Team Mansfield: Mary Mansfield (second from left) with her granddaughter Lucy, daughter Emily, son Patrick and her grandson Liam after her last competitive race.
Mary Mansfield competed in her last competitive race at the recently held Murray Rowing Association regatta on Lake Moodemere near Rutherglen.
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This was a fitting place for her final row as it was here 53 years ago that she had one of her first wins.
Mary began rowing back around 1970 with several locals, Glynes Davis, Anne O’Bryan, Angela Clark and Camel Cunningham, just to name a few.
Most of these women were founding members of the Yarrawonga Ladies Rowing Club.
The club was attached to the Yarrawonga Rowing Club and used the same facilities at the end of Botts Road, but they rowed under their own colours, had their own boats and committee.
Although a small club, they were very dedicated women and won their fair share of races. These regattas were held all around Victoria and Southern NSW.
From Melbourne on the Yarra, the Barwon in Geelong, Lake Wendouree in Ballarat as well as places like Warrnambool, Horsham and Dimboola. After several years, both clubs amalgamated into the Yarrawonga Rowing Club as we know it today.
When study commitments took her down to Melbourne, Mary would frequently be found down at the Yarra Yarra Rowing Club below Princes Street Bridge.
Mary never rowed competitively with Yarra Yarra but forged some very close friendships that are still going strong to this day.
Eventually both her and her husband Peter made their way back to their hometown of Yarrawonga and re-joined the Yarrawonga Rowing Club.
Back then, the rowing club was part of a three-regatta program held over the Christmas, New Year period.
The first was at Nagambie on Boxing Day and the second held at Yarrawonga on the Saturday in between and Rutherglen on New Year’s Day.
Several clubs would set up camp adjacent to the Rowing Club after the Nagambie regatta and leave New Years Eve for Rutherglen, using the clubs facilities with showers, cooking and training out on the lake.
When they weren’t training, club members from Essendon RC, Yarra Yarra RC, Powerhouse RC and the like would take in the sites and sounds that Yarrawonga offered at the time. Golf, water sports and the clubs were always popular.
A few years on and never one to be idle, Mary approached both the State and Catholic High Schools to see if any of the girls would be interested in taking up the sport of rowing and competing at the Victorian Schoolgirls rowing championships held in March every year on the Barwon River in Geelong.
Several girls from both schools took up this new challenge and, after a disagreement with the YRC committee regarding use of their facilities, Mary purchased her own rowing boat and trained all of these girls on the small block at the end of Tom Street, where the old punt used to operate from.
The Mansfield family weren’t disgraced in their efforts at the Murray Rowing Association regatta held on Lake Moodemere recently.
Mary had these girls training six to eight times a week, either before dawn, after school or even both. This training took place out on the main lake.
Having the girls row all the way around to the old train in Mulwala, now Purtle Park, she would follow them in a tinny or, if this wasn’t available, riding her bike to the traffic bridge and instructing them from there. Watching them all the way so they wouldn’t cut the journey short.
A few of these crews went on to make finals and even come back with medals. These stories will all be retold, at the upcoming reunion of the Yarrawonga Ladies Rowing Club this February 26 at the back of Burkes Hotel.
At the recent regatta in Rutherglen, Mary was able to share her final race with her family, literally. Rowing with her that day was 3 generations of the Mansfield’s.
With Mary in stroke seat, she was joined by two of her three children, Emily and Patrick, and her grandson Liam making up the four.
Liam was competing in his first race for the Yarrawonga Rowing Club. The coxswain, or person who steers the boat, was her granddaughter Lucy Mansfield.
The ages ranging from 13 to after retirement age. The race was a competitive one and Yarrawonga weren’t disgraced in their efforts as the eventual winners, Mercantile having members of the Australian Rowing Squad amongst their crew.
All in all, Mary has had a very successful time in the sport of rowing and will continue, just not in competition.
As she has done throughout her life, either through work or play, Mary has given back to the sport more than she has taken out.
Mary assures her that she will still be out on the water to stay fit and healthy but just as a recreational participant rather than a competitor. You can never write her off though.
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