City of Darebin Heritage Study Volume 1 Draft Thematic

VOLUME 2: THEMATIC ENVIRONMENTAL HISTORYFigure 85 Northcote football club, 1929[DHE, Id 754]]HorseracingAs noted in Chapter 4, a race track was run in conjunction with the Croxton Park Hotel. In1891 another private racecourse was established in the district by W. Byrne and P. Callaghanto the west of St George's Road. Croxton Racecourse was successful amongst working peopleduring the 1890s depression (Lemon, p 129). By 1914 Croxton Park was known as theFitzroy Racecourse, and was owned by notorious Collingwood gambling entrepreneur JohnWren, who held sixteen race meetings a year there. Regular meetings attracting thousands ofpeople into the 1920s, when the Racecourse was owned by the Victorian Trotting and RacingAssociation:In those days they used to race ponies the ponies under 14½ hands high. Once you raced atFitzroy you couldn’t race the courses in Melbourne, you were barred from going to the registeredraces.When a horse couldn’t win in Melbourne they’d say, ‘Take it to the ponies’. Every Tom, Dickand Harry went tot he races at Fitzroy trying to boost their incomes. (Fred Moran in “Glimpsesof our Past”: 39)The races ceased in 1931 and after lying idle until after the Second World War the propertywas eventually redeveloped for housing as Bird and Bradley Avenues. Another privateracetrack and sportsground was Plant’s Paddock, which became the Railway Estate in 1903.Lawn BowlsDarebin’s first bowling club was initiated by a meeting of Northcote businessmen and citizensin 1903, but it took a few years to secure the Pearl Street site, which was sold to the Club bythe Railways Department. The Northcote Club’s green was laid down and officially opened in1906. The Club boasted several champion players, including 1924 Victorian Champion ofChampions, Dr Catarinch. It remained an all-male club until 1982, when it accepted womenas associate members. A decline in popularity of the sport and an ageing membership led atake-over by Collingwood Football Club in 1993, and the installation of poker machines. Thepartnership was not a success and the venture was abandoned with the loss of one of the Club’stwo bowling greens. In 1999 Northcote merged with Faircote Bowling Club to form theDarebin City Bowling Club (Darebin Historical Encyclopedia).Faircote Club had formed 1966, with both male and female members, and established greensand a clubhouse in Darebin Road at the John Cain Memorial Park. Northcote Club sold itsPearl Street property and invested the proceeds in a new facility on the Faircote’s site. State andlocal governments contributed substantial amounts to create the new State Bowling Centre atthe Darebin International Sports Centre. This was the venue for the Lawn Bowls events at the2006 Commonwealth Games (Darebin Historical Encyclopedia).Other bowling clubs were formed in Preston and Thornbury in the early twentieth century andat Edwarde’s Lake Park in 1960. Of particular interest is the Thornbury Club, whichoriginated in 1909 as the private green belonging to retailer Oliver Gilpin next to his house123