History
The Geelong and Western District Agricultural and Horticultural Society was formed in February 1855. Their first showgrounds site was in East Geelong, south of Eastern Park, and was bounded by Ryrie, Garden, Myers and Normanby Streets. The second showgrounds opened in October 1891, on a new site that ran south from Ormond Road to St Albans Road. A 40 metre long wooden grandstand was provided on this side.
In 1907 the showgrounds were again moved, this time to the new Geelong Racecourse. April 14, 1907, saw the grandstand transported from the old site by Messrs McCoy and Son. Weighing 100 tonnes, it was moved as a whole by a traction engine across the Queenscliff railway line after being placed onto 52 large rollers. The stand remained at the current racecourse until at least the early 1990s.
The agricultural society shared the Geelong Racecourse until 1954, when it moved to the current site.
Read more about this topic: Geelong Showgrounds
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“All objects, all phases of culture are alive. They have voices. They speak of their history and interrelatedness. And they are all talking at once!”
—Camille Paglia (b. 1947)
“Those who weep for the happy periods which they encounter in history acknowledge what they want; not the alleviation but the silencing of misery.”
—Albert Camus (1913–1960)
“History has neither the venerableness of antiquity, nor the freshness of the modern. It does as if it would go to the beginning of things, which natural history might with reason assume to do; but consider the Universal History, and then tell us,—when did burdock and plantain sprout first?”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)