Convicts & Colonials: Sports

Until 1848 there had been no organised sport of any kind in Ipswich. There had been race meetings occasionally in Brisbane, from 1841 to June 1847, when annual race meetings began. It was chiefly the squatters of the Ipswich district who with their horses, took part in the Brisbane races. The squatters planned to have their own annual races in Ipswich, so a committee was formed to collect funds for that purpose. On May 9, 1848, 50 pounds were subscribed within a few hours. But no races were held until near the end of that year.

On Christmas Eve, there were many bushmen in Ipswich, from outside districts. There was much '"fun and frolic," but no un-ruliness. Boxing Day was a day of sport. The chief event being horse racing. 

The race meeting of 1848 did not become an annual event as intended; so a meeting was held in the Queen's Arms Hotel on January 19, 1850. It was then decided to hold annual horse racing for the first time on Tuesday June 11. [1]

North Australian Races
The first mention of the The North Australian Races appeared in The Moreton Bay Courier on 12 March 1853. The three day event included The North Australian Stakes, Maiden Plate, Welter Stakes, Hurdle Race, Hack Hurdle Race, Hurry Scurry Stakes, Squatters' Plate, Publican's Purse, Ladies Purse and Consolation Stakes.

The Moreton Bay Courier of 2 April 1853 reported on the Ipswich Races:

A programme in our advertising columns shows that our friends at Ipswich are determined that no efforts on their part shall be wanting, to give eclat to the forthcoming "North Australian Races;" as these unassuming gentlemen, with characteristic modesty, designate their annual Turf meeting. They are certainly worthy of much praise for the spirit with which they have set about the present preparations; and the chief prize is a very creditable amount. The course at Ipswich is an excellent one, and the position being tolerably centrical, these sports seem likely to be established on a firm and lasting basis. The great difficulty that attended the promotion of horse racing at Moreton Bay in the early days of its free settlement, arose from the exclusiveness of its rules; none but gentlemen being ostensibly permitted to ride, although in reality we have seen some of the veriest snobs in creation donning the coloured cap and jacket at those meetings. But that foolish mistake has now been remedied, and our fellow colonists in Ipswich and its vicinity, having certainly eclipsed Brisbane in racing matters, can well afford to acknowledge that there the first blow as given to the exclusive system in racing - and a hard matter it was to strike that blow. At the Ipswich meeting we observe that there is but one race - the Hurdle Race - devoted to gentlemen riders. This is as it should be, and ought to be perfectly satisfactory to all parties. 

First Cricket Club Formed
The first cricket club formed in Ipswich had twenty members. The first game by the club was on Monday October 23, 1848. After sufficient practice, the club intended to challenge the Brisbane club. There is no information of cricket between that date and June 22, 1850, when the Squatters' Eleven and the Ipswich Cricket Club played.

Another club was formed in Ipswich in 1857. It was known as the North Australian Cricket Club. At that time, to the Bank of New South Wales and the Bank of Australasia in Ipswich, there had been appointed several staff members from Maitland and Launceston, where cricket was very advanced. Those bank staff members, on arrival in Ipswich, promptly formed a club and challenged the Moreton Bay Club, of Brisbane. [2]