History of Rowing Victoria Inc

Chapter 6 page 1 2 3 4

The great social changes created by the war years did not abate in the 1920s, they accelerated. The Edwardian era differed markedly from the Victoria.

The changes were not just cultural, the economy boomed and housing grew. Governments improved infrastructure with significant expenditure in electricity production, roads and water. The "Roaring Twenties" were great, until late in 1929 when the Great Depression took hold.

From a rowing perspective, both the sport and women's rowing grew, the latter benefitting from the social changes of this era. Women took men's jobs during the war and now there was no turning back. Equality of the sexes took significant steps forward and women's rowing was no exception.

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1910

1911 

1912

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Wins by Victorian Rowing Clubs at Melbourne and Country Regattas and Championships held in Victoria between 1860 and 1912

Famous and respected Victorian rowing historian John Lang compiled this list and dated it 7th October 1912. Thank you to Peter Gill of the Yarra Yarra Rowing Club for locating this document. 

Lang was quick to add that "The above list is preliminary, and is issued subject to corrections - probably a few regattas have yet to be included. It gives however a very fairly comprehensive idea of the position." It is for this very reason that it is reproduced here. 

It provides insights into many aspects of Victorian rowing - the active clubs in that period in club rowing, the high number and importance of regional regattas, the dominance of the Albert Park Rowing Club, the rapid rise of Mercantile Rowing Club which was not formed until 1880 and only won its first championship in 1895, and the almost complete separation of school and club rowing. Enjoy reading this interesting analysis.

Existing Clubs

Club	Metropolitan wins	Championship wins	Country wins	Total Wins
Albert Park	121	27	92	240
Bairnsdale	8		24	32
Ballarat	38	4	129	171
Ballarat City	22		82	104
Banks	58	2	32	92
Barwon	13		26	39
Civil Service	47	1	27	75
Colac			11	11
Cobram	2		10	12
Corio Bay	13		51	64
Eaglehawk			1	1
Echuca	2		1	3
Essendon	16	4	20	40
Footscray	45	1	27	73
Hawthorn	18		8	26
Melbourne	83		18	101
Mercantile	101	21	54	176
Nagambie	8	2	19	29
Richmond	19		7	26
Sandhurst	7		4	11
Seymour	4		8	12
South Melbourne	22	1	17	40
Sale			1	1
Shepparton			3	3
University	21	1	8	30
Warrnambool	2		13	15
Wendouree	29	3	106	138
Yarra	78	9	55	142
Sub total				1709

 Other Clubs

Melbourne Grammar School	1			1
Tamar (Tas)	2			2
North Esk (Tas)	1			1
Sandy Bay (Tas)	1			1
Wellington (NZL)		1		1
Wairewa (NZL)		1		1
Breakfast Creek (QLD)		1		1
Cumulative sub total				1717

Wins by Clubs now disbanded

Alabama	2			2
Albert	1			1
Ariel	13			13
Boroondara	1			1
Echuca East	2		4	6
Electric Telegraph	15	1	4	20
Elswick	11			11
Emerald Hill	1			1
Harbour Trust	8		3	11
I Zingari	6			6
Lake	5			5
Leander	14			14
Melbourne City	13	3	4	20
Murray	2			2
Old Wesley Collegians	3		1	4
Prahran	1			1
St George	2			2
Victoria	22		2	24
Warehousemen	11			11
Williamstown	32	1	8	41
Total winning crews				1923

The regattas include the following:- Melbourne, V.R.A., Upper Yarra, Albert Park, Footscray, Henley, Richmond, Hobson's Bay, Ballarat, Barwon, Seymour, Colac, Warrnambool, Nagambie, Bairnsdale, Sale, Paynesville.

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1913

The Princes Bridge Boat Staging 1912-1927¹

All rowing clubs face the perpetual issue of a boat staging unless they are fortunate that their boating area is situation on a waterway with a sand covered, beach style, gradual embankment. Very few areas offer such a natural and pleasant access.

The Yarra River, with it's excessive silt, strong currents and flooding, has always required a sturdy staging.

The original stagings were private and built by the resident boat builders and no doubt required much repair after each flood. As most Princes Bridge clubs boated from the boatbuilders boatshed, and many suburban clubs rented rooms from the boatbuilders during the racing season, these private arrangements worked well.

Later in the nineteenth century, clubs were beginning to build their own sheds at Princes Bridge and elsewhere and this complicated the issue.

The following story provides an insight into these staging issues and also highlights the impacts of the twentieth century World Wars on civic infrastructure. The information is sourced from a voluminous Rowing Victoria file and is interesting.

On 22nd of August 1912, Ted Kenny, as Honorary Secretary of the Victorian Rowing Association, wrote to the Secretary of the Department of Works seeking their assistance with the rebuilding of the staging. "At the present time it is in a very dangerous condition and as the beams are not sound enough to hold a nail it is practically beyond repair." Interestingly, the clubs and boatbuilders offered to pay 8% of the cost pa to cover the interest on the cost of the construction and also ongoing maintenance of the staging. On 12th February 1913, the Secretary of the Department of Public Works disputed the assessment of the state of the staging, undertook to repair parts of the staging, and advised that the government did not have the 400 pounds required to rebuild it. John Lang, on behalf of the Association, lobbied the Minister (in 1913 called "interviewing" the Minister) without success.

The Melbourne City Council also agreed to undertake some temporary repairs but without taking any liability for the staging. Whilst all this was occurring, World War 1 commenced and all focus and money was devoted to the war.

By mid 1914, a committee titled The Alexandra Park Committee (controlled by the Melbourne City Council), which was responsible for the maintenance of the river banks above the high water mark, was asked to consider the future maintenance and control of the staging and met with Messrs. Kenny and Lang of the VRA. The Committee has no funds and was also reluctant to fund infrastructure which was used by only rowing clubs and boat builders. 

Realising that the clubs would have to lead the initiative, in the same manner as clubs in other areas of the State, the VRA proposed that the Clubs and the Henley Committee contribute but on the condition that the boatbuilders bore most of the cost. In a lengthy report back to the VRA Committee of October 1914, Kenny and Lang made this recommendation, which the VRA Committee accepted. However, neither the Henley Committee nor all Princes Bridge clubs agreed with this solution and matter was carried forward into 1915, then 1916. By September 1916, the VRA sought from The Alexandra Park Trust for their estimate of the annual maintenance cost of the staging and an amount for a sinking fund for replacing the staging in due course. The VRA proposed that they would then allocate the cost to the various parties. The Trust agreed to provide the information requested and in January 1917 advised that 50 pounds pa for both maintenance and a sinking fund would suffice.

Again this idea failed by May 1917 due to disputes about the allocation - with the clubs happy to pay 25 pounds pa but the boatbuilders refusing to pay their share, their businesses having come to a standstill due the war. The VRA concluded that the matter be held over until the end of the war. 

However yet another twist in the story arose with the Lands Department handing over responsibility of the boatshed area to The Alexandra Park Trust from 1st July 1917 and all rents would thence forward be paid to the Trust along with the new 50 pounds pa staging charge. The VRA was asked for their views on the allocation amongst the interested parties and responded that 25 pounds be allocated equally between University, Yarra Yarra, Banks, Richmond, Mercantile, Melbourne and Civil Service clubs, and the other 25 pounds allocated to boat builders be charged in proportion to the rent paid by them.  No Henley Committee contribution was considered. Furthermore the Alexandra Park Committee reduced the first year payment to 30 pounds but asked that the VRA collect the money on their behalf. The VRA declined their request but in the end attempted to do so. VRA Hon, Secretary Ted Kenny recorded in a private note to John Lang his complaint about the correspondence, telephone calls and discussions involved, "and I reckon they owe me a pair of boots for the running about I have had in collecting the money." He added that he had no luck in getting Greenlands to contribute. John Lang personally paid for the University contribution given the slow response from University.

The same fee was charged for the next few years and the VRA again was the collector. The Council gradually took over the collection of non-affiliated Clubs prompted by Melbourne Rowing Club disaffiliating from the VRA, Melbourne Grammar School building their own boatshed, and the boatbuilders losing their tenants.

By 1921, even the Melbourne City Council agreed that the staging was in a dangerous condition with the sub-structure failing, and needing to be replaced. Even though the sinking fund had grown to 111 pounds, contributions from the now eight clubs and two boat builders needed to be increased to 10 pounds pa. And further increases followed. As expected there was much debate around the nature of the staging.

It was still not until 1927 that the staging was replaced with concrete footings and jarrah wooden structure at a total cost of 2,157.5 pounds. The funding came from the sinking fund of 430 pounds, a contribution of 700 pounds from the Henley Committee and further contributions from the Clubs of 904 pounds. The staging was built. The balance of 123 pounds was eventually paid by the Clubs. Even during construction, complications of the extent of the staging changed with Richmond Rowing Club being granted a site west of Melbourne Rowing Club which required an extension of the staging westward to cover this new site.

So after an enormous amount of effort, the Princes Bridge Clubs had a new staging in 1927, some 15 years after the urgent matter was raised.

A similar story of delay arose in the building of the Swan Street Bridge across WWII - more on this later.

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Footnotes

1. Sourced from the Rowing Victoria staging file read by the author in December 2023

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