The history of ice rinks and ice skating in Australia is not that long due to Australia’s climate and weather. The first official dates for the start of ice skating in Australia is 1904. In September 1904, the first artificial ice skating rink “the Glaciarium” opened in Adelaide, South Australia. There have been un-supported reports of a Sydney rink on Pitt Street in the late 1870s-early 1880s, which research has not been able to corroborate. The Glaciarium in Adelaide was only open for about a year and today is the home of the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra.
Newman Reid was said to be a pioneer of national ice sports and the founder of ice hockey in Australia. Reid was born in 1862 in Rochester, Kent. He was apart of the entrepreneurial syndicate that established the first ice rink in Australia, the Adelaide Glaciarium in 1904. Reid’s syndicates then went on to build the first ice rinks in Melbourne 1906 and Sydney 1907. “His world-class facilities for figure skating, speed skating and ice hockey were built with venture capital over a century ago and produced the first two generations of National ice champions, and many others who represented Australia at Olympic and World Championships”.
Mr. Dunbar Poole, a Scot, arrived in Adelaide around 1903 to find a group of like minded people interested in ice skating. This included future manager Newman Reid. They opened the rink in Adelaide in a building formerly used as cyclorama with the refrigeration being piped many metres from an ice works down the street.
The Sunday times newspaper article from July, 1907 introduces the first Sydney Glaciarium. The article states that ice skating is now not limited to those in “chilly districts”. A Sydney Morning Herald article from later that month also speaks of the Sydney Glacirarium opening. This article describes the rink below;
“Skating on the frozen lake to an Englishman is a pleasant and healthful exercise, but it is a pastime that is not easily obtainable in sunny Now South Wales, especially in the busy thoroughfares of a city like Sydney. Consequently in introducing ice skating to this city the management of the Glaclarium hopes to awaken pleasant memories in the minds of those who have previously skated in the fens of the motherland, and at the same time to raise a keen interest in this pastime in the minds of the people of Sydney who up to the present have known no other method than that of roller skating.”
The timeline below shows some of the ice rinks operating in Australia prior to the 1970s. All Ice Rinks opened prior to the 1970s are closed, leaving Canterbury Olympic Ice Rink, the longest running ice rink in Australia. It opened it 1971, and will soon be celebrating its 50 year anniversary.
1904-1908 Adelaide Glaciarium
1906-1923 Melbourne Glaciarium
1907-1955 Sydney Glaciarium
1938-1951 Ice Palais – Sydney Showground
1939-1981 St Moritz Ice Rink – Melbourne
1949-1955 Perth Ice Palais
1959-1996/7 Prince Alfred Park ice skating rink – Sydney
1960-1963 Bondi Junction Ice Rink
1963-late 1970s Hindley Street Ice Skating Rink – Adelaide
1963-1982 Premier Ice Rink – Perth
1964-1969 Burwood Glaciarium
Canterbury Ice Rink – The Ice Skating Club of NSW Co-Operative Ltd – A HISTORY
Carpenter, Ross (2007). Henry Newman Reid MSE (London) AMIE (Aust.) – 1862-1947. Accessed on: 20 November 2016 from http://icelegendsaustralia.com/FAI.html
Carpenter, Ross (2007). History of ice skating rinks Ice & refrigeration systems. Accessed on: 20 November 2016 from http://iceskatingresources.org/Ice&RefrigerationSystems.pdf
Carpenter, Ross (2007). The Glaciarium (1906-1957), Southgate, Melbourne: Cradle of Australian Ice Hockey. Accessed on: 20 November 2016 from http://icelegendsaustralia.com/glaci.html
Carpenter, Ross (2013). Dunbar Poole 1877-1954. Accessed on: 20 November 2016 from http://icelegendsaustralia.com/poole.html
Celebrating 100 years of Figure Skating in Australia 1904-2004 – Skating Centenary: Australian Figure Skating Championships Sydney 2004
Hood, Sam (1940). Interior of the Glaciarium Ice Rink, Sydney, May 1940. Accessed on: 20 November 2016 from https://www.flickr.com/photos/statelibraryofnsw/5802788800/in/photostream/
Ice Skating Melbourne (2016). The history of ice skating in Australia. Accessed on: 20 November 2016 from https://www.tellmeabout.com.au/the-history-of-ice-skating-in-australia/
Langton, Wendy (2016) Personal conversations.
Morgan, David. Speed Skating – a background. Accessed on: 20 November 2016 from http://www.iceracingnsw.org.au/pdfs/History_of_Speed_Skating_DM.pdf
O’Connor, Reina, (2004). Ice Skating in SA. Accessed on: 20 November 2016 from http://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/th/read/AUS-SAGEN/2004-02/1077494906
Punch Newspaper (1906). The Glaciarium. Accessed on: 20 November 2016 from http://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/175375977
Sticks and Stones (2016). Ice Hockey in Adelaide.. Hindley Street where it all began in earnest. Accessed on: 20 November 2016 from http://www.freewebs.com/fkutsche/hindleyst196070s.htm
Sunday Times Newspaper (1907). The Glaciarium. Accessed on: 20 November 2016 from http://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/126260442
Sydney Figure Skating Club (2016). About Us. Accessed on: 20 November 2016 from http://sydneyfigureskatingclub.com/about-us/
The Official Site of New South Wales Ice Hockey, (2011). History. Accessed on: 20 November 2016 from http://www.nswicehockey.com.au/history.aspx
The Sydney Morning Herald Newspaper (1907). The Glaciarium. Accessed on: 20 November 2016 from http://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/14878833