Local student Chloe Surbey showcases her eye for design in the new Cooktown Bowls Club social shirt. Photo: Supplied.
A local club should highlight local talent, which is exactly what the Cooktown Bowls Club is doing with its new social shirts.
Endeavour Christian College student Chloe Surbey can officially put ‘designer’ on her resume after winning an art competition at school to create new shirts for the bowls club.
While everyone else went down the floral route, Ms Surbey decided to represent Cooktown and the club in a different way.
“Everyone else was doing flowers, and I was like, oh my god, that’s so pretty, and I’m over here doing dot work,” the 16-year-old laughed.
“They wanted the shirts to have a Cooktown twist, and I thought, what do we have in Cooktown? We have nature and flowers, which is what everyone was doing, and we also have Aboriginal cave paintings, so that’s where all the dot work came from.
“It’s not a traditional Aboriginal painting style, but I was inspired by it, and added a little bit of my own twist to it.”
Cooktown Bowls Club president Delma Badger said the committee took a vote, and collaborated with Ms Surbey to ensure the shirt highlighted the spirit of the club.
“We wanted the shirts to keep our club colours and to incorporate something new and fresh that would stand out; Chloe has managed to do that with her paint splatter idea (inspired by Aboriginal dot work),” she said.
“We made the addition of the bowls on the shirts, and there is no mistaking where the shirt comes from with the word Cooktown displayed on the front and back.
“It looks colourful and fun, just like a social club shirt should.”
Since launching the shirts late last month, Ms Badger said they had been well-received across the board.
“This is such a great opportunity to promote our club and town, as many of the sales have been to travellers from around Australia, and from other bowling clubs,” she said.
“Recently, we held a raffle for our Banana Growers Supervisors Bowls Bash, and a young worker from Zimbabwe won a shirt. He was over the moon with his win, and was spotted wearing it in Lakeland, where a couple travelling through saw him and came to the bowls club to purchase two shirts.
“Locally, we are very proud to tell people that it was a Cooktown student who designed it.”
Ms Surbey said she was astonished to think her design was representing a local club outside of Cooktown.
“It feels bloody awesome; I didn’t even imagine it getting printed,” she said.
