Rowing Club

Two rowing clubs were established on White Horse Point, the Balmain Rowing Club in 1882 and the Balmain Working Men’s Rowing Club in 1886 (also known as the Enterprise Rowing Club).

Site Overview

Here you can click and zoom into the area that the Rowing club would have occupied at White Horse Point, with remnants of the outline, possibly at the ocean floor. The other Balmain rowing club is still present.

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It was the Balmain Working Men’s Club that brought into discussion the class rule and was not unusual for members of the same family to be held apart by the “class rules” of the rowers amateur definition. A working man, “a bloke who toiled with his coat off”, was debarred from rowing with or against his brother, who followed a “clerical profession,” even if that profession only brought in a miniature wage.

The shed was built on Saturday and Sunday afternoons by a number of tradesmen who founded the club. The shed had two storeys, the lower floor was set apart and fitted up for the reception of the boats, and the upper room is intended to be used for meetings and entertainment. In front of the shed there was a 10 feet balcony with a neat iron railing bearing the arms of the club - (a rising sun).

Source 28

It was reported that rivalry between the Balmain Working Men’s Rowing club and the Balmain Rowing club was very keen, the burly wielders of the oars and sculls looking with contempt upon the feeble boat pushing of the Toffs next door.


Andrew Guerin. (2004)

The grand opening of Balmain Working Men’s Rowing Club took place on the afternoon of 27th February 1886. The new building decorated with flags and foliage. The Balmain Alliance band and Naval Brigade band played at intervals. White Horse Point was filled with increasing streams of visitors, and the reserve immediately behind the boat shed and further back on the higher ground was crowded with spectators, waiting expectantly for the arrival of his Excellency the Governor, Lord Carrington, who had consented to open the Balmain Working Men’s Rowing club.

His Excellency arrived in the steam launch Ena, accompanied by Lady Carrington and her sister Miss Harboard. On the approach to White Horse Point his Excellency’s launch was met by a number of boats representing the other rowing clubs, and these escorted the launch to the shed. The party was received with loud cheers.

Lord Carrington proposed a toast - “no empty prophecy when he said that this club, so auspiciously begun, would bear its fruits, and that a club which did so much to elevate the moral as well as the physical condition of the populations would prosper for many years”.

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Destruction of the Club

Source 30

“… the storm which swept through Sydney on 19th September 1917 totally destroyed the Enterprise Rowing club shed … The loss was such a severe blow to the old established Enterprise club that it could no longer resume its position amongst the clubs on Sydney Harbour. Over the 31 years of the club's existence new and more liberal ideas as to the class rules had taken all the sting out of the old-time rivalry between the members of the two Balmain clubs at “Whitey”. Its old neighbour and rival, the Balmain Rowing Club, still stands proud in its original timber shed built in 1882.””


Beverley Malone. (2017)

News article showing the destruction

This sliding comparison illustrates how the positioning would be at today's cliffside at White Horse Point as compared to the image of the shed's destruction.

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This storm destroyed all the wooden gigs, pair oared boats, skiffs and outriggers that were housed there. With what was left being put to auction afterwards. All that remains of the historical shed are a few stone footings that sometimes come into view at low tide.

Rowing Club Area

As the site exists today with the other rowing club still present.

References