29/11/2025
The old Bealiba footy ground might sit quietly these days, swallowed up by the pony club paddocks, but one piece of its history refuses to fade.
The scoreboard still stands there, stubborn as ever, staring across an oval that hasn’t seen a proper match in decades.
When Andy Munro – a football historian who runs the popular Former Footy Grounds page – spotted it, he felt the same mix of surprise and nostalgia that footy tragics across the bush would recognise.
“It’s funny how the Bealiba footy scoreboard still remains,” he said, noting that the ground is now home to the Bealiba Brumbies pony club. Time has claimed almost everything else, yet the scoreboard endures.
Even pinning down the ground’s final days is a challenge. “Maybe the late 80s, maybe the 90s,” Andy said. “I’ve seen different sources.”
What is clear is that the club by then was Nattie-Bealiba, the merged side that carried the district’s footy hopes after Bealiba’s long run in the Loddon Valley Football League finished in 1962.
The merged club later competed in the Lexton Football League, and this oval saw those last years of country footy before the goal umpires packed away their flags.
Sometime in recent years, someone wandered back and repainted the scoreboard. Andy reckons it was just “for old time’s sake,” a small gesture of affection for a club long gone but not forgotten.
One set of goalposts is still standing too, leaning slightly but unmistakably the real thing. He admitted he was pleased to see them. So would anyone with footy in their veins.
Bealiba’s past gives these scraps even more weight. During the gold rush, the town was home to around 18,000 people. Miners, merchants, families and fortune-hunters filled the place, and footy would have been a rare thrill in a rough, booming community.
Today, the population sits around 200. The contrast is almost impossible to grasp unless you stand on the old oval and picture the crowds that once gathered here.
That is why the scoreboard matters. It is not just a leftover structure. It is a reminder of a community that played hard, cared deeply and found identity in its colours.
Through people like Andy Munro, who keep these forgotten grounds alive through stories and photographs, places like Bealiba aren’t wiped from memory. They’re preserved, honoured and allowed to keep telling their tale.
The scoreboard still faces the field, waiting for a match that will never be played again.
Yet thanks to Andy’s work, and the quiet pride of those who loved this place, Bealiba’s football past remains more than a footnote. It remains part of who the town is.
