The Parramatta River course, on which champion events are decided, and which Hanlan, Beach, and Searle have made classic ground, is 3 miles 330 yards. It is practically straight, with a strong tide, the set of which is very difficult to learn. At times it is so affected by wind, as to render rowing impossible. The most perfect water is that of the Nepean River. Here a straight 3¼ miles course can be found, perfectly calm, and with no current. It was on this river that Beach beat Hanlan in 1887.
The Victorian Rowing Association holds three Championship events in the year—sculls, fours, and eights rowed in best boats on the Lower Yarra, and an annual regatta on the Albert Park Lake, though in former years it has taken place on the Upper and the Lower river. Important meetings are also held at Ballarat, Geelong, Warrnambool, Bairnsdale, Colac, Nagambie, and Lake Moodemere. The length for Intercolonial and Championship races is 3 miles 110 yards, with the tide, which may be set at three miles an hour.
The South Australian Association holds an annual regatta on the river Torrens, and has champion races for eights, fours, and sculls, on the Port River. The city course is one mile, that for the champion races, three miles. The Torrens is at the best an inferior river for rowing, while the Port Water is a broad tidal stream, exposed to south-west winds, and at times exceedingly rough.
Queensland, Tasmania, and Western Australia, like their sister Colonies, have associations, and hold regattas.
The great event of the year is the Intercolonial eight-oar race, rowed alternately in Sydney, Melbourne, and Brisbane. Western Australia is now
(1897) entering the field, but her crew is composed almost entirely of former Victorian oarsmen. In the past the rowing of Victorian crews has been generally far superior to that of the other Colonies, and in 1894 the Victorian combination was the nearest approach to English form that has yet been attained. South Australia has not so far been represented. Speaking generally, none of the picked eights of the Colonies have ever shown form or pace within measurable distance of the best college crews at Oxford and Cambridge, or the eights which may be seen at Henley. There is no approach to that systematic rudimentary teaching, coaching, and training, which proves so successful on English waters, and without which no crew can ever become that perfect human machine which a finished eight should be.
Public School Rowing.
Sydney.
The principal rowing schools in New South Wales are the Church of England Grammar School, North Shore, the Sydney Grammar School, and St. Ignatius College. Under the "Athletic Association of the Great Public Schools" an annual regatta is held on the Parramatta River in