A Comprehensive History of Australian Rowing

June 2024

Much occurring on this site as usual. 

Rower profiles continue to grow in number as we break through 1900 completed. Thank you to Jim Skidmore of Yarra Yarra Rowing Club who has contributed many profiles of his fellow club members. Also thanks to Steve Roll who continues his work on the profiles. On average, each profile takes a day to produce from researching, documenting, creating a webpage for each rower, adding images and all completed in a searchable manner so that they can be found. If we assume 230 working days in a year, that is about 8 years of work on rower profiles alone. Readers will be pleased to know that thousands more profiles are in various stages of development.

A new chapter written by the Late Graham Pilger on Sydney Boys High School rowing post WWII through to 1960 makes interesting reading. Also linked to the site this month is the Tamar Rowing Club's Snapshot book thanks to the author Jim Guy.

The development of the South Australian schools chapter continues apace with much more detail from 1971 to 1982 added this month. The following years will be somewhat easier as more programs are available to us.

Updates continue on other chapters with more 2024 regattas being added.

Australian Rowing Images website - Nadine Morrison has shared her 2023 and 2024 Trans Tasman images, and Michael Sim has shared with us rowing images of his father, himself and his children. Also more Hebfotos covered regattas have been added as have many images from early Intercolonial and Interstate Championships. Enjoy

May 2024

This month brief club histories of the important Tamar Rowing Club in Launceston and the defunct Southern Rowing Club from Victoria were added.

Updates to many chapters continued as usual with a focus this month on updating the Tasmanian schools regatta from 1955 to 1969. 

Of course many more rower profiles were added. Jim Skidmore continues to provide profiles of Yarra Yarra Rowing Club members and we are always seeking more from other willing authors.

Finally, thank you to all those people who provide additional information for inclusion on the site. There are too many to mention and obviously this history improves with such assistance. We also call upon readers to send in their photos for inclusion.

The Australian Rowing Images website added a comprehensive set of photos from the 2024 Australian Masters Championships as well as more past Australian Rowing Championships and under age Australian teams.

April 2024

Despite no recent posts to this section, an enormous amount of work has been done to update the many chapters on this site. This work is continuing.

Also, we continue to add both historical and current images to the photography partner site of this history site: www.australianrowingimages.com.

September and October 2023

No new chapters were added last month but as usual there were plenty of updates to existing and of course rower profiles added.

The images for 1991 National Championships are currently being added to www.australianrowingimages.com site.

August 2023

This month the site largely spent time filling in gaps in past events. Fortunately, readers continue to send in additions/corrections which are greatly appreciated. Please continue this important work. Whilst the focus was on updating various parts of the site, some important additions were made. 

Kate Elliott continued her prodigious rowing history output with the Begonia City Ladies Rowing Club history. This short lived club merged with Ballarat City Rowing Club with the amalgamation of the men's and women's rowing associations in the late 1970s. It is also a personal story for Kate as through this club, she joined the sport, learnt her rowing craft and even met her husband. Beyond the specific story of this Club, Kate has also provides insights into women's rowing in Ballarat and beyond. Typical of her style, it is thoroughly illustrated with newspaper articles and images to enhance the readers comprehension of the period. It is another important thread in our sport's rich historical tapestry. 

We also have added as a document, the Y Rowing Club 1965–2005 history, an updated history to commemorate the 40th Anniversary of the rebirth of the YWCA Rowing Club. This history has been reproduced with the permission of the Club and provides a great insight into the rebirth of the historic YWCA Rowing Club and its evolution into the currently named Y Rowing Club. Not only does it cover the history of this club, but it also provides background to the growth of women's rowing in Victoria. Yet another important historical thread in our rich rowing history.

July 2023

July was a momentous month for this site with the last of the chapters, the Interstate Championships, migrated over this site. This has been a significant task made possible by the superb work of web designer Hope Stewart. Thank you Hope.

Whilst this work dominated our endeavours this month, updates to other chapters continued including to the Interstate Championships, Under 23 World Championships, Rower Profiles, and school regattas. Access to Sydney High School records have been very helpful in filling gaps in many early GPS regatta results and this work continues. More on this next month. Finally, more historical photos are being added to the Australian Rowing Images website regularly. This is becoming another important historical source. 

June 2023

June was another productive month for the Australian Rowing History website.

Readers responded well to the revised chapters on Australians in The Boat Race and the World University competitions with more information. These chapters have been enhanced by these important contributions. 

The big news this month has been the addition of a new chapter on senior Australian teams who have been selected in Other International Competitions, not otherwise covered on the site. This long overdue chapter covers captures events regarded as the pinnacle event that year for that division. For example, when the World Championships were not conducted annually, (or in case of women’s rowing, pre 1974 before they had World Championship status), the European Championships which were the de facto World Championships in those years, with an excellent depth of field and holding FISA Continental Championship status. Similarly we wanted to capture Canadian Henley regattas for lightweight women before FISA created championships status for that division in 1985. These are all important Australian senior crews. Other events have also been included. There are bound to be gaps and reader assistance would again be welcomed.

Finally, Rower Profiles have broken the 1,600 barrier and this chapter continues to be by far the most popular part of the site. Again reader contributions and enhancements are welcomed.

May 2023

Another busy month on the Australian Rowing History website. 

The migration from the old site to the new site continued with the remainder of the international events coming across during May. We took this opportunity to update both the World University Championships and the Australians in The Boat Race chapters. The latter is an ongoing project as we are also adding rowing profiles of those involved. The only chapter now remaining on the old site is the Interstate Championships and work has commenced to bring it across. Again, thank you to our web designer Hope Stewart for her invaluable work on the migrations. Her skill and expertise are making this massive job achievable, and the end result, superb.

Thank you to those providing information for the new SA Schools Head of the River chapter which is beginning to take shape. Other results and information were added as usual, as were many rower profiles. Thank you to readers who initiated many of these changes with their suggestions.

April 2023

April was a big month for updates to the international pages with the big task being the transfer of the World Under 23 Championships from the old site to the main site. Thank you to Hope Stewart our web designer for her great work on this project. It is no small task.

As always, more rower profiles have been added and readers have provided additions throughout the site. Thank you.

Work has commenced on the South Australian Schools Regatta and copies of results and programs are welcomed.

February and March 2023

Not only have February and March been busy months on the water, they have also been so on the history websites. The number of rower profiles now exceed 1500 and many chapters are being updated with not only 2023 results, but also past results as they have become available. We continue to receive updates on a daily basis from helpful members of the rowing community. This helps the depth and breadth of the site. The online museum grows with documents added regularly. For example in March, the annual reports of the Mercantile Rowing Club were added. 

Finally the Australian Rowing Images website galleries grow with both historical and current galleries added monthly. Specifically on current regattas, the 2023 Australian Championships, Australian Henley, APS Heads of the River and Head of the Schoolgirls regattas are added.