Melbourne and the Yarra River

The Collector · **Posted:** 04 May 2006, 16:37

Text from Ferries on the Yarra

Henley-on-Yarra
(a blast from the past)

The great event on the river each year was the Henley-on-Yarra regatta. Melbourne, so often regarded by those who do not know it as a dull, sober city, is good at festivals, and Henley was one of the best. It fitted neatly into the social calendar on a Saturday afternoon between the two major events of the spring racing season, the Caulfield Cup and the Melbourne Cup, and from its inception in 1904 it was immensely popular. Like Cup Day, it was an occasion on which it never rained, and the newspapers invariably waxed poetic in their descriptions of the day. The Argus in 1905 reported it as

‘a water carnival to rank in aquatics as a fixture like the Melbourne Cup in racing, the final test match of an English cricketing tour, or the Austral Wheel Race in Cycling.’

Oarsman would come from far and wide to compete in the races at Henley. Elaborate ‘houseboats’ would be built up on pontoons for the occasion and lavishly decorated, and those who did not have their own boat would crowd aboard the ferry boats moored against the bank at Batman Avenue to cheer on their favourites as they crossed the finishing line. People also packed the grassy river banks over the whole length of the course from Morell Bridge to Princes Bridge, and on the bridges themselves. The Argus report continues:

‘Almost as soon as it became apparent that the day would be fine and sunny, people began to assemble on the bank of the Yarra – a river which is far too little appreciated by those who live around it…

From the steps at Prince’s Bridge to the last house-boat there was a glittering assemblage, constantly moving – though with difficulty at times – and radiant with the costumes of the ladies….’

Henley-on-Yarra started in 1904 and eventually morphed into Moomba.
Moomba started in 1954.

Above, the scene on one bank and below, the girl in the prizewinning canoe in 1936 is justifiably pleased with the riot of fancy cushions that surround her, and that no one has fallen in the Yarra.

Above, on the southern bank, one can see the Henley equivalent of the corporate box, the houseboat, built and decorated for the occasion on a pontoon base. Prizes were offered for best decorated.