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History of Essendon Ladies' Rowing Club

1. Methodology

The author has researched material from the ERC, including the annual reports from 1905 to 2000 belonging to Mr. Joseph. B. Vaughan, a member of the ERC since 1955. Informal conversations with Mr. Vaughan and his brother Laurie (a member since 1953), provided inspiring leads for the research.

One formal interview has been conducted with two members of the ERC - Mr. Craig Forsyth, a previous rower and current coach, and Mr. Glenn Bottrell, a previous rower, current coach and the current treasurer. From this interview, it became apparent that many primary historical documents of the ELRC lie undisturbed in a suitcase, which is locked up in the possession and protection of the ERC.

Before this interview, Mr. Bottrell kindly provided a small manila folder from the offices of the ERC. It contained a photograph of the 1987 fire, amongst other small pieces of information. Whilst looking through the folder, the author came across a paper written by Cheryl Jamison, a physical education student of 1980, at the old Footscray Institute of Technology. She researched the first one hundred years of the ERC. However this document provided only a small amount of information regarding the ELRC.

A publication by the Essendon Historical Society Inc, Maribyrnong Record: Past Images of the River provided a brief outline of the ELRC establishment and successes.

Other historical texts were also used for complementary information, including Paradise of Sport by Cashman, and The Oxford Companion to Australian Sport.

The author points out that although further information lies in the hands of the Victorian Rowing Association (VRA), and of course in the guarded suitcase, the majority of this paper relies upon the information gained from the interview with Mr. Forsyth and Mr. Bottrell.

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