The 1959 Murchison Women’s Football Team
Murchison (2021 Census population of 884) is a Goulburn River town approximately 35 km southwest of Shepparton on Yorta Yorta Country and in the local government area of Greater Shepparton.
After squatters arrived in the 1840’s, French wine-maker Ludovic Marie settled in Murchison in 1850 and established vineyards. He also set up a hotel and punt service over the Goulburn for gold miners travelling between Bendigo and Beechworth. The township was established in 1854.
The town grew rapidly. A bridge was built over the Goulburn to replace the punt service in 1871, with a newspaper, courthouse and mechanics institute being established in 1870. The town grew further in 1875 with the arrival of the first paddle steamer. At that time, Murchison had 6 hotels, a number of general stores and 2 flour mills.
The building of the Goulburn Weir for irrigation in 1887-90 meant that the Goulburn River was no longer navigable by paddle steamer, which led to Murchison declining in importance. The development of irrigation led to the growth of nearby towns, including Shepparton. The Waranga Basin was developed in the early part of the twentieth century approximately 15 kilometres from the town.
The Murchison Swimming Pool is 1 of 3 Crown land reserves managed by voluntary committees of management in the town. The others are Murchison Recreation Reserve Incorporated and Murchison River Road Caravan Park Incorporated.
The AFLW started in 2017. The Victorian Women’s Football League started in 1981. Prior to both, there was a very famous women’s footy match in Murchison in 1959 that helped raise the funds needed for the Murchison Pool. Newspaper reports at the time detailed that this bright idea not only raised a significant amount of cash for the pool but “only one footballer was concussed”.
Another fundraising bright idea was the Penny Stack on the bar of a local hotel (pennies being the go prior to the 1966 change to decimal currency). The town also 'sold' the police station to raise funds – well, more accurately, funds were generated by dismantling the old police house and organising a clearing sale.
These combined efforts, fuelled by local enthusiasm and resourcefulness, were crucial in bringing the vision of the Murchison Swimming Pool to life. It took more than a decade from the women’s footy match, but in December 1971 the pool was officially opened. Thanks to the volunteers on the committee of management, other local volunteer and financial contributions and support from Greater Shepparton City Council, the pool is still going strong.
Today the pool is open from December through the summer months, usually finishing the season at the end of March on Labour Day weekend as the weather begins to cool. The local primary school conducts all its swimming lessons at the pool and around school swimming sports time you will see an influx of local kids practising their strokes in eager anticipation of competing for a ribbon.
A big drawcard to the pool for the local children is the slide. The gold plaque on the slide, dated 14 December 2001, commemorates its installation and serves as a tribute to Don Polkinghorne, who was instrumental in bringing the slide to the pool.
Don, who played a significant role in the pool's operations until his death, discovered the slide in pieces after it had been removed from the Shepparton Lake. Recognising its potential to delight the community, he reassembled the slide and installed it at the pool.
One of the local lifeguards at the pool, Branden Wilso, was close to making the 2024 Olympic Team. Despite a personal best at the Olympic trials in the 100m breaststroke, he missed selection for 2024 but is hoping to get to the Los Angeles Games in 2028.
Rachel Puts, one of the current committee members, moved to Murchison from Melbourne for work and initially joined the kinder committee as a way to get involved in the community and meet people while her daughter was in kindergarten.
When her daughter started primary school, a fellow kinder committee member encouraged Rachel to join the pool committee. Ten years later, Rachel remains deeply passionate about the pool and the community it serves.
Rachel finds the most rewarding aspect of her volunteer work is seeing all the children and families at the pool, especially during carnival days. She recounts that "it's really nice when you look around and see all the local kids by the pool and all the families on the picnic blankets.”
The vibe of the pool was recently captured in a YMCA song video that went viral. It’s likely the video would give some satisfaction to the players in the 1959 women’s footy match (and the spectators, not to mention the husbands and other blokes who were allegedly critical in passing on key footy skills) and everybody else involved in the pool over the years.
Written by Katie Heath, a Graduate staff member at DEECA in 2024, with thanks to Rachel Puts and other volunteers involved with the Murchison Pool.
Page last updated: 05/11/24