Hawthorn Rowing Club - Hawthorn | Australian Rowing Clubs | Row HQ

Hawthorn Rowing Club was formed in September 1877 and rows on the Yarra River beside the Bridge Road bridge in Hawthorn. The club says it was among the earliest clubs affiliated with Rowing Victoria and has always operated on this reach of the river.

The original clubhouse was washed away in the 1934 floods. A replacement rowing shed was erected on the present site in 1937 and has remained in use as a Hawthorn community rowing centre.

In 1929 Hawthorn won the Grand Challenge Cup for senior eights at Henley. Hawthorn City Council marked the win by granting the club Freedom of the City and permission to use the City of Hawthorn crest as its insignia.

The club was restricted to men for most of its early history, admitted women in the early 1980s and elected its first female captain in 1998. It now describes a membership spanning ages 13 to 90, with novice, recreational and competitive rowers.

Membership provides access to suitable club boats, the gym and ergometer room, coaching, development sessions and regatta entry. The volunteer-run club also stages the Head of the Yarra, an eight-kilometre eights race which its event page says attracts about 280 crews and 2,500 athletes each year.