CHAPTER XV.
AUSTRALIAN ROWING.
By E. G. Blackmore.
A country which has produced such scullers as Beach and Searle, not to mention Trickett, Laycock, Kemp, Nielson, Stanbury, and many others of less calibre, may well claim a place in a work treating of the science and art of rowing. In the limits of a chapter it is scarcely possible to give an exhaustive account of Australian oarsmen and oarsmanship, and as the performances of the leading Colonial scullers are sufficiently well known, from their having competed on English waters, this record will be almost entirely confined to amateur rowing, as practised in Australia.
That large continent, with the island of Tasmania, consists of six colonies, in all of which the art is cultivated, with more or less enthusiasm.
The first record we can find of anything like boat-racing occurs in 1818, when ships' gig races were rowed in the Sydney Harbour, while the first regatta was held in the same place in 1827. In 1832 an Australian-born crew, in a locally built whale-boat, beat several crews of whaling ships. Passing over a series of years, in which nothing of more than local and momentary interest occurred, we find that in 1858, in the first race rowed on the present Champion course, the Parramatta River, Green beat an English sculler, Candlish, in a match for £400. I am inclined to regard this as the real foundation of New South Wales professional sculling, which afterwards culminated in the performances of Beach and Searle. The mother colony is the only one of the group which has produced a professional sculler of any class. Amongst amateurs none has yet appeared who could be placed in the first rank.
In all the Colonies there are rowing associations which regulate and control amateur rowing. Of these, New South Wales alone has attempted to maintain the amateur status on English lines. The other associations recognize men who would not pass muster at any regatta in the United
Kingdom where the regulation definition obtains. To the New South Wales Association about ten clubs are affiliated. Under its auspices regattas are held in the harbour of Sydney, and one on the Parramatta River. The former water is utterly unfit for first-class racing, as it is exceedingly rough, exposed to sudden winds, and hampered with steam traffic of all sorts. In September—regarded as the commencement of the rowing season—there is an eight-oar race, the winners of which rank as champions for the ensuing year, and fly the "Premiership Pennant." On January 26 is held the Anniversary Regatta, which, founded in 1834, has been an annual event since 1837.