West Wimmera Rowing Association

The West Wimmera Rowing Association was an association of three Clubs, who were all situated on the Wimmera River. It was established immediately after WWI.

The Clubs were:

Antwerp Rowing Club, established 1896
Dimboola Rowing Club, established 27 April 1882
Jeparit Rowing Club, established November 1909.

The President of the Dimboola Rowing Club at that time, Dr Phillips, presented a shield for the annual competition between the clubs. The shield has survived and can be found at the Dimboola Rowing Club.

These three clubs provided a disproportionate number of members for WWI despite being in an important food production area. Profiles of these many members can be found in the Rowing Victoria WWI Roll of Honour chapter.

Given the distances and costs involved to travel to regattas in Melbourne and regional centres, it was far more appropriate to race amongst themselves. It may have also have been a factor that they all relied upon the Wimmera River flowing. This did not occur in parts of the year and in some instances, over full years. The Association was far more relevant to them than the Victorian Rowing Association.

Sadly both the Association and two of its member clubs, Antwerp and Jeparit, no longer exist.

Sources:

The Victorian Oarsman by John Lang, published by Messina & Coy 1919
Dimboola Rowing Club Centenary Booklet published in 1982
Various newspaper articles.

Whilst every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of the information provided, errors may exist. Please send advice of any errors or inaccuracies by email to:

Also your comments, suggestions and photos are sought to enhance this site.

The idea for this history originated from the Olympic Rowing and World Senior Rowing Championship histories written by Andrew Guerin and Margot Foster in 1991, 1992 & 1993 for the Australian team handbooks. Andrew Guerin developed and extended these histories to the current format in 2004 for publication in 2004 and then expanded the site.

Steve Roll has been an invaluable contributor to the website in locating errors and finding Christian names of rowers. His superb work is acknowledged.

© Andrew Guerin – 2004
These contents of this history are copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purposes of private study, research, criticism or review, as permitted by the Copyright Act, no part may be reproduced by any process without written permission. However given that the purpose of the history is to assist rowers and rowing clubs, written permission is not required for non-commercial usage by rowers and rowing clubs provided acknowledgement is made.

Disclaimer: Whilst extensive efforts have been made to ensure the accuracy of the information supplied, the editors take no responsibility for any loss or damage whatsoever arising from inaccuracies contained in this work.