05/04/2026
The very first Paynesville Easter Regatta was held on Easter Monday 18 April 1881 .. it is a long story .. but it has a lot to do with Bairnsdale taking too long to decide on a date.
In the weeks leading up to Easter Monday of 1881, excitement gathered quietly along the shores of Paynesville.
The regatta had been carefully arranged — Mr Langford presiding, Carstairs at his side, and a committee drawn from the district’s working men and boat owners. Notices were printed, programmes set, and, perhaps most telling of all, entries began to arrive.
They came in good number.
For the first-class sailing race alone, a small fleet assembled: the Bird brothers’ Clio, Carstairs’ John, and Brown’s Sarah Ann Baker among them, alongside the Mary Hodge, Mary Alice, and Lady Airley. There were others too — Belle, Excel, Ethel — each name carrying with it a crew, a hope, and a measure of local pride. Even Andrew Maroney entered the field with the Harriet Moroney, adding another familiar name from the fishing community.
The second-class race promised close competition as well, with Davis’s Three Friends, Carstairs’ Scottish Chief, and Ratcliffe’s Emma among the smaller craft. For the keel boats, Duffy’s Stormbird stood ready against the Flying Fish, Frolic, and Dagmar. And beyond the sailing, there were heavier boats prepared for the pulling race, and plans laid for the lively duck hunt.
It had all the makings of a fine day.
But when Easter Monday came, the wind did not.
The morning broke clear and bright, yet by midday only a faint breeze stirred the water, and even that soon faded. The long twelve-mile course — so carefully chosen and so easily viewed from shore — became a test not of speed, but of patience and seamanship.
Still, the races went on.
In the first-class event, Clio, John, and the Sarah Ann Baker were handled with skill, their crews coaxing what little wind they could. In the second-class race, Davis’s Three Friends proved the better boat on the day, while in the keel boat contest Duffy’s Stormbird lived up to its name, running clean away from its rivals — the Flying Fish, Frolic, and Dagmar left far behind.
Not all the advertised events could be completed. The four-oared pulling race, for which boats like the Lily and Lelia had been entered, never came off, and the duck hunt — much anticipated — had to be abandoned. Time slipped away in the calm, and the earlier races had already filled the day.
Yet there was no sense of failure.
On shore, the crowd found its own amusements. Athletic sports drew attention, and a young man from Lake Tyers, Harry Stephens, carried off the principal honours. There was laughter too in the greasy-tail pig chase, later auctioned for the benefit of its successful pursuer.
Much credit for the day’s success was given to Mr Langford, who worked tirelessly throughout and contributed generously to the prizes. And as the sun went down, the company gathered at Day’s Hotel, where a well-attended banquet rounded off the occasion with speeches, songs, and good cheer.
If the wind had disappointed, the spirit of the day had not.
Among fishermen and townsfolk alike, there was agreement that the regatta — even in such conditions — had been worth the effort. With boats like the Clio, the Stormbird, and the Three Friends already part of its story, there was every reason to believe it would become a fixture.
And so it was resolved, in conversation and in good humour, that Paynesville would see such a day again.
