Horse racing -- Australia -- History; Race horses -- Australia -- History; Stainforth, Martin, 1866-1957
You can see from where we stand the Members’ Drive, with its long line
of trees, winding its way up to the edge of the cup at the Melbourne end
of the course, and there disappearing into the general traffic. The
public drive runs up to the same vanishing point, but on a lower level.
Follow the edge of the cup round to the great gap, and you see, on the
low-lying lands there, the abattoirs, from which, unfortunately, when
the breeze blows direct from that quarter, a somewhat disagreeable odour
reaches the senses of the crowd. Over the abattoirs, through the mists
of winter, or the haze of the hot summer days, you see innumerable
derricks and the funnels of the great fleets of steamers lying in the
docks, and, as if to remind us of the past, the slender masts and furled
sails of many a ship and gallant barque, loading for their long trek
across the deep seas.
Warned by the sensible proximity of the abattoirs, the Committee in 1903
bought all the rugged stony hill, which lies there close at hand to
where we are standing, and disposed of it very cheaply to the Footscray
Council, provided always that it should be used as a public garden. It
also gained possession of all the land on the far side of the river
between the Footscray Hill and the ammunition manufactory, so that any
risk of industries being established in the neighbourhood of the course,
and which might, in the days to come, emit objectionable odours, has
been for ever done away with. There, immediately at our feet, is the
Grand Stand, separated from us only by a great gulf which somewhat
resembles the barriers restraining the wild animals in their enclosures
at the new Zoological Gardens in Sydney. Beneath the Grand Stand lie the
very beautiful lawns, in the spring-time gay with flower-beds, and with
the rails of the race track festooned artistically with creeping roses.
The judge’s box and winning post stand opposite the lower end of the
stand, and beyond that, and nearer the river, rise the Official and
Members’ Stand and the Committee and Members’ Luncheon Rooms. Here,
sheltering the Members’ Enclosure and the Betting Ring, rises a
delightful little forest of “immemorial elms.” In the warm spring days,
and in the scorching heat often experienced at the New Year Meeting,
members, standing and sitting alongside the rails, the betting public,
and the fraternity of bookmakers, have conducted their business for many
years past in a leafy and chequered shade, and in an odour of sanctity
which almost resembles that of a great cathedral.
Beyond the betting ring, and close by the river’s banks, lies the
Bird-cage, where the racers have each their stall, and where they are
sheltered from any wind that blows, and from the burning heat of summer
suns. A lane runs from the Bird-cage up to the saddling enclosure in
front of the Official Stand, and outside the Bird-cage, too, are the
Casualty Rooms and various other necessary offices of the Club.
Everything is beautifully complete.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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