History of the Black Mountain Rowing Club -

A part of the wider ACT Rowing Community

CONSULTATION DRAFT

Writing the history of the Club has been, in itself, a journey.

I started the project because it seemed to me that there was a danger of the history of the Club fading as many of the longstanding Club members moved on.  This is particularly so given the complexity of the Club's history, which is not a simple lineage like many other Clubs such as ANU or CRC.  Without some grasp of its history, I think the Club would lose some of its soul. 

What I did not realise when I started was that the actual writing was the smallest part of the project.  For the first 18 months or so I was slowly - and the process is frustratingly slow - collecting oral histories, clippings and photos.  I wrote most of the text over a 48 hour period around September of last year and then consulted some of those interviewed.  The result was that I was reluctant to circulate more widely until I had received all such comment or had traced down more potential oral histories.  However, as it was becoming clear that I would be waiting for small bits of information without adding much to the consultation draft, I decided to release the document now.

The history necessarily goes wider than the Club itself because, without the Lake there would be no rowing, and without an ACT rowing community there would be no Black Mountain Rowing Club.  Accordingly, I have always regarded the project as an account of the Club's history within the broader rowing community.  It is also not meant as a formal history. 

An issue that I had to confront fairly quickly was the gap in records and the even bigger gap in memories.  Memories sometimes were in conflict or were qualified by the limited paper records that I could find.  This means that the accounts may be slanted at times but hopefully the consultation process will provide a basis for a finer balance.

What I am hoping to achieve from the consultation process is confirmation of the factual content and more historical material, anecdotes and photos.  In this context, many of you may know people, forming part of the Black Mountain Rowing Club family or longstanding members of the rowing fraternity, who would be able to contribute.  If so, please pass on a copy of the consultation document or its web reference.

I am also hoping that this will lead to a more comprehensive drawing together of the history of rowing in the ACT, including those of other Clubs.

I would propose finalising the document in 2008, perhaps with some help from someone with a decent desktop publication capability.  I intend to include more photographs into the final product but have limited them at this stage to allow the download file to be more manageable.

There are many people who provided me with information or oral histories, for which I am grateful.  Most of them are Club members and are evident from the document itself.  However, I wanted to mention Patrick Davoren, who is a prominent member of the rowing community and a member of the Canberra Rowing Club, who is a natural historian and who offered his insights into the rowing scene as well as newspaper clippings from the time.  I also wanted to thank Fred Flanagan who filled in some gaps in the history of the Club and who generously shared his photo archives, Peter Wright who kept the oral history torch alight and David Bagnall who provided both insights and material.

One final note.  If I have unintentionally misrepresented anyone please let me know quickly and I will amend the consultation draft.

        Vincent McMahon