keep the court looking so nice."

Young says it is "a little bit disappointing" that neither the local council nor Tennis Queensland helps out with the court, either financially or by promoting its pivotal role in the sport's history in Queensland.

"No one is interested, and I find it amazing that people aren't interested," says Young. "It's not even on the list at the tourist information centre. Tourists would love to come and hit. It might keep people another day in Rockhampton. The club is only small and our time is taken up keeping it nice and playable."

Battle for heritage listing

Dr Kate Kirby says that, ideally, the court would be heritage listed in such a way that it continues to function as it presently does, with anyone able to play on it, but is prevented from being altered or built over.

"Rockhampton doesn't have a local heritage register, so what I'm most interested in now is, given Laver's reputation and just the cultural value of this court to the community and for Queenslanders in the future, is to focus on trying to get it listed at the Queensland [state] level," Dr Kirby says.

Though the Rockhampton Regional Council confirmed it had "no position" on the heritage matter, Mayor Tony Williams said that given the history of the court and Laver's status in the local community, it was "only prudent" that the court be preserved for future generations.

"We've positioned ourselves as a sporting hub, and why not go to your history and someone like Rod and having that history of that court in the Park Avenue area there would be a great example of what that history could look like — building on the future and preserving the past," Williams said.

"It would have my full support and, and I'd say, in principle, council support too."

Come what may, Sue Young and the other volunteers at the Rod Laver Tennis Club will keep the court tidy and available to the public for as long as possible.

"We can only hope and keep pushing," Young says. "Hopefully in another 50 years it's still here."