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Rowing Australia

governing body of rowing in Australia

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionMay 5, 2025
Entity authorityQ17001956 ↗
Source-derived summary

Rowing Australia (RA) is the governing body for the sport of rowing in Australia.

Established in 1925, it is the only organisation recognised by the Federation Internationale des Societies d’Aviron (FISA), the Australian Sports Commission (ASC), and the Australian Olympic Committee (AOC), to conduct rowing activities in, and on behalf of Australia.

History

RA was initially established on 1 May 1925 as the Australian Amateur Rowing Council. It was incorporated on 15 November 1982, changed its name to Australian Rowing Council Inc in 1984, changed its name to Rowing Australia Inc on 2 March 1996 and finally became a public company in January 2007 and so became Rowing Australia Ltd.

Prior to 1925, the Interstate Championships and representation at the Olympic Games were managed by the State Associations. A proposal to form the Australian Amateur Rowing Council failed at the 1909 inter-state conference, in favour of the continuation of the conference system.

Regulations were brought into effect for the conduct of the Intercolonial and Interstate Championships well prior to the formation of RA. While there were many debates over rules from the first race, the first request for a conference came from New South Wales in February 1887, in order to discuss the possibility of sending a combined crew from all colonies to compete in England.

Members

Rowing Australia and its affiliates represent in excess of 15,000 active members ranging from young rowers at school through to those at universities and in the wider community right through to veterans rowing.

Rowing Australia member associations operate in seven states with over 185 schools and 156 clubs offering rowing programs.

Competition

RA is responsible for selection of representative Australian teams for the Olympic Games, World Championships, World Under 23 Championships, Trans Tasman teams and Junior World Championships.

Editorial summary

This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Rowing Australia” as governing body of rowing in Australia. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.

Editorial reviewA concise reference frame for defining the subject, testing terminology and identifying the institution closest to the evidence. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1925, 1982, 1984, 1996—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1925-05-01. The account is most persuasive where Rowing, Australia and governing can be independently traced.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The subject matters to the general reference register because the source frames it as governing body of rowing in Australia. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.

Evidence profile

Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 5, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q17001956. None of the 2 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1925, 1982, 1984 and 1996.

Critical limits

A concise general-reference account can conceal disagreements about scope, terminology or the weight assigned to individual sources. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

Best used for
  • Subject orientation
  • Search vocabulary
  • Locating named sources
Verify next

The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Rowing Australia”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Rowing Australia primary sources, Rowing Australia archive and Rowing research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Rowing Australia”?
  2. What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
  3. Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Rowing Australia” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.