Category Archives: Uncategorized

Irvine and Mary Coulter married in 1872. They had seven children, two girls and five boys. The five Coulter boys all rowed at Ballarat City Rowing Club. They became involved in the early 1890’s when eldest son Irvine (1873) joined the club. Sydney(1876) and brother Jason (1877) or Jay as he was known, probably joinedContinue reading “ANZAC DAY TRIBUTE-THE INCREDIBLE COULTERS”

When I first started researching the club’s history over 20 years ago, I had the goal of finding the names of the past members who contributed to the club, especially those who served in both wars and also to replace the WW1 and WW 2 Honor Boards that were lost in the devastating fire ofContinue reading “WE WILL REMEMBER THEM-THE ANZACS OF BCRC”

Right through the early 1930’s when the Depression was really tightening its grip, the amazing Social Committee managed to pull off the achievement of the century. They raised the money necessary to finally build a new boat shed. In 1933 it was completed and in the photograph of the Social committee there are 52 menContinue reading “LADIES OF BCRC 1930’s and 40’s”

1903-04 a grand water carnival was held to raise funds for local charities. The clubs had decorated boat competition and thanks to the efforts of members and lady friends Ballarat City secured first prize in both the decorated four and decorated eight categories! The decorated boats were an important feature of the Ballarat Regatta inContinue reading “THE LADIES OF THE CLUB 1900-1930”

It took 100 years for women to finally take to the water in boats at the club, but they made a significant contribution to rowing in Ballarat from the very beginning in 1870. Their contribution is largely overlooked and forgotten. Much of the work done for the club by women has been unrecognized and unrecorded,Continue reading “THE LADIES OF THE BALLARAT CITY ROWING CLUB”

A couple of weeks ago I was very excited to meet with the great grand-daughter of Alfred McLaren. She had been researching family history and found a copy of my book “Boys From the Rush Beds-The History of Ballarat City Rowing Club 1870-2004” and discovered my research about her great grandfather and also her greatContinue reading “JWR PRINGLE and ALF McLAREN”

Peter Cram was a champion rower and first Captain of the club after World War 1. In writing about his time at the club I pondered on what it takes to make a good captain of Ballarat City Rowing Club? First and foremost is loyalty to the club and its traditions. Then it takes somebodyContinue reading “Captain Cram”

I have taken an extended break from posting after the epic feat of covering 150 years of club history in 150 days! I didn’t think when I started that it would be simultaneously very challenging and extremely rewarding. I promised myself that I would revisit some posts as some years there was so much extraContinue reading “Return to the blog!”

As it is still 2020, I am not going to cover the year’s activities and the impact of COVID19 until the year is over. Clear perspective is often not gained until well after the event. Instead I am going to look at how things have changed over the 50 years or so we have beenContinue reading “2020 The ultimate post”

I’m am making two posts today, as today marks a very special anniversary that I always like to remember, the death of Mr. James Pringle. He was one of the pioneers of rowing in Ballarat and his drowning at Burrumbeet while training, was one of the main factors in Robinson McLaren looking for a saferContinue reading “1862 In memory of Mr. James Pringle”