Our Club

Central Charlestown Juniors was started in 1961 when three original members, Jack Harrison, Eric St John and Jack Woods saw an area of bush in Bula St Charlestown as suitable for a Rugby League ground for Charlestown. These three men set out to turn their vision into a reality. It took four years of negotiations with the Crown Lands Board to get the land gazette to Central Charlestown League.

CCJRLF was established in 1966. Highfields, Charlestown, Dudley and Redhead areas were added to the Hamilton based Central Newcastle RLFC boundary. They originally played in yellow and brown.

A very significant part of CCJRLFC’s history is that the club built the original St John Oval from scratch. There was no assistance from the Government or Lake Macquarie Council with the exception of the club paying the Council to do the final leveling because Council had the required equipment. 

Our club was the only one in Newcastle to have financed and built their football ground complete with all amenities. This was an enormous task. 

Ferris Field on the other side of the highway was also used by CCJRLFC but Ferris was a council ground. St John remained under the control of the Junior and Senior Central Clubs until GPT redeveloped it as part of an expansion of Charlestown Square over fifteen years ago. It then became a Council ground.