Friends of Rowing Season Opening Picnic
On Sunday evening, Friends of Rowing hosted their Season Opening Picnic ahead of the 2024/25 rowing season. As always, this event was a great opportunity to welcome new and returning families to the Rowing community and look forward to the season ahead. Matilda Powell (Rowing Captain) shared her experience with our new students, delivering a speech where she spoke about the strong sense of community shared by our rowing students, and the lessons she has learnt from her time rowing.
The event also doubled as an opportunity to christen the School’s newest boat – a single scull from Australian manufacturer Sykes Racing. The boat was named “Hardy” as an homage to one of the teachers who was involved in the School’s original Rowing program formed in 1916!
School Chronicles from the time document that the School formed a Rowing Club in 1916, using boats hired from Mr Ernest Jolley (later of Popeye fame). At first the program was offered to boarders only, before being extended to include day students as well. The program continued until at least 1918, and we have photos of Old Scholars outside the School in North Adelaide wearing Torrens Rowing Club blazers dated from the early 1920s. Given that the Australian Women’s Rowing Council (the first national governing body for Women’s sports anywhere in the world) was not formed until 1920, and schoolgirl events were not included in the SA Schools’ Head of the River until 1978, to have formed a Rowing Club in 1916 was truly progressive and a remarkable chapter in the School’s history.
Thank you to Friends of Rowing for their organisation of the event and to all the parents who volunteered to prepare for the event and assist on the evening. The event was a wonderful opportunity to mark the beginning of the new season and bring our community together.
