The Copper Coast (ASA) Dragon Boat Club formed in 2009 under the umbrella of the Adelaide Survivors Abreast Dragon Boat Club (ASA).
The club was initially required to have a minimum of 14 financial members in order for Dragon Boats South Australia to provide us with a wooden loan boat for training in Wallaroo. We were able to achieve this but were reliant on our Adelaide parent club to provide training and a registered sweep for the first few months.
This cost a great deal of valuable training and recruiting opportunities but we were very grateful to ASA for their huge efforts and assistance in getting us off the ground as a Club.
A lot of effort and commitment was required by local Kym Cloyne to travel to Adelaide for several months to qualify as a registered sweep and to make herself available for all training sessions here at Wallaroo.
Copper Coast Battle Dragons Dragon Boat Club was born in 2012 when we became independent from ASA, giving us more autonomy.
The proposed extension of the Wallaroo Sailing Club on Heritage Drive, mooted in earlier years to include the Copper Coast Dragon Boat Club gained momentum around this time.
Originally the dragon boat was housed in premises leased by Mr Barry Price. We later moved to premises provided through the District Council of the Copper Coast and remained there until May 2017.
As at March 2020 we have 33 paid members with more coming on board this month. We have many supporters and our team and their families are our family.
With our new shed and the 2 Champion Dragon Boats we purchased along the way we can confidently now strive for more new members and would love to see two boats on the water at training time.
From 2009 until now we have fundraised, negotiated, worked hard, talked through water, begged, applied for funding, had a few set-backs, banked money, invested and repeated it all again to build our funds for this shed and club rooms.
We are a regular feature at a number of venues around the district and our teams over the years have been relentless in their spirit to achieve a dream.
Our first quote to build was $30,000. As time went by the costs increased. When we finally reached our target, we had a massive $42,600 in our bank and the mission to build started with contractors turning the first sod in December 2016. The building committee included team members, builder Steve Wensvoort, painter decorator and handyman Trevor Key and their assistants and wives Sue Brown and Wilma Key. With the assistance of many others including Copper Coast Battle Dragons Dragon Boat Club President – Sharon Hannagan m: 0428 225 024; Vice President - Wilma Key m: 0408 866 258; Secretary – Valda Cooper m: 0429 017 721: Treasurer – Jenny Lawson m: 0488 689 368; Club email – coppercoastbattledragons@outlook.com electrician Chris Hannigan (husband of team member Sharon) the final result is this boat shed.
Since then we have built a kitchen and toilet facilities. There is still an ongoing fundraising journey to build meeting room, gym and a set of sliding doors opening out to the beautiful view of the beach. It’s been a huge task and with lots of lateral thinking, planning and dedication, but we now have a shed that we own with a value of around $50,000. More importantly we have a place to call home.
