Keilor Sports Club: ‘The Country Club in the City’ (Part 1)
Where does the city end and the country begin?
Short answer: Keilor!
It is the Keilor Sports Club, a club that oversees football, cricket, athletics, as well as the operations of the local active living group which is positioned as a central point of social and cultural connection in the Keilor township that characterises this idyllic country aesthetic to the area. Through a three part series of articles, I will look to convey historical and contemporary narratives of the Keilor Sports Club and its surrounding community and explore how it has fondly come to be known as the “country club in the city”.
From a purely geographic standpoint, the ‘country club in the city’ title is apt. The town of Keilor sits comfortably on the outer edges of north-west Melbourne suburbia and is within virtual spitting distance of bordering agricultural terrain that stretches endlessly northward. Yet, there is more at play than just simple geography in the club’s unique country status. Only moments away from the rapid frustrations of clustering freeway traffic, Keilor resists its neighbouring metropolitan influences and maintains its historical and cultural links to rural Victoria, a characteristic that all tenants of the Keilor Recreation Reserve prominently embody.
Until relatively recently, I regularly utilised Melbourne’s suburb-bypassing freeways to escape the intense hustle and bustle of city life, to catch up with family and chase leather on Saturdays in the open expanses of country Victoria. In my haste to escape the city however, I have likely bypassed such townships as Keilor and been ignorant of the significant and incredible stories they have to tell.
Upon my first recent visit to Keilor, I experienced the same sense of relief I feel when I turn off a Melbourne freeway onto the first country arterial highway of my homeward-bound journeys. My sense of urgency fades as the sheer volume of cars dramatically drops, the tension is lifted from my shoulders, and my strangulating grip on the steering wheel shifts to a calm hand on the top of the wheel with my elbow casually resting on the windowsill. As I turned off the chaotic M80 down onto the Older Calder Highway, a former country arterial road in its own respect, I felt my heart lift entering Keilor.
Heading into town, over the Maribyrnong River, Keilor’s established historical presence was obvious. The old Iron Bridge, built in 1868, would have in its prime provided many a digger easy passage into Keilor and onwards towards the gold fields of Castlemaine and Bendigo. During the gold rush of the 1850s and 1860s, Keilor became a prominent stopover town between the city and the country. When the crown offered plots of land in and around the Keilor district, the village became more formally established. As was the case in many rural settlements of Victoria, a portion of land in the village was reserved by the crown for the purposes of recreational use.
The recreation reserve for many Victorian country towns is a primary site of community spirit, social connection, and the communication and reinforcement of cultural values. Through exploring the early history of the Keilor Recreation Reserve and the local clubs that frequented it in the name of sporting relief we will begin to see more clearly why Keilor sporting clubs are fittingly referred to as ‘country clubs in the city’. The origins of the Keilor cricket, football, and sports club are at the heart of this initial exploration.
The first sporting organisation to call the Keilor Recreation Reserve home, was the cricket club. The cricket club’s origins date back to 1858, however consistent records of the club’s exploits both home and away did not become more conspicuous in local newspapers until the late 1870s. One match played in 1877 that captured the imagery of the town and the reserve was between a collection of ‘non-players’ from the Keilor Cricket Club and a travelling team from Hawthorn known as the Bohemians.
As a brief aside, during the late nineteenth century, bohemianism was a movement closely associated with the artistic and literary depiction of Australian identity. Much of Australia’s identity of this period was attached to life on the land and idyllic rural living.
The newspaper report capturing the events of this particular match emphasised that the Bohemians had ‘journeyed as far as Keilor … driven from the city in a four-in-hand drag’.[i] This expression tended towards the idea that as the Bohemian moniker suggested, the travelling team was off exploring what they considered the rural outstretches of Australian living. In just this small excerpt it is clear that Keilor’s status as a ‘country club’ is well entrenched in the club’s history.
After successfully defeating the Bohemians by a healthy twenty runs, the Keilor side hosted the travelling side to a fine repast of sumptuous delicacies put on at the Keilor Hotel. The after-match hospitality offered to the Bohemians is worth remark and further elevates Keilor’s humble country status. Courteous speeches made in the spirit of sportsmanship as well as the rendition of ‘some choice ballads’ sung amongst the men brought proceedings of the day to a close, with both Keilor and the travelling Bohemians ‘having spent a most enjoyable afternoon’ together. The scene painted is that of sport played not for the glory of victory, but for the sheer satisfaction of amateur sporting relief and social connection. This attitude was the bedrock of idyllic sporting fixtures throughout Australia, but in particular its rural centres for the best part of the next 100 years, and thus it comes as no surprise to find sport in Keilor spoken about in this manner through the newspapers of the time.
The cricket club was influential in the formation of Keilor’s first football club in 1877.[ii] In their opening season of play they were not expected to be a competitive outfit. In fact, in the build-up to the club’s first match, the Keilor correspondent for the Bacchus Marsh Express stated, ‘The first football match in connection with the newly formed [Keilor Football] Club will be played here [in Keilor] on Thursday (the Queen’s birthday) when a team from town are coming out to try the stamina of the [Keilor] locals, who, of course, cannot be expected to show any special merit in this their first match’. Despite this somewhat pessimistic view of the club’s early status in the local football landscape, the team would go on to challenge some formidable opponents in their debut season.
The club’s inaugural season of play aligned with the formation of the Victorian Football Association (VFA) in 1877, a formalised competition that pitted some of Melbourne’s more established football outfits against one another. While Keilor was not a member of the VFA, the club arranged and played matches against some of its foundational members such as Carlton, Melbourne, and Hotham (later known as North Melbourne). In its early years, the club mixed it with Footscray and Hotham football clubs, organisations that would become synonymous with the Victorian Football Association before both joining the elite Victorian Football League in 1925.
What is remarkable about the club’s early football history was its ability to compete with these more established clubs. In July 1877, Keilor ventured to Royal Park to take on Hotham, and was successful winning one goal to nil. A mere two months after the club’s formation the team defeated one of the city’s premier Victorian Football Association football clubs.[iii]
The football club’s initial season was not without its controversy, however, within consecutive weeks both Footscray and Victoria Railroads teams abandoned matches midway through proceedings against Keilor alleging that their teams were subjected to ‘unfair play’.[iv] The club’s secretary, D. McDonald, sought to defuse the allegations by way of an impassioned letter to the editor of The Age. McDonald’s passionate defence of his club’s reputation highlighted a strong emotional commitment to the club and the community, and that any assault on these entities would be fiercely defended.[v] While these ideas of community pride and commitment to a club are not necessarily unique to rural towns, it is a sentiment that is often conspicuously associated with the cultural identity of regional environments more so than its metropolitan counterpart.
The football club established a significant presence at the Keilor Recreation Reserve despite not joining any formal football competitions until 1926 when they became an inaugural member of the Keilor and Broadmeadows Football Association.[vi] They had unsuccessfully applied to join the Bacchus Marsh Football Association weeks earlier.[vii] This was in spite of the fact that Keilor had been competitive in exhibition matches against clubs from that association over the previous decades.[viii]
The football club advocated for improvements to the reserve, the establishment of an outer boundary fence to allow them to charge admission to games, and sought sole use of the facility during the football season to ensure a permanent home for the club. The recreation reserve became the home of the Keilor Football Club and firmed up its status as a hub for community activity.
The dynamic nature of the reserve and its role as a community hub was further established through the arrangement of various athletic carnivals. One such event occurred in 1930 with an athletic carnival hosted at the reserve ‘in aid of the local [Keilor] football club’.[ix] Reportedly, ‘a large crowd’ was in attendance to witness the proceedings. It is likely that this type of event was a precursor to the Keilor Gift which Keilor Sports Club’s records note was first run in February of 1933.
The Keilor Sports Club’s inauguration of an annual Keilor Gift athletics carnival created a firm legacy that has stood the test of time. The blue ribbon event to be held over the traditional gift distance of 130 yards attracted quality entrants from across Australia. The 1931 Stawell Gift champion F. J. Ralph, headlined appearances, however, starting virtually from scratch at the 1 yard line, he faced stiff opposition and was eliminated in his opening heat.[x] Frank Spurrell, a police officer hailing from Castlemaine in Victoria’s west, was also highly fancied.[xi] Spurrell had been a champion runner of the Victorian police ranks for over a decade and at his peak had finished runner up at the 1922 Stawell Gift.[xii] Starting from 8 ¾ yards Spurrell won by mere inches to clinch the inaugural Keilor Gift title.[xiii] Aside from the main event of the Keilor Gift the carnival of activities also included Gymkhana-style horse games and other novelty events to amuse and attract a broad audience.
The Keilor Gift has become a mainstay of the Keilor Recreation Reserve, where in the club rooms the honour board of champions is permanently etched into the history of the Keilor Sports Club and of Keilor more broadly.
While I have offered only a glimpse of the history of these three clubs that started and continue to prosper following their commencement on the Keilor Recreation Reserve, there are touch points in these stories that highlight the club’s value to the town. At the core of each club’s narrative is an underlying sentiment of rural ideals – clubs formed for the village-like township of Keilor that establish a social and cultural point of connection for the community. As I continue to explore historical and contemporary narratives of the Keilor Sports Club in future articles I look forward to further uncovering elements of the unique rural identity of this country club that lives on the edge of the city.
Note for readers: For those curious readers interested to peruse some of the historical newspaper from which some of the material for this article was sourced you can find corresponding links below.
[i] https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/70009632/6742967
[ii] https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/88349399/8314727
[iii] https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/88348240/8314777
[iv] https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/197421879/21247501
[v] https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/206918549/19935102
[vi] https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/201641881/18729217
[vii] https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/254710488/28282152
[viii] https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/254694885/28281376
[ix] https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/182996052/20695637
[x] https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/183031028/20686172
[xi] https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/205503456/19049581
[xii] https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/184849497/20633388
[xiii] https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/205514300/19049602
To return to the www.footyalmanac.com.au home page click HERE
Our writers are independent contributors. The opinions expressed in their articles are their own. They are not the views, nor do they reflect the views, of Malarkey Publications.
Do you enjoy the Almanac concept?
And want to ensure it continues in its current form, and better? To help keep things ticking over please consider making your own contribution.
Become an Almanac (annual) member – CLICK HERE
Interesting read Nick. I ran at the Keilor Gift many years back. Can’t recall how I went but I’m certainly not on the honours board!!
Where does the name Keilor come from?
Dips
1st landholder in the District a Scot James Watson provided the name . I suspect his intention was to name it Keillor which is an area in Scotland but an L got lost in the wash .
Good read Nick well done .
Hi Nick (and Hayden)
My family have an association of over 50 years with Keilor.
I played my junior and some senior football there.
My brother (Drew) played over 300 games and is a life member.
My dad (Kevin or Herb) started his associated back in the 1960’s and has filled many off-field roles and also is a dual premiership player and life member. My mum (Jill) is also a life member and was a long term helper in the canteen.
My grandfather (Frank) was also the scoreboard attendant as well for a period of time.
Always loved playing at Joe Brown oval- the pine and gum trees around the ground always made you feel like you were playing in the country!
Thanks for this, Nick.
Fascinating.
Dips
Just checked the Keilor Gift records the notations show that you were clearly having a quiet run on the days you ran at Keilor with your sights set on bigger things lol .
Good to hear from you Scott ,your family have been wonderful contributors at Keilor over many years . I can remember Frank on the scoreboard when I first played at Joe Brown . I assume you are still at Port Fairy . Nick is a western district boy and my research shows he a much better than handy footballer for Kolora – Noorat
Does the Keilor Sports Club have an honor board showing past winners of the gift? ( yes, I won the gift in 1979)
Hi Jim. We’re about to post a pic of the honour board. We’re hearing you were seriously quick – would love to hear the story of your win. Cheers JTH