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:
“The principle that human nature, in its psychological aspects, is nothing more than a product of history and given social relations removes all barriers to coercion and manipulation by the powerful.”
—Noam Chomsky (b. 1928)
“Most events recorded in history are more remarkable than important, like eclipses of the sun and moon, by which all are attracted, but whose effects no one takes the trouble to calculate.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“We know only a single science, the science of history. One can look at history from two sides and divide it into the history of nature and the history of men. However, the two sides are not to be divided off; as long as men exist the history of nature and the history of men are mutually conditioned.”
—Karl Marx (1818–1883)