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Australian Rowing History

A Comprehensive History of Australian Rowing

Find out who rowed in events and the results they achieved. Read about selection and racing issues. See the trends and growth in rowing in Australia.

Rowing history

As correctly stated by many people, we see further and do much more, because we stand on the shoulders of those who have gone before us. Whether to learn from the past or merely reflect on it, rowing history is important.

Over the past three decades, the Australian Rowing History website has filled an important role recording rowers’ achievements and in more recent years, the Australian Rowing Images website has initiated a pictorial history of the sport to complement this site. 

More needs to be done. Your continued contributions are always welcomed to ensure that the threads that hold the rich tapestry of our sport together are not lost. 

Index to this History

About This History

Australians in International Events

Australian Championships

School Rowing

Australian Rowing Associations

Rowing Club Histories

Profiles & Significant Events

Other Histories to Come

  • Boat builders Of Australia

 

News & Latest Additions

October 2026

For years this site has avoided maintaining videos given there remains so much undone work on rowing history documentation and still images. In October we broke this self imposed restriction and digitised a couple of boxes of rowing movies and put them on the Australian Rowing Images website where we have room to store them. Each video shows a 15 or 30 second preview.

From the Jack Parr collection, which have a focus on Victorian Interstate crews, videos of the following events are added:

  • 1962, 1964 and 1974 National Championships
  • 1962, 1963, 1964, 1965, 1966, 1967, 1968 and 1969 Interstate Championships
  • 1965 Trans Tasman Series - Penrith and Ballarat
  • 1962 British Empire and Commonwealth Games rowing
  • 1962 and 1963 Nagambie regattas and 1964 Yarrawonga regatta

Also

  • videos from the Ron March collection which cover similar years
  • a superb 8 minute video of 1932 Interstate Championships by the Late Ern Tindall, a Yarra Yarra member - from the Peter Gill collection
  • video of the final stages of 1970 King's Cup final from the David Boykett collection
  • three superb videos of 1970 Australian Rowing team including training, touring and racing from the David Boykett collection

We will also start linking rowing movies to the Australian Rowing History website from external sources such as YouTube.

We are happy to accept and digitise relevant home rowing movies (8mm and super8) and still photographs for inclusion on the Australian Rowing Images website. Have these memories preserved and made available to other rowers to see. Please contact Andrew Guerin at andrewguerin@bigpond.com

"The Story of Victorian Rowing" was launched in September in conjunction with Rowing Victoria's 150th commemorations. It is co-authored by Dr Judith Buckrich and Andrew Guerin. Copies can be purchased from Rowing Victoria.


September 2026

In September 2026 -

  • 2026 World Championships (and World Cup 3) Australian team and results webpage
  • Images of the Australian team at 2026 World Rowing Championships and World Cup 3 on the Australian Rowing Images website
  • Images of 2006 World Rowing Championships from the Hebfotos collection on the Australian Rowing Images website
  • Images of various Australian Universities Championships on the Australian Rowing Images website
  • More rower profiles
  • 1889 QLD GPS race - new research from William O'Chee
  • From the Adrian Maginn collection, images, missing crew names and regatta programs for the following Australian Universities Championships - 1928, 1929, 1930, 1935, 1956, 1961, 1962, 1963, 1964, 1966, 1967, 1968, 1969, 1971, 1982, 1985, 1987 and 1989. Also added is the program for the 1967 National Selection Test Races for the Canadian Centennial Regatta under the tab for Other Senior Australian Crews. Also 1987 Trans Tasman Junior regatta was updated.
  • Separately 1970 Australian Universities Championship was also extensively updated. 

This month a book "The Story of Victorian Rowing" was launched in conjunction with Rowing Victoria's 150th commemorations. It is co-authored by Dr Judith Buckrich and Andrew Guerin. Copies can be purchased from Rowing Victoria.


August 2026

During this peak of the international season, we are struggling to keep up with so much happening.

Additions this month include.

July 2026

This month we are focusing on images with the following image galleries added to the Australian Rowing Images website.

The following regatta programs have been added to this site:

  • Australian Rowing Championships - 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017
  • World Championships - 2003, 2006, 2010
  • World Cups at Lucerne - 2000, 2009, 2011, 2014, 2017

And of course additions, corrections and more rower profiles.

June 2026

The month of June was filled with additional rower profiles and additions, much of which will appear later. Specifically most effort went into co-authoring a book on the Story of Victorian Rowing which will be published in September. For those wanting to be a subscriber for this book, please go to the Rowing Victoria website and apply.

May 2026

The May focus was on adding images for the Australian Rowing Images website and included comprehensive sets of images for:

Updated results and more rower profiles to this site are ongoing specifically with 1996 World Championships and World Juniors - detailed race results and images added

April 2026

This month we worked on updates to results as well as additions to rower profiles. No new sections have been added. 

On the australianrowingimages.com website, the following images have been added -

  • 2010 World Under 23 Championships images
  • 1996 Australian Rowing Championships - in progress

March 2026

The focus of March 2026 was to update results to this site and adding images to the Australian Rowing Images website. Of course more rowing profiles will be added as well as other additions.

Specifically, the new images to the Australian Rowing Images website included:

 

See our past news and past additions.

 

Website by Hope Stewart—Website Design & Management