Skip to main content
Advanced Search
Interstates Sculling and Eight Oar Races for Amateur Championships of Australia
Interstates Sculling and Eight Oar Races for Amateur Championships of Australia

Interstates Sculling and Eight Oar Races for Amateur Championships of Australia

Date1901
Object number00032019
NameProgram
MediumInk on paper
DimensionsOverall: 218 x 120 mm
ClassificationsEphemera
Credit LineANMM Collection
DescriptionThis program for interstate sculling and eight oar races is for the Amateur Championships of Australia which was held on 4 May 1901. The program contains nine photographs. Three are portraits and six are views of rowing races. It also lists previous crews who competed in the race.HistoryAmateur rowing and sculling was formally organised from the 1860s through the establishment of clubs. Members described themselves as amateurs to distinguish themselves from the professional rowers and watermen. Social distinctions plagued the amateur rowers with manual labourers only receiving full amateur status in 1903. Amateur rowing and sculling was fostered by colonial and imperial rivalries. The first Amateur Sculling Championship of Australia was held in 1868. By 1878 an intercolonial event for eights was introduced and went on to become the premier eights contest. While a proposal to form an Australian Amateur Rowing Council failed in 1909, it was finally established in 1925. It changed its name to Rowing Australia Inc in 1996 and became Rowing Australia Ltd in 2007 upon becoming a public company.SignificanceThis program marks the first Australian amateur titles post Federation, replacing the previous intercolonial regattas.