History of Black Mountain Rowing Club

Follow this link to read this interesting and valuable History of the Black Mountain Rowing Club in the context of the ACT rowing community which was written by Vincent McMahon in 2011. It is published on the BMRC website.

This history is in many ways also a history of rowing in ACT which makes it so important.

Vincent recollects that it arose from curiosity. Many people in BMRC had fragments of the history but it was hard to get a coherent picture. He ended up talking to a lot of rowers and ex rowers to put it together. David Bagnall, Pat Davoren, John Gasson, Peter Wright and Fred Flanigan were all helpful, amongst others.

The opening of the Lake was interesting context and fascinating in itself. That detail came largely from the Canberra Times. Pat Davoren was particularly helpful on early rowing and the formation of the ACT Rowing Association, as it was then known.

By way of background, Vincent started rowing in 2001 and finished in 2024 after having spent a decade as Treasurer of Rowing ACT. His great work at RACT led to him being made a life member.

This history is reproduced with the consent of the author for which we are most grateful.

Andrew Guerin
December 2025

Whilst every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of the information provided, errors may exist. Please send advice of any errors or inaccuracies by email to:

Also your comments, suggestions and photos are sought to enhance this site.

The idea for this history originated from the Olympic Rowing and World Senior Rowing Championship histories written by Andrew Guerin and Margot Foster in 1991, 1992 & 1993 for the Australian team handbooks. Andrew Guerin developed and extended these histories to the current format in 2004 for publication in 2004 and then expanded the site.

Steve Roll has been an invaluable contributor to the website in locating errors and finding Christian names of rowers. His superb work is acknowledged.

© Andrew Guerin – 2004
These contents of this history are copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purposes of private study, research, criticism or review, as permitted by the Copyright Act, no part may be reproduced by any process without written permission. However given that the purpose of the history is to assist rowers and rowing clubs, written permission is not required for non-commercial usage by rowers and rowing clubs provided acknowledgement is made.

Disclaimer: Whilst extensive efforts have been made to ensure the accuracy of the information supplied, the editors take no responsibility for any loss or damage whatsoever arising from inaccuracies contained in this work.