From buy-back to legal action: The four options to reclaim Bangalow’s Bowlo

THE Bangalow community is being urged to consider four options for the future of The Bowlo, which were presented at a meeting of around 200 people at Moller Pavilion at Bangalow Showground on Sunday afternoon.

The first option, which received strong support from attendees, is to work with local philanthropists to secure a low- or no-interest loan to purchase The Bowlo from Sydney-based conglomerate Norths Collective, which suddenly closed the club in October 2025, citing financial losses, deteriorating conditions and an unsustainable outlook, despite a 2022 amalgamation deal promising investment and repairs post-floods.

Byron Shire Councillor Asren Pugh told the meeting Norths had valued the land at more than $5 million, a figure locals believe to be highly inflated. He said the price would need to be negotiated, but was likely to fall between the $800,000 Norths spent repaying the club’s debts following the amalgamation and $2 million.

Another option is to continue negotiations with Norths for the club’s title and assets to be returned to the community.

But some community members raised concerns that Norths would hold a $2 million mortgage over the property for 25 years.

Bangalow Advisory Committee member Joey Torazzi said the group, which acts as a liaison between Norths and locals, had been granted a 30-minute meeting with Norths at the club’s final board meeting of the year in Sydney.

“We ended up being given an hour and a half with the board, who absolutely heard us loud and clear,” she said.

Fellow BAC member and property investment consultant Jason Dwyer said Norths admitted it had breached the Memorandum of Understanding on a number of issues.

“They basically just want to be rid of the whole thing,” he said. “The new CEO wants to make some profit and get rid of us and some other entities and regroup.”

Norths is also attempting to clear its debts through the $30 million sale of Seagulls at Tweed Heads to Twin Towns, and Dwyer said this option was contingent on that sale proceeding.

Dwyer also said he was unable to provide a timeline on how long it would take to reopen the club if the community regains control.

“That deal is some way off,” he said. “We’re not going to be in there by Easter, whatever route we take. It could be six to eight or ten months.”

 

The third option is to allow Norths to open expressions of interest to other local clubs through Clubs NSW for amalgamation. This process is currently on hold until July to give the community time to reclaim the club.

“We tried that (option) with Norths, but it didn’t work out too well,” said Cr Pugh, who also warned the process was the first step required by Norths before it could sell the land.

The fourth option is to commence legal action against Norths for breaching the Memorandum of Understanding in order to open a pathway to de-amalgamation, alongside a media and public campaign, which has been put on hold while negotiations with Norths continue.

While the community has already raised more than $120,000 to demonstrate a viable business plan to get the club back, pursuing legal action would require additional fundraising to cover legal fees of at least $10,000, and Norths has indicated it would cease all discussions if the community chooses this path.

Community members have been invited to complete a survey to help inform how to proceed, which will be open for a two-week public consultation period following the meeting.