EASTER Sunday celebrations at Benjeroop honoured the area’s local sporting history, with one of the district’s oldest residents unveiling a plaque dedicated to football matches played on-site in the 1930s.
Brian Drummond was five years old when the great Aussie game was played on the long-since demolished oval on Benjeroop-Lake Charm Road, but he was still able to give the assembled crowd a blow by blow account of some of the games that were played there nearly 87 years ago.
“During the 1930s the Benjeroop football team competed in the Central Lakes Football Association,” he said.
“The other teams in the association were Lake Boga, also known as Lakeside; Lake Charm; Mystic Park; and Tresco. The opening round of the 1931 season was held on May 16.”
The plaque is located just north of Wells Bridge, which spans the Loddon River, situated on the left-hand side of the road travelling north.
The plaque is just one of a series of markers installed across Benjeroop to honour the area’s history.
Attendees then headed to the public hall to start the gas powered Hornsby Suction Engine – a historic irrigation pump brought into the country in 1912 from England by Captain F. E. Keats.
The 130-horsepower machine put on a show for young and old alike, and is a tourist attraction that earns money for the maintenance of the hall.
There are plans to install an additional historic pump on the site in the future.
