Melbourne Amateur Regatta Association - the history of the Australian Henley Regatta
There was a gap in the Australian Rowing calendar and the Melbourne sporting calendar in 1903. Three entrepreneurial rowers identified the issue and decided to do something about it. An Australian sporting icon event was established with immediate success.
However, two World Wars, the Great Depression, the disruption from the building of the Swan Street Bridge over the years 1938-1953, the filling of the Australian rowing gap with the National Championships in 1962 and the multitude of the other Melbourne sporting events which took its place gradually over the years, the regatta became just another Victorian regatta.
That was until the arrival of the mercurial Rosemary Richardson, supported by her husband Roland in the 1990s, who revived the event to national and international importance.
Following the Richardsons, the ambitions for the regatta still burn with many people but solving the mystery of right format and time remains.
Table of Contents
Chapters
- Overview
- Trophies
- The Entrepreneurial Formation
- Pre-WWI Boom Years
- Post-War Boom and Bust - bridge disruptions
- Recovery after WWII
- Just Another Regatta – 1960s to 1990s
- The Richardson Years - World Cup
- Maintaining the Event
Appendices
Results by Year
(years to be listed here)