This entry may seem a little outsie the scope of WikiNorthia, but the so-called “Fitzroy” course was actually in well and truly in Northcote. In 1891, Messrs Byrne and Callahan, two private investors, purchased 30 acres of land on the west side of St. Georges Road in Northcote (between today’s Gadd Street and Wootton Avenue) […]
Tag: Sporting
Racecourses of the north – Croxton Park
Most readers will be familiar with the popular Croxton Park Hotel in High Street and what is now regarded as Northcote, but most will not be aware of the rich sporting traditions of the hotel and its grounds. Like others in Melbourne – Epsom, Ascot and Sandown – it was another track that took its […]
Racecourses of the north – Heidelberg
The exact location of the Heidelberg course – or courses – is generally accredited to be at the Heidelberg Cricket Ground and one report from 1880 has jockeys weighing-in in the cricket pavilion, but whether this represents today’s layout of Warringal Park is uncertain. . Today’s cricket ground is to the north of the Warringal […]
Racecourses of the north : Eltham
The site for a village at Eltham was first gazetted by the Colonial Secretary’s Office in Sydney on 9 January, 1851. The first race meeting noted came on 24 December, 1855 – like most of the early meetings, prizemoney was determined on the sweepstake basis with the entry fees providing part of the prize and […]
Racecourses of the north – Thomastown
Occasional race meetings at Thomastown to the north of Melbourne were noted along with others at Preston, Heidelberg, Ivanhoe in the late 1850’s, the first at Thomastown itself noted in 1858. (Both Mill Park and Lower Plenty had annual races as early as the late 1840s) In January, 1889, a long letter to the weekly […]
Ted Henrys (1924-2014)
Preston Football Club were fortunate that Brunswick de-listed Ted Henrys early in 1951 after he had struggled to win a regular spot in the side in 1950 despite having played 70 games over five seasons up until then. After trying out with Richmond prior to the Second World War, Henrys had been used as a […]