Ipswich rich with tennis history

Ipswich rich with tennis history

As Wimbledon fast approaches, the sport of tennis is now on the minds of many.

However, for self-confessed ‘tennis fanatic’, Stuart Ware, the sport has been a lifelong passion.

The tennis coach shows off his impressive collection of racquets with pride, knowing the intricacies and the story that lie behind each one.

His collection of tennis memorabilia dates back to the early 1920s and includes an astounding 700 tennis racquets, 15 restringing machines and over 2000 books about the sport.

“I never wanted this as my collection,” he says.

“I have saved it to try and show people what has happened in tennis throughout history.

“Having an engineering background, I can see the work that has gone into many of these hand-made, hand-painted, and hand-polished racquets.”

Stuart is also interested in how styles of play have changed with the development of tennis racquets and how the game has evolved in Australia.

The coach of 30 years is passionate about recording and displaying Australia’s tennis history and says he hopes to open a sports history and memorabilia museum in Ipswich so his wide collection can be shared with the local community.

Tennis coach, Stuart Ware with some of his collection of tennis memorabilia

Aside from simply displaying the collection of racquets, Stuart hopes to have a library where his books can be read by visitors, as well as an interactive area where parents and children can measure their serving speed and practice their tennis skills on electronic machines.

“I would love people who already play tennis to come to the museum, but also the people outside of the tennis community,” he says.

“Today we have more spectators than ever watching big events like Wimbledon or the Australian Open, however less and less people are actually playing the sport.

“I want to try to use the museum to generate more interest in tennis in Ipswich.”

His passion for the sport is contagious, with many traveling from as close as Ipswich and as far as the Sunshine Coast to play tennis at his club, Tall Gums Sports Centre at Walloon.

Stuart’s love affair with tennis began at the tender age of five and has developed into a lifelong passion.  

“My first and last tennis lesson was when I was about five years old,” he says.

“My father handed me a Slazenger Challenge tennis racquet that weighed a ton and showed me how to hold it and that was it.

“It’s the challenge of it I think.

“Even to this day I can’t explain it, you just start hitting the ball and there’s something inside of you that says, this is fun and I need to hit it again.”

Stuart laughs as he remembers his parents calling him in well after dark while he tried to hit the ball just ‘one more time’.

“Dad would be yelling, ‘Get inside, you can’t possibly see that ball!’” he says.

“Every night I would go and hit and I wouldn’t come inside until I had hit one more ball than the night before.”

Having always loved tennis, Stuart hopes to share the sport with as many people as possible.

“Tennis is a sport you can legitimately play for a lifetime,” he says.

“We have players here as young as five or six and others well into their seventies and eighties.”

Stuart’s coaching career had somewhat of an unorthodox beginning.

What started as social matches in a backyard tennis court at his house in Karrabin quickly turned into casual coaching for his friends and family.

The coach charged a mere 50 cents per lesson, saying he simply enjoyed sharing the sport with friends and students.

The demand for Stuart’s training quickly rose as he became well known in the tennis community and it was then that he and his wife Kay decided to open Tall Gums Sports Centre in 1985.



Tall Gums Sports Centre at Walloon, Queensland.

The couple have been married for almost 30 years and met, of course, through tennis.

Stuart admits it takes a team to run a tennis centre and says his wife Kay does amazing work behind the scenes running the administration at Tall Gums.

“There are always two sides to a business and I have always said that without her I would be hopeless.”

Stuart has coached at an elite level, including coaching the Brazilian Davis Cup team, but says he gets the most enjoyment from training local families and community members.

“Our goal was to get tennis coaching out to areas where it is lacking, more rural areas such as Walloon, Peak Crossing and Kalbar,” he says.

“If you develop families and members of the community, that’s it, that’s beautiful.”

The veteran coach can’t quite pin down exactly what it is about tennis he loves so much.

“The benefit I see with tennis is for health and well-being, not just as a sport, you’ve also got the social interaction, the mental release, as well as a bit of exercise,” he says.

“It’s hard to say, I think the best part for me is seeing people just enjoying themselves, seeing kids who couldn’t hit a ball, hit a ball and experiencing the social side of tennis.”

Stuart says he will be watching Wimbledon closely this year and believes that developments in court surfacing at the grounds could provide the current men’s world number one with some competition.

“I think with the new court surfaces players like Rafael Nadal have a really good chance at winning,” he says.

“However I think Novak Djokovic will still come out on top.”

Stuart is still searching for old tennis racquets and memorabilia to add to his collection and welcomes any donations from members of the community.

For each item unearthed by the community Stuart says he will make a donation to Cabanda Care charity organisation and record the history of each piece.

Anyone with donations is encouraged to contact Stuart at Tall Gums Sports Centre.