The original Wombats were founded in 1962 as a Rugby Club for Weerona, the then BHP Steelworks hostel for cadets. Home Base was Wisemans Park in Gwynneville.

Most of the players were boys from rural Nwe South Wales and the club became their family, with the Weerona warden Cec Chalker providing fartherly guidance.

The sixties and seventies didn't bring a great deal of on field success with mostly young teams,but by the 1980s the club was competitive in first garde and several players represented New South Wales Country.

By this time BHP had closed the hostel and Werrona became a Hall of Residence for the University with no association with the club.

The Steelworks still provided the main recruiting base but more locals were also joining the Club.When the Albion Park based Trojans folded in the late 80s, many of the players joined Weerona.

In 1989 the club appointed New Zelander Les Whittaker as first gards coach and the team went on to win the Grand Final over Camden.

Les appointed Don Shaw as second grade coach and the depth of the club improved

Success was repeted in 1990 with a Grand Final Victory over Vikings, although the result was reversed the next year.

The following year's saw a gradual decline in strength as senior players retired and attempts to establish juniors flounded after a couple of seasons.

The club dropped the Werrona name and was officially known as the Wollongong Rugby Club.

By the late 1990's the club realised that its central Wollongong location,near three other clubs, and spartan facilities put it at a disavantage for both senior and junior recruiting.

With no other clubs between Wollongong and Kiama a move Sout to ther area of population growth seemed the obvious course of action. Albion Park was deemed too far away for existing players so in 1999 home games were played at three potential locations Dapto Showground, Berkeley Sports Fiels & Dandaloo sports field.

In the end the Berkely location was chosen and the club relocated in 2000, but only had enough to field a singl team in the Presidents Cup Competition.

Despitye some on-field success, the club was unable to gain any momentum or local support at Berkeley.

Encouraged by club Stalwart Gerry Cappetta an the sponsorship from the Dandaloo Hotel, the move to the Dandaloo Sports field at dapto was made in 2002.

At this time the club's name was changed to Avondale, this name having an association with the Dandaloo Hotel and the unrelated Dapto Rugby Club having recently folded. The Wombat emblem was retained to signify the links with the old Werrona-Wollongong Wombats.

The strength of the club grew and teams fielded expanded from a single third grade side to second & third grade, winning the second grade premiership in 2005 and entered first grade in 2006.

In 2007 the first grade side were semi-finalists, thus becoming the only new club to establish a permanent presence in the IDRU senior competion in over 20 years.

This year the club has gon from strength to strength winning the club championship and all three grades reaching the Grand Finals.

Today only a handfull of club members who were involved with the original Wombats are still with the Avondale Wombats.

Sadly Gerry Cappetta and Les Whittaker have both passed away but Don Shaw is still critial to the running of the club.

Remarkably after almost ten years there are still acouple of players who wore the old black and white playing strip who will run on in Avondal's blue and yellow in the grand final this weekend.

Karepo Nio is still a speedy winger and Tommy Makea is still directing the backline from scrum half. Tommy's age is a closley guarded secret but the fact that his son Shane is playing in the same team's front row is a bit of a giverway. Other players have built extensive careers with Avondale, Allen Cooper, Peter leng, Peter king, Troy Herburt have all given sterling service.

Avondale Rugby Club is proud of its achievements and the successess of 2008 promises to be a great future for the Wombats.