Our History
Our Club History
Over 50 Years on the Water!
The Curtin University Rowing Club was formed in 1969 by a small group of interested people at the newly established Western Australian Institute of Technology. It was one of the first sports clubs to accept females as full members. The club was also the first to encourage the participation of disabled athletes with six blind men from the Braille Society rowing and competing in the early 1970’s.
With a grant of $1200, the club purchased 2-second hand fours and a second hand eight with oars. A novice men’s four was the only competing crew in that first year and raced in the colours of black, gold and white.
During 1970, discussions began regarding the building of a new clubhouse located at the current site at the end of Elderfield Road, Manning and this was officially opened in April 1974. The clubhouse was appropriately named after the man who became a driving force behind the club, the foundation president, Mr Con Stacey, who remained president until 1994.
Many achievements have been accomplished by the club and its members over the years. These include both male and female National and State representatives, winning the Champion Club title on several occasions, providing members of the WA Kings Cup eight and Olympic representatives both as competitors and coaches. During the eighties and the nineties, the Club was in its strongest position and began to include veteran rowers in its ranks.
In 1987 the change of name to Curtin University Boat Club was celebrated by the first win by the women’s eight at the Inter-varsity Regatta held upriver at Garratt Road Bridge, with the men’s eight achieving a close second.
Sadly, the relations with Curtin University Guild were reduced to almost nothing by 1998 because of lack of numbers and therefore funding was cut as well and as a result, the club took much stronger control of its financial administration.
Since then there has been a varied membership, fluctuating between extremes of highs and lows.
In 2000, a school group from All Saints’ College, Bullcreek was introduced to the club and there began a mutually beneficial relationship which continues to the current time.
The new purpose-built course at Champion Lakes was opened in 2007 and almost all regattas have been held there since then. This created an issue with boat transportation and Curtin decided it could no longer tow boats or borrow a trailer constantly so a new trailer was purchased in 2006.
In recent years, there has been an influx of new, enthusiastic rowers and administrators who have undertaken to revitalise the club and take it further into the competitive arena.
With wins in many races and boat classes, CUBC won the E grade pennant in 2013 and improved on its performance in 2014 by winning the E grade, D grade and sculling pennants. In 2015 and 2016, the club built on this success with several more pennants in E grade, which are now proudly displayed in the clubhouse. With an increased focus on B/C grade rowers as well as developing our novices, the next 4 years have saw a number of inititatives such as rowing camps in Walpole to restructuring our squad structure. The 2023 season saw one of our most successful seasons on recent memory, coming second in both the D grade and C grade penant flags as well as three state championship medals. We look forward to build upon that success in the upcoming 2024 season.
Our Life Members
Con Stacey | Jo-Anne Green | George Panorios | Lynne Bayliss | Tony Lovrich | Greg Haig | Ron Snook | Rob Scott | Glen Loftus | Paul Johnston
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