Thursday, 19 October 2023

 John BERGER (Southern Metropolitan) (18:17): (528) My adjournment matter is for the Minister for Tourism, Sport and Major Events in the other place Minister Dimopoulos. The Hawthorn Rowing Club is an asset to my community of Southern Metro. Founded in 1877, the Hawthorn Rowing Club is a fixture of my community’s sporting and leisure landscape. Their clubhouse is on the Yarra River right next to Bridge Road and offers a variety of ways for rowers to engage in their sport. There are teams of professionals and amateurs, and they are engaged and active in my local community. They are committed to nurturing the physical and mental wellbeing of their members by creating a positive and supportive community, and each year they organise the annual head of the river rowing regatta.

The regatta is limited to coxed eights, which just means that boats used for this race seat eight and a coxswain. It is the largest eights rowing event in Australia and is listed by some as one of the most notable ‘head of the’ races in the entire world, along with the Head of the River Race and the Head of the Charles Regatta in London and Boston. The race goes for a lengthy 8 kilometres down Melbourne’s iconic Yarra. The fastest crews usually complete the course in around 25 minutes, with others taking around 30 to 40 minutes. At its biggest running the regatta had over 300 crews competing in 31 categories, with crews from all over Australia’s states, New Zealand, Japan and the US. I am so proud that the team behind this great regatta is in Hawthorn, in my community of Southern Metro. It has been running since 1957, but due to COVID it had not run since 2019 – but now it is back.

You may not know this, but I used to be a rower. In fact I used to row for Essendon Rowing Club in the off-season to keep up my physical fitness. They were always great community events and always a great opportunity to meet people, so I am very excited that the Allan Labor government is providing $25,000 for the Head of the Yarra to get it back to its best. We are a government that backs local community sport, so my adjournment is: will the minister join me on a visit to the annual Head of the River rowing regatta and enjoy the event with me?