A Comprehensive History of Australian Rowing
Find out who rowed in events and the results they achieved. Read about selection and racing issues. See the trends and growth in rowing in Australia.
Rowing history
As correctly stated by many people, we see further and do much more, because we stand on the shoulders of those who have gone before us. Whether to learn from the past or merely reflect on it, rowing history is important.
Over the past three decades, the Australian Rowing History website has filled an important role recording rowers’ achievements and in more recent years, the Australian Rowing Images website has initiated a pictorial history of the sport to complement this site.
More needs to be done. Your continued contributions are always welcomed to ensure that the threads that hold the rich tapestry of our sport together are not lost.
Index to this History
About This History
Australians in International Events
- Olympic Games
- World Championships
- World Coastal and World Rowing Beach Sprint Finals
- Commonwealth Games
- World Professional Sculling
- World Under 19 Championships
- World Under 23 Championships
- Trans Tasman Series
- 1919 Royal Henley Peace Regatta
- Australian Rowers at Henley Royal Regatta
- The Boat Race
- World University Championships
- Australian Crews in Other Events
Australian Championships
School Rowing
Australian Rowing Associations
- Rowing Australia
- Rowing ACT
- Rowing Queensland
- Rowing Victoria (under construction)
- Rowing WA
- Murray Rowing Association
- West Wimmera
- Other Associations to follow
Rowing Club Histories
- Adelaide RC
- Antwerp RC
- Balmain Working Men's RC
- Barwon RC
- Begonia City Ladies RC
- Bendigo RC
- Black Mountain RC
- Bundaberg RC
- Cardross RC
- City of Warrnambool RC
- Corowa RC
- Dimboola RC
- Endeavour RC
- Essendon Ladies RC
- Essendon RC
- Fremantle RC
- Heidelberg City RC
- Horsham RC
- Jeparit RC
- Lake Colac RC
- Leichhardt RC
- Melbourne RC
- Melbourne University BC
- Mercantile RC
- Newcastle RC
- Power House RC
- Preston RC
- Richmond RC
- Southern RC
- Sydney RC
- Sydney Boys HS
- Torrens RC
- UTS Haberfield
- Williamstown RC
- Yea RC
- Y Rowing Club
- Yarra Yarra RC
Profiles & Significant Events
Other Histories to Come
- Boat builders Of Australia
News & Latest Additions
December 2025
So far this month ....
The addition of the superb Black Mountain Rowing Club History written by Vincent McMahon in 2011
More rower profiles as usual and additions made to others.
November 2025
November 1995 brought the following additions.
On this site:
- Rowing ACT has just published Celebrating 60 Years - Rowing in the ACT which is reproduced on this site with permission.
- World Beach Sprint Finals and World Coastal Rowing are such important events, a new chapter has been commenced. The following years are covered - 2023, 2024 and 2025. This chapter is work in progress.
And of course new rower profiles have been added as well as additions to existing profiles.
On the Australian Rowing Images website:
- added galleries from 1984, 1985, 1986 and 1987 World Under 19 Championships from the Phil Ainsworth collection
- added gallery for 1987 Match des Seniors (Under 23) with images from team members
- Added comprehensive Hebfotos 1995 Australian Rowing Championships galleries
October 2025
This month ....
Images from Ben Tufnell of the 2025 World Championships have been added to the Australian Rowing Images website.
More comprehensive sets of historical images are also being added from the Hebfotos collection:
- 1994 Australian Championships
- Sadly the 1994 World Championship negatives have deteriorated and are of insufficient quality to scan for the site.
- 1994 World Under 19 Championships
- 1995 World Under 19 Championship
- 1995 World Championships
- 1995 World Cup IV - Lucerne
Other updates continued with the following additions:
- South Australian Head of the River - 1999 onwards, more results.
- 2023 National Championship results have been added.
- 2025 QLD GPS Head of River results added
- 2025 TAS SATIS Head of the River results added
- 2025 WA IGSSA Head of the River results added
- 2025 WA PSA Head of the River results added
- 1994 World Under 19 Championships program and full results sheets
- 1994 Interstate Rowing Championships program and results added
- 1994 National Championships program and results added
- 1995 Nations Cup (World Under 23) regatta program, point score table and detailed results
- 1995 World Championships regatta program, commentary and detailed results by day
- 1988 Australian Rowing Championships program and results added
- 1987 Trans Tasman Under 23 point score added
And of course more rower profiles have been added including a very interesting profile on Matthew Draper, coach, high performance manager in two countries, international rowing events specialist, amongst many other skills and achievements.
September 2025
A quieter month in September with a start made on 1994 matters. Additions included:
- 1994 Australian Championships regatta program
On the Australian Rowing Images website, the following are included:
- 1994 Henley Royal Regatta images
- 1994 Lucerne Regatta images
- 1994 Trans Tasman Under 23 Regatta images
- 1994 World Junior Championships images
Of course other work continues, including:
- 2025 World Championships
- 1994-97 SA Head of the River results
- Correcting broken links on the site
- More rower profiles added including past RA Deputy President, Bryan Draper
August 2025
Another busy month. A large amount of work was undertaken updating and correcting links throughout the site. Thanks to Hope Stewart and Alister Taylor for their assistance on this.
This month the following current and past additions have been added:
- 2025 World Championships page updated
- 2025 Oceania Under 22 Rowing Championships page updated
- 2025 World Under 19 Championships page added
- 2025 World University Games page added
- 2024 World University Championships updated
- Cardross Rowing Club - another club history from Kate Elliott
- Rower profiles of influential people within our sport from Colin Smith - includes John Boultbee
On the Australian Rowing Images website, the following regattas have been added:
- 2025 World Under 23 Championships gallery - photographer Benedict Tufnell
- 2025 World Under 19 Championships gallery - photographer Benedict Tufnell
- 2025 Oceania Under 22 Regatta gallery - photographer Matt Nielsen
- 1992 World Rowing Championships - images from spectators
- 1979 World Championships gallery with some images from team members and spectators
- 1973 World Under 19 Championships - images from crew members
Despite all this work, the focus this month was on 1993 with the following additions made to both websites:
- 1993 Trans Tasman Under 19 regatta - Hebfotos collection (Australian Rowing Images website)
- 1993 World Under 19 Championships - Hebfotos collection (Australian Rowing Images website)
- 1993 Australian Rowing Championships - Hebfotos collection (Australian Rowing Images website)
- 1993 World 19 Championships detailed results and results by event
July 2025
The site was not dormant in the midst of an international rowing season. To pay tribute to these current regattas, our sites added:
- 2025 Under 22 Oceania Rowing Championships
- 2025 Senior World Championships - commenced with World Cup teams and results
- 2025 World Under 23 Championships
- A large set of images from the 2025 Henley Royal Regatta 2025 Henley Royal Regatta (Australian Rowing Images website)
Back to matters historical. The remaining work from last month on the Australian Masters Rowing Championships pages was completed. Also on the Australian Rowing Images website, a collection of images from 2022 Australian Masters Rowing Championships was added as part of this work.
The focus this month moved to 1992 where the following work was undertaken:
- A comprehensive set of images from the 1992 Australian Rowing Championships was added to the Australian Rowing Images website.
- A comprehensive set of images from 1992 Lucerne International Regatta was added to the Australian Rowing Images website.
- Additions to the images from 1992 World Under 19 Championships were added to the Australian Rowing Images website.
- A full copy of 1992 ARC regatta program, the printed 1992 ARC results, and even the daily newsletters were added to the 1992 National Championships web page.
- A copy of the 1992 World Championships regatta program was added to the Open and Under 19 Championships pages
- Full result sheets of the 1992 World Championships regatta program were added to the Open and Under 19 Championships pages
- A copy of the 1992 Match des Seniors (Under 23) regatta program was added to the 1992 World Under 23 Championships webpage.
- A full copy of the 1992 Lucerne regatta program was added to 1992 World Championships page
- Full results from Saturday and Sunday of 1992 Lucerne Regatta were added to 1992 World Championships page
- Full results from 1992 Olympic regatta by day and summary of participation were added to the 1992 Barcelona Games page.
Never a dull moment.
June 2025
As usual June was another active month for the site with a masters rowing focus.
A comprehensive set of images for 2025 Australian Masters Rowing Championships were loaded onto the Australian Rowing Images website. Keeping with the masters theme, photo galleries were also added on to the Australian Rowing Images website for 2014, 2015, 2017 and many other Australian Masters Rowing Championships. Also on this website, the Australian Masters chapter has received a revamp with updates to the home page, and some pages for the regattas in the period 2015 to 2025 added.
Also added to the Australian Rowing Images website have been images for:
And as usual, more rower profiles added.
May 2025
The focus this month focused was 1991 with the following additions:
- 1991 World Championships regatta program
- 1991 World Under 19 Championships regatta program
- 1991 World Championships detailed results sheets by day
- 1991 Lucerne Regatta program
- 1991 Lucerne Regatta detailed results sheets by day
- 1991 Australian Rowing Championships regatta program
- 1991 Australian Rowing Championships detailed result sheets by day
- On the Australian Rowing Images website -
- a comprehensive set of images of the 1991 World Championships from the Hebfotos collection have been added.
- a comprehensive set of images of the 1991 Australian Championships from the Hebfotos collection have been added.
Other additions this month to this site included:
- 2025 Interstate Championships results and page
- 2025 National Championships results and page
- 2025 Victorian Championships results and page
- 1988 World Senior and Under 19 Championships regatta program and daily result sheets
- More contemporary rower profiles from Jack Hargreaves
- Updates to names of Brighton Grammar School crews in the Victorian Head of the River chapter courtesy of Peter Skelton.
More work has been undertaken on the history of the Australian Henley Regatta which is a fascinating story.
See our past news and past additions.