Having first joined the Public School boat race in 1871, it was not long until Wesley won its first Head of the River in 1874. One hundred and fifty years after that win, the Wesley rowing community gathered to celebrate the final stage of redevelopment of the rowing precinct.
Wesley’s Boat House has been a feature of the upper part of the Yarra for more than a century, however the landing had become a source of immense frustration for many users of the river. The upside-down river has, for decades, deposited silt at various points along its winding course, with the Wesley landing being one of those.
The possibility of launching boats in the mainstream of the Yarra, rather than in the muddy waters around Herring Island, would have been unimaginable to our earliest rowers. A new pontoon now offers a safe solution for launching boats and can be used no matter the level of the tidal Yarra.
The precinct includes the substantially refurbished boat house, a new state-of-the-art floating pontoon, sealed car park and driveway necessary for boat transport, landscaping and retaining wall. The works have been more than a decade in the making, and it is due to the generosity of the Wesley rowing community that the precinct is finally complete.
Contributors have included the expert guidance of well-known architect and lifelong Wesley rower Peter Sandow (OW1966), original designer David McGlashan (OW1946), and John and Wendy Mitchell and family, Will and Grant Crothers and families, Ron and Elizabeth Rosanove and family, Karen, Craig, Dean and Jason Joel and families, and Richard and Anthony Hall and families.
The Hon Paul Guest ASM OAM KC (OW1957) together with the Captains of Boats, Caitlin Woods (OW2024) and Hunter Isaacs (OW2024), had the honour of breaking a bottle of champagne over the newly inaugurated pontoon. Principal Nick Evans (OW1985) offered a final message to current and future generations of rowers, that their time in the rowing program is a source of great joy and that their use of the precinct and the pontoon is safe and successful.
