Springvale Rollerworld

Address: 18 Newcomen Road, Springvale 3171

Years of Operation: 1979 - 1985 (approx)

Building Status: NO LONGER STANDING

Melway Reference: Edition 14 (1982), 79 K8

Telephone: 547 2858

Melway Map (click to expand)

See the rink at map reference K8: "Rollerworld Skating"

Copyright Melway Publishing Pty Ltd, edition 14, 1982. Excerpt of Melway from Map Collection: Melbourne Street Directories, Archives and Special Collections, University of Melbourne. See the full Melway edition here.

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About this rink

Rollerworld Springvale opened in 1979. It had a relatively short period of operation, closing around 1985. The rink itself was considered to be a small rink compared to it's contemporaries. After closing a furniture manufacturer took over the premises. At some time in the mid-1990s the building burnt down and the site was left vacant.

Rollerworld never hosted any skating championships (that i am aware of), but a champion skater did get their start at Rollerworld. Jayson Sutcliffe, a 3-time artistic skating world champion first got his first taste of rink skating and then artistic skating at Rollerworld. Check out his book ROLABOi here, it's an amazing story and an insight into the world of competitive skating.

So what did the rink look like? Well I don't know, but former staff member (1979-1985) Cameron Clark provided the below detailed sketch for me. Importantly, he even remembers where the Gallaga arcade machines were.

Rink Visit - October 2025

Remnants of a rink

In October 2025 I visited what I believed to be the remains of Rollerworld Springvale. Unlike my visit to Bayswater Roller City earlier this year, there really are only remnants of Rollerworld. It's more of an archeological site than a repurposed building.

You could drive past without looking twice at the old Rollerworld address. 18 Newcomen Road, Springvale appears to be nothing more than an overgrown, fenced off car park in an industrial side street off Springvale Road. However, there is more to the story. Once I had found the address, through a microfiche archive of the Yellow Pages, I turned to Google Maps, with the Satellite overlay. It was there that I noticed something odd. On this vacant block there appeared to be an out-of-place coloured rectangle. I pondered if it could possibly be the remains of an old skating surface?

Curiosity dictated that a site visit was required. I wasn't disappointed. Everything was as it appeared in Google Maps, it hadn't been built over or redeveloped. In person the suspicious rectangle looked even more like the crumbled remains of blue epoxy or urethane rink surface.

Through the wonderful Facebook skating community was able to confirm I had the right place. Those who skated Rollerworld were able to confirm for me that what I had photographed were the remains of their rink, a place of many happy memories.

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