The Mirror News

District’s sports history on display

• Rob Pritchard – committee member of the Foster and District Historical Society, is pictured with a selection of items included in the ‘Sport in the District – 1800s to 1960,’ – an exhibition currently on display at the Foster Museum.

FOLLOWING the very successful Road To The Prom exhibition, showcasing the history of the Prom and surrounding areas over the last few decades, the Foster and District Historical Society is currently staging another exhibition which highlights something else close to the heart of many South Gippslanders; – sport!

‘Sport in the District – 1800 to 1960,’ is the culmination of the dedicated work of the Society’s committee members and volunteers who have spent countless hours researching, culminating their findings and presenting them an a very impressive array of memorabilia spaning approximately 160 years.

Not only is there much in the exhibition devoted to local football and cricket, basketball, golf and bowls – but there are also sections of the display devoted to croquet, hockey, rifle and gun clubs, the Welshpool tug of war, wood chopping and sheaf tossing.

One entire corner of the exhibition is devoted to surfing and features not only photographic enlargements of long-haired lads waxing their boards beside their panel vans and station wagons – but also an original Jamie Gair surfboard circa 1970s.

The exhibition is a must-see for those who are not only au-fait with the district’s sports nowadays, but who would be surprised to know that prior to the days of a designated sports ground, cricket and football were played in a farmers’ paddocks – complete with the types of natural obstacles one would expect. How times have changed!

In the room immediately to the left as you enter the museum is a three dimensional installation of a ‘footy room’ of the early days – complete with a last, pliers and hammer in readiness for replacing the stops on footy boots.

Also to be found is a timeline of sports in the district and a listing of the ‘who’s who’ of local sporting notables and their achievements over the years.

‘Sport in the District – 1800 to 1960’, is on display at the Foster Musuem, located opposite Pearl Park in Main Street, on weekends, public holidays and during school holidays from 11am to 3pm, (with the exception of Good Friday, Christmas Day and Boxing Day). The exhibition will continue until February 2018

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