Beneath the floor of the Product Design and Technology building lies a forgotten chapter of Carey’s sporting innovation – a purpose-built indoor rowing pool designed to bring the river to the School. Once central to our rowing program, this pool is still intact but is now concealed as a classroom, as a secret piece of Carey history, hiding in plain sight.
The pool was the brainchild of Mr Arthur Smith, who joined the Senior School staff in 1961 and was appointed Master in Charge of Rowing just two years later. With the school newly competing in the Associated Public Schools (APS) rowing competition, the pressure to train more intensively grew. Regular access to the Yarra River remained logistically challenging, especially given Carey’s distance from the river. Arthur Smith had an ambitious solution: build a rowing pool on campus.
Thanks to the dedication and generosity of Carey rowing families who helped raise the $4000 needed, the facility opened on Saturday 17 September 1966. The covered training pool was unlike anything seen at schools in Victoria at the time. A four-oared boat was mounted inside a specially constructed concrete pool, designed to simulate actual rowing conditions. Boys could train at lunchtime or after school, learning how to sit in a boat and develop their stroke technique – all before ever setting foot in a shell on the river.
Named in honour of Arthur Smith for his years of dedication to developing rowing at Carey, the facility was an immediate success and a source of pride for the Carey community. It allowed focussed, consistent training in a safe and supervised environment and quickly became a key part of Carey’s rowing program.
Though the pool was in active use for only a decade, the need for it faded by 1975 when Carey gained access to the Yarra Yarra Rowing Club sheds at Princes Bridge – and at last, a home of our own. With proper toilet and shower facilities and direct river access, the new arrangement made onsite training less essential.
Today, the concrete base and sides of the pool still exist, quietly preserved within the Product Design and Technology building. The space that once echoed with the splash of blades and shouted coaching instructions now hums with the creativity of Carey students working with tools and technology.
Yet, hidden beneath the floor is a striking reminder of Carey’s inventive spirit – and of a rowing master who brought the river to the School.
Helen Wolff
Archivist, Community Engagement
