Sports Ground - Tolmie, Vic, Australia
S 36° 56.110 E 146° 14.275
55H E 432135 N 5912048
This large Interpretative Sign has enough historical information to be used as a Marker for the Sports Ground.
Waymark Code: WM10NKK
Location: Victoria, Australia
Date Posted: 06/02/2019
Views: 1
This broad printed sign near the Football Change Rooms, details the beginning of the sports in the immediate area. The text reads:
TOLMIE SPORTS GROUND
"One event in Tolmie has endured through both good times and perhaps not so good… the annual Tolmie Sports day. The first sports were held in 1886 and were then known as the Wombat School Picnic. The program of events has changed very little over the history of the Sports with foot racing, woodchopping and horse events remaining firm favourites. The Old Buffers Race for men over 45 remains popular today as it was when first recorded, at the Picnic of 1888.
"Traditionally everyone arrived at the Sports by foot, horse or horse drawn vehicle and from as far afield as Mansfield, King Valley, Whitfield, Tatong and Wangaratta. The tradition of a "Grand Ball" following the Sports Day is one held still to this day and newspaper reports from the earliest years invariably mention that the dancing continued until the early hours of the morning - often until daylight!
"The 1888 Picnic Day is recorded as having made a profit of five Pounds, 17 shillings and 11 pence. Beneficiaries of the proceeds over the years have included Red Cross, "Sick and Wounded Soldiers", "Returned Soldiers Association" and "Fallen Soldiers" (all throughout the years of the first world war), and then subsequently the Tolmie Hall, Recreation Reserve, Mansfield Hospital, and Bush fire appeals.
"Over the years a number of local sports clubs have called the Tolmie Sports Ground home, from the Wombat United Cricket Club in 1887, to tennis, table tennis and the Tolmie Football Club formed in 1890."
The map part of the sign dates many of the buildings indicated, including: 1879 - Ex-Post Office; 1880 - Wombat/Tolmie State School; 1887 - Site of Wombat Hotel; 1889 - Uniting/former Presbyterian Church; 1901 - Ex-Teachers residence; 1904 - Catholic Church; 1922 - Mechanic Institute; and 1922 - Memorial Pine Trees.
Visited: 1446-7, Sunday, 6 January, 2019