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Australian Rowing History

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

Australian Championships

School Rowing

Australian Rowing Associations

Rowing Club Histories

Profiles & Significant Events

Other Histories to Come

  • Boat builders Of Australia

 

News & Latest Additions

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:

On the Australian Rowing Images website, the following regattas have been added:

Despite all this work, the focus this month was on 1993 with the following additions made to both websites:

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:

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:

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 -

Other additions this month to this site included:

More work has been undertaken on the history of the Australian Henley Regatta which is a fascinating story.

April 2025

Work on completing the 1990 results and images continued in April with the following images added to the Australian Rowing Images website for following regattas:

More rower profiles were added as usual and results for the following events added:

Thank you to Chris Shinners for these and other regatta programs. Thanks also to Jack Hargreaves for contemporary rower profiles.

Of note, there are now 100,000 historical rowing images now loaded on the Australian Rowing Images website and we are only getting started. Further, there are over 2000 rower profiles published on this site and now over 12,000 visitors regularly visit both these sites each month. There is clearly a healthy interest in rowing history.

March 2025

The focus this month was on the year 1990 with the following updates added.

Images from 1990 were also added to the Australian Rowing Images website for the 1990 Australian Rowing Championships.

Other images have been added to the Australian Rowing Images website for the following regattas:

Additional rower profiles and as usual more additions and corrections including the 1952 and 1953 Interstate Women's Regatta programs courtesy of the Coe family.

February 2025

No let up in productivity despite it being the peak of the rowing season.

This month our focus has been on 1989 with images scanned from negative film and added for:

These have been published on the Australian Rowing Images website. 

Also added to the this site have been:

As usual, new regattas are added such as the 2023 APS Head of the River regatta and other additions as received.

And as always, additional rower profiles have been added. Having exceeded 2,000 rower profiles, the aim is now for 2,500. Rower profile contributions are always welcomed. They will be published under the author's name.

Also images for 2025 Australian Henley regatta have been published on the Australian Rowing Images website.

 

See our past news and past additions.

 

Website by Hope Stewart—Website Design & Management