The history of rowing in Australia began in the early 19th century. In 1818 the crews of three convict ships, the Batavia, the Guildford, the Minerva plus a crew put together by Captain John Piper raced from Bradleys s Head to Sydney Cove. They raced the 3.5 miles in 15 minutes1, 2. An interesting side note is that in 1813 John Piper received a grant of 190 acres in what was known as Eliza Point and after the grant was formalised in 1820 it was called Point Piper after John Piper 1, 3.
In 1849 the first Regatta was held on the Parramatta River 2. By this time rowing had become an integral feature of the riverscape with frequent races and training sessions by both competitors and non-competitive enthusiasts. Between 1830 and 1880, rowing was a popular sport in Sydney and the Parramatta river was the centre of racing 1,4. The popularity of rowing in the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries, drew enormous crowds to watch races.
This photograph shows the crowds who came to view the race from a flotilla and along the foreshores at Cabarita Park adjacent to the finishing line. Trams ran almost non-stop from the Enfield depot, taking huge crowds to Cabarita to watch the finish of the race. Supporters chartered ferries and launches, decorated them with their team’s colours and made the spectacular trip along the river to the finish point.
In 1876 Edward Trickett won the World Sculling Championships, making Australia the first to ever have a World Champion4. Between 1876 and 1907 Australia dominated international professional sculling. For 22 of those 31 years Australia “produced seven of the nine world champions” 6.
Rowing has been an event at every modern Summer Olympic games, the first being in 1896 in Athens. Australia sent their first rowing team, a men’s eight, to the 1912 Olympic games in Stockholm2, 4, 5. In terms of the contribution of Canada Bay, three of the rowers came from the Sydney Rowing Club with others from Sydney University Boat Club, Melbourne University Boat Club and the Balmain, Leichhardt and Mosman Rowing Clubs. The coach was also a member of the Sydney Rowing Club4.
Enthusiasm for sculling led to the formation of several rowing clubs along the Parramatta River, chief of which was the Sydney Rowing Club. The Sydney Rowing Club was formed on 7 March 1870 4. This club had its beginnings in a site adjacent to the now Sydney Opera House. The Sydney Rowing Club purchased land at Abbotsford to establish a branch of the Sydney Rowing Club that was officially opened in 1873. In 1888 the Sydney Rowing Club had to move from their site at Circular Quay and moved to a site at Woolloomooloo Bay 1, 4.
In 1895 Miss Edith Walker of Yaralla became a Vice-President of the Sydney Rowing Club. At this time women were not permitted to be members of the Club but given Miss Walker’s wealth and reputation for philanthropy an exception was made. Sydney Rowing Club benefited from her generosity and support. It wasn’t until 1906 that rowing was becoming popular with women. In August 1906 the first lady’s championship in double sculling was held on the Parramatta River1,4. Australian women did not compete at the Olympic games until Moscow in 1984. Australia’s women rowers first won a medal, a bronze, at Los Angeles 1984 in the coxed four 2.
In the early 1890’s, schools from the Sydney GPS. group began inter-school races, which soon led to the introduction of an Annual Regatta – the Head of the River Regatta – an event destined to become a major sporting event on the Sydney calendar. In the early years the race was from Putney to Gladesville but in later years it was from the Yaralla Estate at Concord to Cabarita. In 1936 the regatta moved to the Nepean River 2. The last GPS Regatta was held on the Parramatta River in 1935. In 1936 the event was transferred to the Nepean River2 near Penrith and later to the International Regatta centre at Penrith.
As a result of the schools’ rowing activities, many of them established their boatsheds on the Parramatta River not far from the Sydney Rowing Club. Sydney Boys High School is on the Abbotsford side opposite Bedlam Bay. Newington’s boatshed is in Hen and Chicken Bay and MLC School was formerly adjacent to Sydney Rowing Club.
Rowing continues to be a dominant sport in the City of Canada Bay with regattas still being held in Hen and Chicken Bay. On any day, you can see crews and their coaches training on the river Next time you are down by the river, and you see the crews on the water think about how important the Paramatta River is to the history and future of rowing both in NSW and nationally.
The Sydney Rowing Club continues to produce Olympians. with many athletes from the Sydney Rowing Club competing at the Paris 2024 Olympic games.
If you want to know more about history of rowing check out the references below.
References
- May, A.L. (1970). Sydney Rows: A Centennial History of the history of the Sydney Rowing Club.
- Australian Rowing History.
- Woollahra Municipal Council. Captain John Piper.
- Sydney Rowing Club. History. https://www.sydneyrowingclub.com.au/rowing/history/
- Rowing. https://www.olympics.com.au/sports/rowing/
- Ripley, S. (2005). The Golden Age of Australian Professional Sculling or Skullduggery? The International Journal of the History of Sport, 22(5), 867–882. https://doi.org/10.1080/09523360500143604
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