Article by Malcolm Qualtrough Jan 2026
Memories of Victorian Volleyball and Wolfgang Gollong from 1971 – 1990
By Malcolm Qualtrough 6th March 2012 and updated 29th April 2019
-Victorian Amateur Volleyball Association (VAVA) Tournament Director 1971-73
-Volleyball Victoria and Country Volleyball State Tournament Director 1980-89 (Approx.)
In January 1971 I was 19 and left home in Bendigo to work in Melbourne. I had played and refereed volleyball for three years in Bendigo, with other students and teachers from the Golden Square High School. The Bendigo association at the time was perhaps the best run and regulated competition within Australia, thanks to the work of service-minded such as Murray Mansfield who had been a member of the Y Men’s Association.
I began to play volleyball with the Hawks Volleyball team that trained at a small church hall (St Batholomew’s) in Burnley St, Burnley. Here I met Wolf for the first time and found out that he was the secretary of the VAVA. The Hawks volleyball team was an odd mixture of people, and except for Wolf and myself was wholly Latvian.
The team I think was what was left of a once strong team but now was relegated to second division in the Victorian State competition, which played on Thursday night at the Brighton YMCA. The uniform was a maroon T-shirt with a large plastic motif of a hawk stuck on the front. Wolfgang told me that the design came from his squadron in the Luftwaffe during the war.
Other team members included Arij Lozenicins (VAVA President) and Anatole (Tolly) Lacis from Huntingdale whom I became good friends with. Tolly must have been one of the oldest players in VAVA in those years.
State league division one men and women were played at the Brighton YMCA on Sundays from 12pm to around 8pm. There were teams such as:
Ajax
Heidelberg
Sisu
Wallabies
Renegades
Estonia
Lithuania
Latrobe Valley
I am extremely grateful for the friendship and mentoring I received from the following people:
Joe Hillier, Chief referee
John Fricsons, State Women and Heidelberg coach
Russell Newman,
John Griffiths,
Malcolm Darby (Latrobe Valley)
Henry Bright (Latrobe Valley)
Ian Burgess and Alan Scott (Latrobe Valley)
Peter Bundy
John Barker
Murray Mansfield
Thomas Santamaria
Wolfgang Gollong lived with his wife and daughter Waltraud (Wally) in Peter St North Box Hill (off Elgar Road). This has been built over by the Eastern Freeway. Mrs Gollong was a kind and gentle lady who looked after me well with cakes and tea on each of my frequent visits.
Wolf was an electrical engineer who imported electrical components and test equipment. Wolf drove around in a monstrous green Rover with wood-grain paneling. I often wondered if it had a motor, because you could never hear it at all.
Wolfgang Gollong tried his hardest. He was not a good referee, and I heard the story about one of the big spikers of the Sisu Club picking him up by the scruff of the neck and throwing him along the shiny floor at Brighton YMCA, after a disputed decision.
The Association was not run well and Arij often had arguments with Mr Gollong over his own money that was being mixed up with the Association. I’m sure that VAVA was the better for ‘Wolfgang investments’.
The bookkeeping left a lot to be desired. Meetings were held ad hoc in the back of committee member’s shops and houses. and once in the back of a Greek Fish and Chip Shop. I ended up running five competitions, Sunday 1st Division, Thursday 2nd Division, Preston Tech, Latrobe University, and Burnley third division on Wednesdays. For many months I used to carry a big sack on the train with 4 or 5 balls, a ball pump and a money tin. I think the tin was full of money for around 12 months; before I asked what I should do with it.
During the finals at Brighton one Sunday, Referee Bob Foote came down from Sydney. Arij got me to open the tin and hand over some money for his train fares and expenses.
Wolfgang was the public face of the Association and organized public meeting to start off new competitions. Apart from the State League he had competitions started at Fitzroy (folded shortly after through lack of follow-up), Burnley, Melbourne University High School, Preston Tech (later moved to Kew High School) and Latrobe University.
As tournament director I was responsible for all of these competitions, apart from Melbourne University High School. I believe if I had not been there the competitions would have folded as soon as they were begun. When I eventually got a car I was doing 300 miles a week just around Melbourne.
Wolf and Arij were very good at starting competitions but not at training people or following up on anything.
It was not until 1974 that Ventolin was introduced in Victoria. Wolfgang had suffered severely from Asthma all of this life. I visited him at one of his many stays in the Box Hill hospital while he was on a drip. It was very sad for me to see him this way. I also have suffered asthma all of my life.
I left Melbourne in 1975, Later, after Wolfgang died, I was told after the funeral. I rang Mrs Gollong ome weeks later. She was very lonely. I should have kept in touch with her, and I regret to this day that I never did. My only excuse was that I was too young to appreciate my friendship with the family.
VAVA’s limited resources were concentrated on the first division at Brighton YMCA and state teams. However, with Volleyball coming to prominence in the schools and at the Olympic games, Wolf and Arij behind the scenes were courting the likes of Judy Patching (Victorian Olympic Chairman who served a term as VAVA President. Eventually others got hold of Eric Hayman (Hayman Reece Towbars), and things began to move.
The strong country volleyball associations, who were affiliated and could see little benefit coming back to them, also bore down on VAVA and pressurized VAVA into re-inventing itself into Volleyball Victoria through its first full time administrator Bob Rowe. At a meeting in 1973 (?) the Country Associations took on the task and at a Special Meeting at Brighton YMCA spilled the whole Executive and committee members, and elected a representative from each of the Division One teams to be on the board.
Eric Hayman was elected President after Judy Patching, and Murray Mansfield elected as Treasurer. This left me without a position and despite efforts by Russell Newman to persuade me, I had 12 months rest. My wife and I were married in 1974 and continued to play with the Hawks team at Rusden Teachers College. This was the beginning of the Eastern Metropolitan Volleyball Association organized by Andrew Moorehouse.
I cannot remember how, or the circumstances, but late in 1975 or thereabouts, after we had moved to the Latrobe Valley, I took on the job as State tournament Director. The Association then met at the Olympic Offices in Jolimont. My responsibilities no longer included the Melbourne competitions. I was now responsible for any State Tournaments (U15, U7s, Under 20s from memory, and Opens)
At the same time the Country Associations had organized themselves into the Victorian Country Volleyball Council (VCVC) that held the Country Championships and put further pressure on VAVA to improve themself. I was elected Secretary of VCVC and for around three years organized the annual conference at the Mont Martre Motel in St Kilda.
I also fully, with liaison from the host association, ran the Country Championship for a large number of years along with the under-aged state tournaments. At the same time I was progressing as candidate for National Refereeing. Bad eyesight was my biggest hindrance here.
The next step in the evolution of Volleyball Victoria came when Bob Rowe become it’s first paid full time executive officer. Bob had worked in Myers Department Stores previously in administration. Bob was fairly ruthless but got the job done. In the first 12 months he secured sponsorship from an underarm deodorant company (Jovell); and all the state teams had this printed on their uniforms.
Bob moved the office out of Jolimont into his backyard bungalow at Ashburton; then into an old shop just around the corner from the Ashburton Library. The was the first permanent office for VAVA. At about he same time or a little earlier Bob suggested the new name be Volleyball Victoria.
VVI set itself up in its new home and employed a fulltime admin assistant (or perhaps eventually two). At the same time it advertised for and got another lady for Schools liaison. I seem to remember a lot of discussions about government grants and the minister for Racing and Football (Victorian minister for Sports.)
I continued running tournaments and refereeing up to the late 1980s on behalf of VVI. The VCVC had been made redundant and disbanded. It had achieved its purpose.
In 1979 I was the founder of the Moe Volleyball Competition. We started with 33 teams. After 12 months as President we handed it over to a younger committee and I remained as Treasurer until my family left the Latrobe Valley in 1984. For this I am a life member of the Latrobe Valley Vollyball Association.
In 2012, I was awarded Life-membership of Volleyball Victoria.
The story continues, as I was still tournament manager for VVI up until about 1989; we had 9 teams playing a Lake Eildon and a lot of us also played in Seymour. The mileage on the car continued as I also refereed all over the place (Seymour, Wallan, Albury), when requested. I also refereed the new state League Division one (Saturday Afternoons at Essendon High School).
In 1990 we moved to back to Bendigo and my back had had enough. I was carried into hospital at 40 years old for a back operation.
© Copyright by Malcolm Qualtrough, Elizabeth Feisst and the late John Karran Qualtrough.