The Boys from the Rush Beds: The History of the Ballarat City Rowing Club 1870-2004: Incorporating the early development of Lake Wendouree 1860-1870 by Kathryn M. Elliott.

The Boys from the Rush Beds: The History of the Ballarat City Rowing Club 1870-2004: Incorporating the early development of Lake Wendouree 1860-1870 by Kathryn M. Elliott. Paperback book published by the author for the Ballarat City Rowing Club 2004 (Limited Edition of 250), 360 pages with black and white photographs and illustrations.

A history of Ballarat... any history of Ballarat, is something that this bookseller will always pick up due to local interest (...i'm not far away). Sure, the goldrush is a slightly more popular and sexy bit of Ballarat's broad history, but rowing in Ballarat is also on the worlds radar, with the lake being one of the venues used in the 1956 Melbourne Olympic Games. When I first moved to the area in 2010 there was no lake and Rowing would have been more than a little difficult due to the prevailing drought conditions at the time. Since then the lake has filled and Rowing has once again become part of Ballarat.

For this blog entry I thought I would take a few photographs of the lake and some of the boat sheds, but failed to register exactly which one was the Ballarat City Rowing Club (I believe it's in the top photo on your left). I think you can get an idea of what the lake and boathouses look like regardless of my vague photographs. 

I was unable to find any other copies of this book for sale on the interwebs at the time of writing this, and it being a limited edition of 250, I figure that all those that have a copy will have hung on to it as a history like this does not come along very often. I like the idea of 249 people clinging to their own special copy with a knowledge that there ain't no more... except for this one... and I reckon there's at least one more person out there just itching to find this lost treasure.