Bourke Street Boys Celebrate The Good Old Days

The Age

Wednesday October 29, 2008

TONY BOURKE

THIS year marks the 50th anniversary of the metropolitan race clubs - and what was then country racing agencies - moving from their inner-city offices to a brand spanking new building in St Kilda Road.

The clubs had been housed in two Victorian-era buildings on both sides of Bourke Street, between Queen and William Streets, that featured high ceilings with ornate light fittings, gloomy stairwells and polished wooden counters.

Yet, the new offices with the aluminium fittings, neon lighting and lifts that worked, never quite had the magic of Bourke Street for many of the staff who had made the shift into the 20th century, particularly for the number of popular hotels in the immediate vicinity, not to mention the Victorian Club around the corner in Queen Street ...

Some years later, led by Rod Johnson who had started as an office boy at the VRC in 1946 and rose to chief executive, they formed a club called the Bourke Street Boys.

So, it was with a touch of nostalgia on Monday, that they celebrated the anniversary at the RACV Club, which now occupies the site on the southern side of Bourke Street where the VRC offices once stood.

As a callow youth working as a racing cadet at The Truth newspaper, I had to attend the "press room" as it was called on the third floor on Thursdays to do the acceptances for the Saturday race meeting.

Of course, there were no such things as computers or the internet and all the information was taken and transcribed by hand.

The two dominant figures at acceptance time were Joe Brown, the esteemed racecaller for the ABC who, when he was off air, was unable to complete a sentence without using the F-word, and Len Creed, who was usually in charge of proceedings because of his role with Australian United Press (AUP), which was later taken over by AAP.

Such was my initiation to the Bourke Street scene, although I had never attended a Bourke Street Boys function until Monday, and what a revelation it was.

Talk about "blasts from the past" as well as the present. Johnson was in great form and the many familiar faces included Eric Jeffery, Ron King, Jim Conway, Ken Sturt, Bart Godwin, Alec Selman, Lindsay Carr, John Byrne, Ted Moore, Ross Fouracre, John Willis, Ron Taylor, Jim Meek, former jockeys Ron Hutchinson, Alan Simpson and Laurie Johnson and, of course, Jack Styring, to whom a presentation was made for his calling of 58 Gunbower Cups.

The mention of Eric Jeffery, the former ticket secretary of the VRC, is timely with the Melbourne Cup carnival upon us. The VRC now has a PR company handling what Eric managed to do basically alone. Computers are necessary in this day and age but there is a lot to be said for having a more human touch in racing.

© 2008 The Age

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