Lawn bowler Bruce Hallman’s dying wish sparks confusion and outrage

A lawn bowler has sparked confusion and a little outrage after he left his entire estate to another club just minutes down the road.

After he died in August last year, Bruce Hallman (who had no other family) chose to bequeath his property and more to the Donvale Bowls Club in Melbourne’s eastern suburbs. The issue with that, of course, is that Hallman was a member of Doncaster Bowls Club which is about 7km away from the Donvale greens.

In fact, Hallman had been a member of Doncaster for 15 years and his club at first thought there was some sort of mistake.

That club decided to take legal action but soon realised there were no real avenues for them to pursue.

Doncaster Bowling Club executive chairman Trevor Dawson told News Corp they were “shocked” when they realised what had happened.

Adding to insult to injury, the money Donvale received was well over a million dollars.

“We were shocked to be honest ... We did contest the will to a point ... but there was no value in going any further,” Dawson said.

“The matter is finished as far as we’re concerned. Donvale got the money and there’s nothing we can do about it.”

According to the Herald Sun, there was some “speculation” that Hallman had been “unhappy with a few members of his old club”.

But that is not the case, according to Dawson.

There was also some thought that perhaps there was a spelling mistake on the will.

Donvale was just as surprised and, after realising it was the beneficiary, later discovered that Hallman had only been to their club on one occasion in 2019.

“Look, I’ll admit it was a bit of a shock to find out he wasn’t a current member,” Donvale chair Ian Bramstedt told 7NEWS.

But Bramstedt said he was 100 per cent certain it was not a mistake, and his club had “dotted the Is crossed the Ts on everything” ... and the ABN number and the address all checked out.

He said the club had plans to use the money on vital upgrades, including lights, synthetic grass, and a dome to cover the greens for all-year bowling action.

And they were also considering how to commemorate their new hero, Bruce Hallman.

Asked if a bronze statue was on the agenda, Bramstedt said it was possible.

“We didn’t think of that (but) we do have his ashes sitting on the board table right now actually,” he said.

Bramstedt said his club would now be one of only a handful (without pokies) that had top-shelf facilities.

He said “a once-in-a-lifetime bequest like this” deserved a once-in-a-lifetime infrastructure improvement.

Donvale is sponsored by RJ Legal, and a solicitor from that firm reportedly helped Hallman with his will.

However, no one is suggesting there was any misconduct about the arrangement.