Skip navigation

Sydney Rows

A Centennial History of the Sydney Rowing Club, 1970, by A L May

To the members of Sydney Rowing Club, past, present and future.

Dust cover of Sydney Rows

The dust cover of the history

The cover of the history: Presidents and property. The seven club presidents (from right to left) George Thornton, Q L Deloitte, Clarrie, Smith, Andrew Sneddon, Harry Kerr, Fred Meares and George Parlby. Also shown are the first boatshed at Circular Quay, the first boatshed at Woolloomoolloo Bay and the property at Abbotsford at the present time.

This history has been reproduced with the kind permission of Sydney Rowing Club.

Foreword

Sydney Rows is the history of a proud and honoured 100 years of unbroken rowing activity by the Sydney Rowing Club and it is appropriate that our sincere thanks be tendered to its author, Mr. Alan May.

When the project was first discussed with him some two and a half years ago, it was not fully realised what a marathon job it would be to spend many painstaking hours at the Mitchell Library and the Public Library of New South Wales checking over old newspapers and others records, to interview and correspond with many club members and to gather together information and photographs to fit into the framework of the history.

Apart from all this preliminary work, the even greater task of actual writing had then to be undertaken. These problems were multiplied when, eighteen months ago, Alan was offered and accepted a position in the Philippines which immediately meant that the history was carried on thenceforward by a form of remote control.

The result is, however, very satisfying indeed. Here are no dull pages boasting the present against the past, but rather a complete 100 years of rowing history revealing, particularly, the comradeship which rowing peculiarly engenders.

After reading the manuscript, it is obvious that Sydney Rows will prove of great interest not only to members and past members of Sydney Rowing Club but to all those who have been involved in the sport of rowing in Australia. This is because Alan has, very wisely, written on a broad front touching on the history of other rowing clubs, interstate and international rowing, school and women's rowing and even professional sculling.

We are proud of our past and Sydney Rows clearly justifies this thinking. I am sure that I speak for all by stressing, once again, our thanks to Alan and by offering our congratulations on a very considerable achievement.

George Parlby,
President, Sydney Rowing Club.

> next Preface and Acknowledgements

top of page