Colac’s 22-year-old lord of the lanes reflects on three years in business

When many 19 year olds were pulling shifts at a local supermarket, bar or cafe, or figuring out what’s next, Luke Shalley was signing papers to buy a bowling alley.

The 22-year-old celebrated his third anniversary of owning Colac Tenpin Bowl this week. 

“I was 19 when I bought it — the year after I finished school,” he told the Brolga. “I was working at Woolies and hated it. I wanted to find something that was mine, something I could put passion and time into.”

He said he “stumbled” across an online listing for the sale of the bowling alley “and thought, ‘Wow, that’s pretty cool’. I figured I was young enough to give it a go. I didn’t have a mortgage, no commitments, so why not?”

The bowling alley had been shut since 2020, when Covid forced its doors closed. By then it had become a shadow of its former self, with dated machinery and the interior was in desperate need of a lick of paint.

“Friends told me not to do it,” Shalley recalled. “They said the machines were in bad nick and it was a shithole. But I came in with fresh eyes. The colours were ugly, mismatched, but I could picture straight away how I’d repaint it.”

Over the past three years Shalley has gradually transformed the site, building a bar, a snack shack, and introducing an arcade and special events, turning the 10-lane alley into a lively local hangout. 

He has learnt the hard way about unexpected business expenses - two weeks after opening, the centre’s scoring computer gave out, forcing him to stump up $100,000 for a new system. 

Other lessons came late at night, and into the early hours of the next day, as he tinkered  until 1.30am to keep ageing pinsetters alive, and painted the walls himself.

“I got a quote, it was about 10 grand to paint the ceiling, and I thought, ‘I'm not doing that, I will learn to spray paint myself’,” Shalley said. “And I did. I bought a $250 gun from Bunnings, I got 60 litres of paint, and I had a couple mates [who] helped me.

“I remember finishing it, standing back, taking all the masking down and thinking, ‘This is exactly how I wanted it to be’. And there’s nothing more rewarding than sitting back and knowing this was me.”

Shalley said it wasn’t enough to simply offer lanes.

‘People want to come in and have a bowl and a beer. You need food, an arcade, and drinks to make it work.”

Shalley said life as a business owner had helped to bring him out of his shell.