Our History

Born in September 1880 during a meeting at Young & Jacksons, the Club was initially called The Junior Warehouseman’s Rowing Club. The group which formed the club had a common interest in their association with the various mercantile warehouses established in Melbourne around Flinders Street and Flinders Lane, and a year later, the name was changed to Mercantile Rowing Club.

Mercantile's first Championship four in 1895
Photo taken in Brickmakers Swamp which was later reclaimed by rowers to be the of the current boatsheds at Princes Bridge

The four pictured above commenced the long history of Mercantile being a successful senior rowing Club, a situation which continues unabated through to present times. No other rowing club in Victoria has achieved such a long period of continuous senior rowing.

No other rowing club in the world can boast having three World Rowing Keller Medalists, the most prestigious world wide rowing award.

Over the last 135 years, Mercantile has grown in stature and is recognised globally for producing some of the finest athletes the rowing world has ever seen.

A complete history of Mercantile Rowing Club is available here.

Olympians

Since the 1956 Olympics in Melbourne, Mercantile has seen our athletes represent Australia at the highest level. Many Mercantilians have completed at the Olympic level, including the famous Oarsome Foursome, which brought home Olympic gold in 1992 and 1996.

Our gold medal Olympians include James Tomkins (three), Drew Ginn (three), Michael McKay (2), David Crawshay and Andrew Cooper. These and other rowers have also won many other Olympic medals.