Oakbank Racing Club , formerly the Onkaparinga Racing Club , is a thoroughbred horse racing organization in South Australia . It is responsible for the Oakbank Racecourse and running the events of the Easter Racing Carnival on that course, culminating in the Great Eastern Steeplechase.
7-578: The Oakbank course had its origins in 1867, when a handful of enthusiasts, with the support of James and Andrew Johnston , proprietors of the Oakbank Brewery, decided to lay a track alongside the brewery for their own entertainment. Those involved were Andrew Johnston, William Tucker, Robert Correll (the local blacksmith), Michael Mullins, Frank Inglis, Thomas Ball and Seth Ferry . Other early supporters were Alfred von Doussa and Dr. Hermann Esau JP. Facilities at their meetings were makeshift: Dr. Esau, who
14-534: A virus in the yeast, and therefore both turned to making soft drinks and cordials instead. Johnston's Cordial is still a popular soft drink brand, and one of South Australia's oldest family-owned businesses. The Dorset brewery site now produces hand-woven textiles. Oakbank is well known for the Oakbank Easter Racing Carnival . Held over two days during the Easter weekend, thousands of visitors come to see
21-571: The 2006 census , Oakbank had a population of 473. The town was founded in about 1840 by Scottish brothers James and Andrew Johnston. The Johnstons had come out to South Australia on the East Indiaman Buckinghamshire in 1839, and by the following year were opening up the country in the Onkaparinga Valley near the present site of the township. The Johnston family hailed from Oakbank, Scotland district, and hence decided to name
28-658: The auspices of the Club was held on 6 April 1878. Stewards included Andrew Johnston (1827–1886) and J. D. Johnston. The programme consisted of: The name of the Club was changed from "Onkaparinga Racing Club" to "Oakbank Racing Club" late in the 20th century. Oakbank, South Australia Oakbank is a town in the Adelaide Hills , east of Adelaide in South Australia . It is in the Adelaide Hills Council area. At
35-575: The new township Oakbank. A large oak tree that still stands in the main street of the town was reportedly grown from an acorn carried to Australia by one of the brothers James and Andrew Johnston founded the J. & A.G. Johnston brewery in 1845, tapping an underground spring fed by the Onkaparinga River . A second brewery was built by Henry Pike in 1889, which he named the Dorset Brewery. Both breweries were forced to shut down in 1938 due to
42-574: The programme on Easter Monday 17 April 1876, and repeated the following Easter Monday, 2 April 1877 as the Great Eastern Steeplechase , which continues to this day. Following the success of those events, a meeting held at Woodside on 20 April 1877, Dr. Esau presiding, determined on the formation of an Onkaparinga Racing Club to conduct races under rules of the South Australian Jockey Club . The first race meeting held under
49-464: Was nearly always the judge, would stand on a brewery wagon, and the grandstand would consist of two or three brewers' vans drawn up together. A race meeting was held on a paddock belonging to Lauterbach and Dohnt in 1868, but reverted to the Johnston property the following year. Picnic races were held on Easter Monday annually from 1873. The first Onkaparinga Handicap Steeplechase was run as part of
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