W Malcolm (Magic) I Robertson
Mercantile Rowing Club (Vic)
Malcolm 'Magic' Robertson commenced his rowing at Geelong College in 1974. In 1975 under coach David Ramage and with fellow Rowing Victoria Hall of Fame inductee Simon Gillett, he won the National Championship Schoolboy Eight Championship and the Wilkinson Cup.
He joined Mercantile in 1976 and raced in the junior eights at the National Championships finishing second.
In 1977 he won a national lightweight championship and then went onto to win a bronze medal at the World Championships.
After a year off, he returned to racing in 1980 but struggled with making weight and was ill. He returned to a successful rowing career in 1987 and finished with the Australian lightweight eight at the World Championships in Barrington in 1990.
He was a very strong and tough lightweight rower. He enjoyed club rowing but his strenuous work commitments made it difficult to manage both activities.
His namesake relation from Canberra wrote the following summary of his career in The Rowing Robertsons, an essay writing in April 2025 and unpublished.
Another rowing Robertson emerged in the 1970s. This was William Malcolm Irving Robertson, a great grandson of William Robertson’s brother, George Pringle Robertson of Coragulac, Colac. Malcolm’s rowing exploits would take a Letter in their own right to properly catalogue as he rowed over many years including for Australia at the very highest level. These are some edited highlights. Malcolm attended Geelong College and took up rowing in 1974. In 1975 he rowed in the College’s first eight (just pipped by Geelong Grammar at the Head of the River that year). The GC crew were picked to represent Victoria as the Victorian youth in the Kings Cup event which they won easily. During the Australian national championships that were held over the week before the Kings Cup event, the crew also competed in the Australian schoolboys Eights event and raced in the final on the Saturday (before the Kings Cup events) and won easily.
In 1976, Malcolm went on to row with the Mercantile Rowing Club. Mercantile was the club that his father, John Norman Robertson, had rower for over many years. To quote Malcolm, “during this time, my father met his future brother in law (Alan) and rowed pairs, 4 and 8s with him. Alan introduced John to his sister Margaret Patricia Kohn (my future mother) and they soon got married.” Malcolm rowed in the Mercantile Junior 8 that year and the crew came second at the Australian national championships that year. In 1977. Malcolm decided to become a light weight rower and rowed in the Mercantile LWT8 (Light weight 8) at the Australian national titles. The crew won and Malcolm was selected in the National LWT8 to compete at Amsterdam. “We were a young inexperienced crew (only one of us had rowed outside of Australia). We had a good race and managed to get a bronze (3rd).”
In 1978, Malcolm was selected in the Australian LWT8 again. The crew had some problems before and during the final and could only manage a bronze medal (3rd) again.
Australian men’s Lightweight Eight 1978. WMI Robertson 2nd from the left
1978 was the peak of Malcolm’s international rowing endeavours but after a year off (retirement number 1), Malcolm continued to row in Victorian and National competitions with great success in both heavy and lightweight crews. Along the way, he became a key member of a LWT4 crew known colloquilly as The Wilburs before retiring from the sport at the end of the 1990 season.
Malcolm’s brother Pringle Robertson adds: “in 1978 the Australian crew rowed in the word titles in Copenhagen. I was travelling in Europe at the time and I met up with my mother Patricia Robertson and we were able to watch them race. The amazing thing is that three of them from that 1978 crew, Mal, Phil Gardner and Lyall McCarthy, were selected to row in the 1990 Australian Lightweight 8 to row in the World Titles in Tasmania. An amazing feat to stay at the top level of a physical sport for twelve years, especially as a lightweight.”
Some rowing highlights
1975 – Interstate Men’s Youth Eight Championship four seat – First
1975 – National Championships Schoolboy Eight four seat – First
1976 – National Championships Men’s Junior Eight bow – Second
1977 – National Championship Men’s Lightweight Eight – First
1977 – World Championships – Men’s Lightweight Eight two seat – Bronze
1978 – World Championships – Men’s Lightweight Eight two seat – Bronze
1987 – Interstate Men’s Lightweight Four Championship two seat – Second
1988 – Interstate Men’s Lightweight Four Championship two seat – First
1989 – National Championships Men’s Lightweight Four two seat – First
1989 – National Championships – Men’s Lightweight Pair stroke – First
1990 –Interstate Men’s Lightweight Four Championship two seat – First
1990 – World Championships – Men’s Lightweight Eight two seat – Fifth
1978 Australian Lightweight Eight - Malcolm second from the left
Photo from the Robert Stewart collection
Andrew Guerin
October 2011 (updated May 2025)
Sources:
- Malcolm Robertson (a relative and namesake of the subject of this profile), The Rowing Robertsons, April 2025, unpublished
- This website
- Author's own knowledge having raced with and been friend and team manager of Malcolm.