THIS March, Mansfield resident Val Kirley will attend her 80th Tolmie Sports Day as she reflects on memories of the years passed and how the event has changed over time; some traditions still remain very much the same.
Val first competed in the sports at the age 14 in the equestrian event and up until ten years ago she continued to ride every year.
She started riding horses at a young age and got her very own horse at the age of twelve.
“My first memory of horse-riding is just sitting there,” Val said.
“When I was little Mum would know which gate Dad was coming through at lunch time.
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“We lived on Preston station at the time, which is out under the weir now.
“When she’d let me out I'd run up and sit on the gate post, and then when he was coming past I’d hop on the back of the horse and come home with him.”
As a child, Val was fascinated with horses and looked up to her Dad Bill Stewart who competed at the sports.
“We always had horses, and my Dad was a stockman,” Val said.
“He rode up until his eighties.
“From what I remember of the sports, you watched the horses and hoped that one day that might be you up there riding.”
Val’s father was involved in the pony club when it first started.
“All the horses were loaded onto a big cattle truck and taken up, and then we went to our first sports,” Val said.
“It was special, and I remember it was wonderful to be doing something that you’ve dreamt about.
“The kids were different back then and they didn’t have all of the flash stuff that the kids have got today.
“It was something that I’d always wanted to do and I enjoyed trying lots of new things, despite not being very good at them.
“I had a lot of fun and made a lot of memories.”
Tolmie Sports Day used to be different in the early days.
“Where the ladies had the tearooms there were some big wooden posts with hessian bag stuff draped around them on the roof of gum leaves to keep it cool,” Val said.
“The ladies would boil big old washing copper out the back to heat the water up to make tea, and they made all the sandwiches which were wonderful.
“Wonderful hard workers,” Val said.
“The ladies wore their best outfits and dressed up while the men would wear shirts and ties.
“If we saw a man in a shirt and tie now you’d have a second look and wonder what he was doing.”
Val said that the popular Axemen woodchop event started off the back of the logging industry in Mansfield.
“It would’ve happened right from the beginning, because how did you get a tree down years ago?, you felled it with an axe and cross-cut and there was a timber mill up there,” Val said.
“The men they had a lot of physical work when they were trimming the chopping blocks.
“They did all of the work that went before.
“It’s not mechanical like it is now.
“It spurred on from I suppose somebody challenging Jack and him challenging Bob, and Bob saying he can do it quicker or faster and it might’ve just started like that.”
There used to be good running races years ago, such as the Sheffield handicap and the old buffers race.
“It was a great thing for those who were fifty and over,” Val said.
“They were old blokes - of course we were kids, so we thought they were old and - now I’ve got kids older.
“Because the men had been down at the bar at the refreshments end they’d be a bit wobbly by the time they lined up to race.
“It used to be quite funny, but they don’t do it like that now, however they still have them running races and things for the kids and novelty games.”
Val’s five children no longer participate in the sports day, but a lot them were successful over the years.
There were five generations of boys in the wood chopping and and four generations of girls in the horse events.
“I can’t name them all, because there were just quite a lot of them, but young Jason from down at Alexandra got put into an Australian under 21 team, so they’ve been good.
“Then Madison Kirley who’d be a niece has been the first girl to compete in the wood chopping as well now,” Val said.
Tolmie Sports Day has evolved as a result of the hard work of multiple families in the area.
“The Brond family have been involved with it since the first sports, and it was the same in my life through my grandparents,” Val said.
“The Walsh family had connections all the way through but then the new people will come and they have new ideas.
“I remember the oldies saying well that will never work, but it did.
“They’re wonderful hard workers, so I don’t know how the oldies would cope if they came back today.”
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“From what I remember of the sports, you watched the horses and hoped that one day that might be you up there riding.”
