Sport Rugby league Chief executive Ken James | Ceased 2005 Number of teams 13 | |
Country Central Highlands, Victoria, Australia Premiers Wendouree Raiders (2012) | ||
The Central Highlands Rugby League (CHRL) is a Rugby League competition District in the Australian state of Victoria. It covers the area of Victoria centered on Ballarat and Ararat, as far north as Creswick, Warrnambool in the south west, Bacchus Marsh in the east, and Horsham in the west.
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History
The CHRL District was established and registered with the ARL and VRL in 2005 by founder Ken James (previously Club Manager of MRL team 'Ballarat Highlanders Rugby League Club') after a necessity arose to start a competition in the western region of Victoria separate from the Melbourne Rugby League (MRL) District.
The CHRL competition started with two junior age levels but in 2008 due to the 11-year drought finally taking its toll on Central Victoria the council deemed the sports grounds used in the competition too dangerous for use. This temporarily ended competition for the CHRL (and some clubs in other sports too). After another 2 years of the fields not being used the councils re-allocated the fields to other purposes, ending the ability for clubs in the CHRL to continue until new home grounds are established.
Extended competition
The CHRL also hosted matches in Ballarat between combined CHRL teams made up of players from both Balarat Dragons and Ararat Cowboys against Altona Roosters and Sunbury Cougars, both from the MRL District, which expanded the experience of players at district representative level.
Current
Now that the Victorian drought is officially over, the CHRL is getting ready to resume competition and establishing a senior level competition to start in the 2013 or 2014 season. The Ararat Kings, Stawell Devils, and Ballarat Dragons are possibilities of having senior grade teams with others showing interest in setting up teams in Warrnambool, Mortlake and possibly other towns.