Your first week of roller derby is free to try, hire gear available
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About WARD

Meet the Pack

WA Roller Derby is one of the longest-running roller derby leagues in Western Australia.

WA Roller Derby league members at The Rise, Maylands
Our story

Grassroots, volunteer-run, still rolling.

WA Roller Derby was founded in August 2009. We skated our first friends-and-family bout in May 2010, and made our public debut later that year at the Great Southern Slam in Adelaide. We've been a member of the Women's Flat Track Derby Association (WFTDA) since 2014.

We're a grassroots, volunteer-run, not-for-profit league, built and kept going by the people who skate, ref, officiate and pitch in behind the scenes. What started with a handful of skaters is now a full home season, two travel teams, and a community that welcomes every age, body, ability and background. We follow the WFTDA gender statement and we're proudly queer-friendly and neuro-diverse-affirming.

  1. Aug 2009 WA Roller Derby founded.
  2. May 2010 Our first friends-and-family bout.
  3. Late 2010 Public debut at the Great Southern Slam in Adelaide.
  4. 2014 Became a member of the Women’s Flat Track Derby Association (WFTDA).
  5. 2026 Many tournaments played, many memories made.
Teams

Two home teams.
Two travel squads.

Our home teams battle it out a few times a year in fast, fun, family-friendly public games. Our travel teams carry our skaters further afield.

Atomic Sirens skaters during a home season bout
Home team

Atomic Sirens

One half of our home season rivalry, in red. Loud, fast and hard to shift.

Sonic Doom skaters in the pack
Home team

Sonic Doom

The other half, in blue. Skaters mix across both sides, so every bout is mates versus mates.

WARDs of the Skate travel team training
Travel team, WFTDA

WARDs of the Skate

Our representative squad, travelling interstate for tournaments.

WayWARDs skater at training
Development squad

WayWARDs

Our B team, playing bouts in Perth, across WA and occasionally interstate.

Training

Thursday evenings,
Sunday afternoons.

All training happens at The Rise, Maylands. We run several cycles a year, each roughly a school term long, with a short break between them, so there's always a fresh place to start.

Every new skater begins at Level 1 and moves up at their own pace, assessing into the next level when they're ready:

Level 1

Learn to skate
The basics: rolling, stopping, falling safely and getting back up, in control and in a pack.
Level 2

Safe contact
Legal hits, taking a hit safely, and holding your line. Technique and safety first, every session.
Level 3

Learn to play
Rules, positions and scrimmage, in a supportive, low-pressure environment. Skaters are cleared to play home-team games after finishing a cycle of Level 3.
Level 4

Compete
Strategy, team play and no holds barred contact. Skaters are cleared to try out for our travel teams.

Not keen to skate? You can train as a referee (on quads or blades) or a non-skating official instead. Every role is trained from scratch.

Have a Go day

Your first week is on us.

Have a Go days are how most people start with us. Turn up, borrow our gear, and skate a full week of training for free.

There's no experience needed and no commitment. You'll be looked after by our coaches from the moment you lace up, alongside other people who are just as new to it as you are.

Wear comfortable clothes you can move in and bring a water bottle. We'll sort out skates, a helmet and pads in your size. If you decide derby is for you, you can sign up and keep hiring our gear cheaply while you find your feet.

Have a Go days run at the start of each cycle. Get in touch and we'll let you know when the next one is on.

Contact us to sign up
Cost Free, gear included
Where The Rise, Maylands
When Thursday evenings and Sunday afternoons
Experience None at all
Gear you'll need

Bring yourself.
We'll bring the skates.

Roller derby needs a bit of kit: quad skates, a mouthguard, a derby-specific helmet (a bike helmet won't cut it), and pads for your knees, elbows and wrists. It sounds like a lot, but you don't need to buy any of it to get started.

Quad skates

Mouthguard

Derby-specific helmet

Knee pads

Elbow pads

Wrist guards

Come to a Have a Go day and the gear's on us. After that, we have loan skates and protective gear available to hire cheaply through your first cycles, so you can find your feet before spending a cent on your own setup. Plenty of people skate for months on club gear while they work out whether derby's for them.

When you are ready to buy, chat to us first, we've got loads of tips, and have a look at Lucky Skates, a local shop that knows derby gear inside out.

Costs & fees

What it costs.

Being a not-for-profit, our fees just cover what it costs to run the league: venue hire, insurance and shared gear. There are three parts to it.

The short version: an annual WARD membership fee, an annual SkateWA insurance fee, and training fees you can pay either up front for the cycle (dues) or casually per session. Payment plans and subsidies are available if money's tight, just ask.

1 WARD membership (annual)

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LevelFee
Level 1$30
Levels 2 & 3$40
Level 4$60

You only ever pay the difference when you level up. We cover this fee entirely for referees and NSOs who've volunteered with us for 12 months or more, because we couldn't run without you.

2 SkateWA membership (annual)

Every member needs SkateWA membership, which covers personal injury insurance. These fees are set by SkateWA, not us, and can change from time to time.

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RoleFee
Skater, Level 1 (non-contact)$52.50
Skater, Levels 2 & 3 (developmental)$97.50
Skater, Level 4 & travel (competitive)$122.50
Referee$97.50
Non-skating official$32.50
Coach (on skates / off skates)$97.50 / $52.50

3 Training fees (dues or casual)

At the start of each cycle you choose how to pay. Dues cover a whole cycle and work out cheaper if you train twice a week. Casual is pay-as-you-go on the day. Referees, NSOs and dedicated coaches don't pay training fees at all.

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CasualDues (per cycle)
Learn to Skate (3 weeks)$50 new skaters$50 (or $65 with hire gear)
Levels 1 & 2$17 per session$150
Levels 3 & 4 / travel$17 per session ($10 Sunday scrim only)$205 (or pro-rata)

Gear hire: $50 a cycle for a full kit (skates, helmet, pads) or $25 for a partial kit, available to Level 1 skaters in their first cycle (and sometimes beyond, depending on availability).

Payment plans & help: We never want cost to be the reason someone can't skate. Payment plans and subsidies can be arranged, just email our treasurer at treasurer@warollerderby.com.au.

Come along.
Try for free.

Our next intake starts soon. Rock up to a Have a Go day, we will cover both sessions that week and loan you all the gear. No pressure, no experience necessary, just skate.

Contact us to sign up