HISTORY OF BOCCE
Throwing balls toward a target is probably the oldest
game known to humans. As early as 5200 B.C. the
Egyptians played a form of bocce with polished rocks.
From Egypt the game made its way to Greece around 800
B.C. The Romans learned the game from the Greeks, then
introduced it throughout the empire. The early Romans
were among the first to play a game resembling what we
know as bocce today. In early times they used coconuts
brought back from Africa and later used hard olive
wood to carve out bocce balls. Beginning with Emperor
Augustus, bocce became the sport of statesman and
rulers. From the early Greek physician Ipocrates to
the great Italian Renaissance man Galileo, the early
participants of bocce have noted that the game’s
athleticism and spirit of competition rejuvenates the
body. Bocce enjoyed rapid growth throughout Europe and
became the sport of nobility and peasants alike.
According to legend, Sir Francis Drake refused to set
out to defend England against the Spanish Armada until
he finished a game. He proclaimed, “First we finish
the game, then we’ll deal with the Armada!”.

ITALIAN IMMIGRATION TAKES BOCCE WORLDWIDE
By the 1800s Bocce was played across the north of
Italy and in other European countries like France,
Switzerland, Luxembourg, Belgium, Germany, Slovenia,
Istra, Croatia and Bosnia. In Italy men played bocce
at the back of ‘Osterias’ and along the back streets.
In the mid-1800s Italy was unstable. The two Guiseppes
Garibaldi and Mazzini led the ‘red shirts’ across the
country in a bid to unify the Italian speaking
peoples. It was during this period that many northern
Italians started immigrating to places like Australia
and America, taking the game of bocce with them.

BOCCE IN AUSTRALIA 1850s - 60s
Bocce was first played in Australia by the northern
Italian and Swiss Italian immigrants like the
Pedretti’s, Vanzetta’s, Perini’s, Gervasoni’s,
Milesi’s and Lucini’s amongst others who came to the
Victorian goldfields at Daylesford, Hepburn Springs
and Yandoit in central Victoria, in the 1850s and 60s.
Much of Australia’s early day bocce was played for fun
with some salami and a glass or 2 of vino (wine).
Often the men used to play for a glass of wine.

BOCCE IN AUSTRALIA -1950s
After the 2nd world war Italian migration to Australia
grew rapidly. Many Italians from the northern Italian
regions of Friuli, Venezia Guilia and Veneto came to
Australia bringing the game of bocce with them. The
game was played in the backyards of boarding-houses
and in places were Australia’s Italians started
congregating like Carlton, Brunswick, Fitzroy,
Richmond, Flemington and across the inner suburbs of
Melbourne. Many Friulani from the province of Udine
started settling in the north of Melbourne around
Northcote and Thornbury in the 1950s.

AUSTRALIA’S FIRST BOCCE CLUB
FOGOLAR FURLAN CLUB IN THORNBURY
It was back in 1957 when Melbourne’s Furlan community
came together for the first time and formed a
committee to start up a social club. from there Furlan
bocce legends like Virginio Turco and Remo Cher helped
form Australia’s first bocce committee. Both men were
later to become presidents of both the Victorian and
Australian Bocce Federations. Seven years later and
Australia’s first bocce club had opened in the
original Fogolar Furlan Club in Mansfield St Thornbury
on the 10th of October 1964. The original Fogolar
Furlan Club had 4 bocce lanes with the club
specifically built around the bocce court. In the
early days the women played tombola while the men
played bocce. Many of the newly arrived Italians from
the northern Veneto region also joined the Furlan
people at the Fogolar Club in Thornbury until they
later built their own big bocce courts at the Veneto
club in Bulleen.

VICTORIAN AND AUSTRALIAN FEDERATION HOME AT FOGLAR
FURLAN CLUB
In 1971, Victoria lead the way by forming the first
Australian Bocce Federation - the Victorian Bocce
Federation with its home at the Fogolar Furlan Club in
Thornbury. The first Australian Bocce Federation also
found its home at the Furlan Club not long after. The
first Australian Bocce titles were held at the Furlan
club in Thornbury in 1970 and for 3 years it was local
Victorians from Friuli and Veneto that took out the
singles and doubles titles. Furlan men from the
Thornbury based club won the gold medals in those
early days - Signor Montanari, Manias, Tonel and Pase
dominated in the early years of the Australian titles.

1ST EVER AUSTRALIAN ENGLISH LANGUAGE NEWS ARTICLE:
THE HERALD, MELBOURNE
JOURNALIST ROD NICHOLSON
“Australian champion John Pase deliberated, raced in
and with a mighty ‘OOMPH’ let loose. A 5 pound
circular, hollow brass ball hurtled through the air
and with a striking clang, skittled other balls from
the kitty.
It was a spectacular sight in an exciting,
action-packed game.
The game? Bocce - similar to bowls but with a few
obvious variations.
Pase, 48, won the Australian singles title in Adelaide
recently with a perfect days work winning all 10 of
the matches. It was the  first time a player had been
undefeated to win the championship. And if you think
throwing a ball through the air to hit a target is
easy, you’re wrong.
The alleys are 80ft long and it takes a strong and
accurate toss to hit a five inch wide ball at the
other end. It is normal to roll the bocce along the
sandy alley and draw to the kitty.
But if the opponent is so well placed in a game,
tossing to ‘spreadeagle’
the bocces is the method used.
Victoria has dominated the Australian championships
since they began in Melbourne in 1970. Victoria has
won the singles and the doubles each year, except for
this time when they lost the doubles.
Pase was practising at the Fogolar Furlan Club in
Thornbury, a club that cost $120,000 to build.
Licensed, it caters for many of Victoria’s 330
registered players every night, except Tuesdays and
Thursdays. More than 3,000 players have taken up the
game in Australia and it is expanding rapidly.
A new centre is running in Werribee and others are in
Cobram and Shepparton. A futher one will soon be
opened in Frankston.
After the Australian championships this year an
Australian association was formed with Mr. V. Turco as
president and Mr Ray Cher as secretary-treasurer. both
are Victorians. Bocce in Australia has already been
recognised by the world body, International de Boules.

By January next year Australia will become the 13th
country in the world to qualify for the world
championships.

Herald Article : 1972 - Journalist Rod Nicholson

FOGOLAR FURLAN GROWS AND MOVES TO LARGER PREMISES
The popularity of bocce kept growing and soon the
original Fogolar Furlan Club needed larger premises.
Once again the Furlan community pooled there building
skills together to build the new premises at No 1
Matisi St in Thornbury. The smaller 4 lane court was
replaced by a larger 9 lane court which opened on the
23rd of March 1985. The new larger club also catered
for the increasing number of young teenagers who had
started playing back in the early 70s.

WOMEN AND BOCCE
Friulani women and women in general were not allowed
to play bocce until the early 1970s. When the Fogolar
Furlan Club was opened in 1964 women were expected to
cook and play ‘tombola’ and not to indulge in a game
of bocce. Graziella Marson came to Australia in 1952
on-board the good ship ‘Oceania’ from Friuli. She
helped form the Ladies Bocce Federation in 1975 and
was President of the Victorian Ladies Bocce Federation
until the early 1990s, she recalls, “we girls were
expected to serve the men. We ended up saying ‘bugger
you’, we loved the game and really wanted to play”.
Adelia Pase came to Australia on board the good ship
‘Napoli’. Her father Virginio was instrumental in
forming the club and husband Giovanni Pase won the
1971/72 Australian doubles title and the 73 Australian
singles title. Graziella recalls, “Nowadays we mix
with the men. The boys automatically call us in and
its natural to play together”.

VANESSA ALLEGRETTO AND SARA FACCINI    
Vanessa Allegretto was born in Fitzroy in 1977. Her
father Arnaldo was runner up to Giovanni Pase in 1971.
Vanessa was brought up in a bocce loving family and
spent many of her childhood days at the club in
Thornbury.
She recalls, “the Fogolar Furlan Club was my second
home and still is. I first started playing with ‘i
pensionati’ at the old club during the school
holidays. When I was 10 years old, former champion
Giovanni Pase convinced me and my close friend Sara
Faccini to start playing competition. I haven’t
stopped since! All through our teenage years on Friday
nights we played bocce in the mixed competition and on
Sundays in the Ladies Federation that Graziella helped
form in 1975”. We loved playing bocce and especially
liked competing against and beating the boys. Furlan
women like Graziella  opened the door for me and many
other women who loved the game”.
Sara Faccini was born in Pasiano di Pordenone in
Friuli in Italia on the 11th of May 1977. She came to
Australia with her father Romano and mother Filomena
by aeroplane with Alitalia arriving on the 2nd of June
1981.

VANESSA BECOMES A VICTORIAN, AUSTRALIAN AND WORLD
CHAMPION
Vanessa continues, “In 1991 I partnered another
Friulana girl, Sara Faccini and together we won the
Victorian doubles title. By 1995 we were off to the
first Australian Nationals in Adelaide at the Campagna
Club as an under 30s and by 1998 I was representing
Victoria in Queensland at the Australian Championships
with Maria Zuzic and Diana Radojkovic.

VANESSA ALLEGRETTO IN FRANCE 1998
AT THE FIRST EVER WORLD WOMEN'S TOURNAMENT
The first ever world women's tournament was held in
Romans, France.
It was a 3 day event which attracted 10 countries for
3 days,
August 7-9. Along with Vanessa Allegretto 3 other
women - Anna Di Clemente and Barbara Jones from
Queensland and Suzan Jogovac from
New South Wales represented Australia. Anna Di
Clemente won the
‘Bowl Throw’ gold medal title while Vanessa and
Barbara won the 2nd place
silver medal in the doubles.

VANESSA ALLEGRETTO : A WORLD DOUBLES SILVER MEDAL
The following is an extract taken from the ‘Australian
Bocce Bowls’ magazine, winter - spring edition 1999
and an article written by Bocce legend Remo Cher. This
magazine is the official journal of the Australian
Bocce Federation and here is a summary of the World
Womens Bocce Doubles title. “The doubles combination
of Vanessa Allegretto and Barbara Jones perfromed
well. The first game against the Italians
(Pasin and Trova), as Barbara said, “was tough and
played hard. The Italians were the champions and could
not afford to have their title taken from them”. The
highlight was their win against France (Maugiron and
Milleron).
They played their best ‘mental’ game, making the
French throw against every point, before Australia won
12 points to 4, in time on.
After 3 wins against Chile and France and a loss to
Italy, Australia again met Italy in the final. The
Italians played at their zenith! They hit the jack
twice! On one end they made 5 points, on the other
they made 4. From here it was going to be a struggle
for Australia to get back into the game.
Vanessa Allegretto and Barbara Jones  went on to win
the silver medal, a great result!
Vanessa recalls, “it has been a privlage and a honour
to represent Australia at a number of world
championships. In the 1999 and 2004 tournaments we’ve
had our best results. In 2001 and 2004 we also won the
Australian titles with my bocce loving Veneto friends
Agnese Giacomini and
Elda Stangherlin”.

FOGOLAR FURLAN BOCCE IN 2006
The Fogolar Furlan Club of Thornbury has promoted the
game throughout its history and today continues that
proud tradition with competion nights which are open
to all the community to join. On Friday nights as
Graziella proudly announces, “we get between 50 and 60
people in attendance. Other Australians of Italian
origin from places like Abruzzo, Calabria and Sicilia
now play the game. Everyones welcome at the club.
We’ve hosted school groups and anyone interested in
learning the game will find there’s always someone
here to teach new-comers the old skills of Bocce”.

The Furlan Club is in the Melbourne competition. They
play teams like the Calabria Club in Bulla, Casa
D’Abruzzo Club in Epping, Freccia Azzura in
Keysborough, Istra Club in Cambellfield, Lazio Club in
Reservoir and Australian Italian Clubs in Sunshine,
Knox, Rowville, Dandenong and Whitehorse. The Fogolar
Furlan Club also enjoys a friendly  rivalry between
with the Veneto Club. “The oldest game in the world
continues to travel”.