History
Historical records indicate that as early as 1880, a vibrant skating club was already active in Alexandra. Interestingly, permission had been granted to establish a skating pond on the Recreational Reserve (situated near the centre of the town) during that time.
Operating under the name of the Alexandra Winter Sports Club and situated at Manorburn Dam, this location has hosted numerous regional and national ice skating championships throughout the years.
It’s remarkable to reflect on the modest beginnings of skating in a country not typically associated with winter sports. This serves as a powerful reminder that every story has its origins and grows steadily from the foundation up.
Alexandra Ice Skating Pioneers
The pioneers of skating had originally to depend chiefly on small lagoons and ponds for their rinks, the two dams at that time on the Manorburn providing only a short season. Some winters there was only half a day’s skating, while it seldom extended over a month. For the remainder of the winter the skaters were compelled to fall back on the lagoons and ponds which abound in the old diggings.
< Image Top: Skating and playing hookey on a frozen dam (1903), Alexandra. Source: Papers Past
< Image Bottom: Skating on the Half-Mile Dam, Near Alexandra (1923). Source: Papers Past
Alexandra Ice Skating Pioneers
The pioneers of skating had originally to depend chiefly on small lagoons and ponds for their rinks, the two dams at that time on the Manorburn providing only a short season. Some winters there was only half a day’s skating, while it seldom extended over a month. For the remainder of the winter the skaters were compelled to fall back on the lagoons and ponds which abound in the old diggings.
< Image Top: Skating and playing hookey on a frozen dam (1903), Alexandra. Source: Papers Past
< Image Bottom: Skating on the Half-Mile Dam, Near Alexandra (1923). Source: Papers Past
Notable Local Skaters of Alexandra from the 1800's
First Skaters at the Dam
1934 Lower Manorburn Dam
The Lower Manorburn Dam was once one of the most popular places for ice skating in New Zealand.
People have been skating on the Manorburn Dam since the first winter following it’s construction in 1934.
Image: First Skaters. Source: SkateGuard >
First Skaters at the Dam
1934 Lower Manorburn Dam
The Lower Manorburn Dam was once one of the most popular places for ice skating in New Zealand.
People have been skating on the Manorburn Dam since the first winter following it’s construction in 1934.
Image: First Skaters. Source: SkateGuard >
Alexandra Winter Sports Club Founded
1935 Keen Locals Club Together
The Alexandra Winter Sports Club was established the following year in 1935, two years before the New Zealand Ice Skating Association was founded in 1937.
The Winter Sports Club held an annual ice carnival from these early years.
< Image: AWSC Lapel Pin. Source: Te Papa
Alexandra Winter Sports Club Founded
1935 Keen Locals Club Together
The Alexandra Winter Sports Club was established the following year in 1935, two years before the New Zealand Ice Skating Association was founded in 1937.
The Winter Sports Club held an annual ice carnival from these early years.
< Image: AWSC Lapel Pin. Source: Te Papa
First New Zealand Ice Championships
1939 AWSC Honoured to Host Nationals
Alexandra Winter Sports Club hosted the very first New Zealand Ice Championships, the dam providing an icefield of about 60 acres. Two thousand spectators watched the activities of about 1,000 skaters.
Competitions were held for both men and women in both speed and figure skating.
Image: Ice skating on the Lower Manorburn Dam, Alexandra (1939. Source: Papers Past >
First New Zealand Ice Championships
1939 AWSC Honoured to Host Nationals
Alexandra Winter Sports Club hosted the very first New Zealand Ice Championships, the dam providing an icefield of about 60 acres. Two thousand spectators watched the activities of about 1,000 skaters.
Competitions were held for both men and women in both speed and figure skating.
Image: Ice skating on the Lower Manorburn Dam, Alexandra (1939. Source: Papers Past >
“In the brilliant sunshine of Central Otago, some 2,000 people watched the first New Zealand Ice Championships, which were held on Saturday 22nd, at the Manorburn Dam, Alexandra, on a magnificent icefield covering 60 acres and extending for two miles and a-half. It is an ice sports field which for expanse and accessibility is probably unexcelled in New Zealand. A more picturesque setting could hardly be imagined. From the rocky crags forming a natural grandstand, the spectators looked across a basin of sun-drenched ice, on which, between events, about 1,000 skaters wove an animated pattern full of colour, the skates flashing in the sun. On the brown slopes above were grouped the 300 cars, trucks and other vehicles which, with the help of taxis, brought most of the participants to the scene, the remainder arriving on bicycles or on foot. It was a perfect day, and the refreshment booths did a roaring trade in hot pies and saveloys.”
Otago Daily Times JUly 1939. Source: Papers Past
1) Alex Robertson (Oturehua), winner of the Figure
Skating Championship. 2) The start of the second
heat of the Mile and a-Half Championship. 3) Sadie
Cameron winner of the Women’s Figure Skating
Championship. 4) Ngaire Jones (Poolburn) and Vera
Weir (RANF) competing Three-quarters of a Mile
event. 5) Corinne Gilkison (Dunedin) winning the
three-quarters of a Mile Championship. 6) from the
left: Mrs Graham Rivers (Alexandra), Rena
Simpson, Sybil Henderson and Daphne Small
(Dunedin) on the ice. 7) Edith Bruce, Jane Taylor-
Canon, Phyllis Hogg, Violet Sanders, and Nancy
McDonnell form a “crocodile.” 8) Mr W.R. Sinclair
and a partner. 9) Mr and Mrs Allen Knowles
(Balclutha), Billie Jopp (Dunedin), Lillian Sorrell
(Alexandra), Messrs R. J. Murphy and D. F. Stewart
(Alexandra) preparing to go on the ice.
< Image: Snapshots, New Zealand Ice Skating Championships (1939). Source: Papers Past
1) Alex Robertson (Oturehua), winner of the Figure
Skating Championship. 2) The start of the second
heat of the Mile and a-Half Championship. 3) Sadie
Cameron winner of the Women’s Figure Skating
Championship. 4) Ngaire Jones (Poolburn) and Vera
Weir (RANF) competing Three-quarters of a Mile
event. 5) Corinne Gilkison (Dunedin) winning the
three-quarters of a Mile Championship. 6) from the
left: Mrs Graham Rivers (Alexandra), Rena
Simpson, Sybil Henderson and Daphne Small
(Dunedin) on the ice. 7) Edith Bruce, Jane Taylor-
Canon, Phyllis Hogg, Violet Sanders, and Nancy
McDonnell form a “crocodile.” 8) Mr W.R. Sinclair
and a partner. 9) Mr and Mrs Allen Knowles
(Balclutha), Billie Jopp (Dunedin), Lillian Sorrell
(Alexandra), Messrs R. J. Murphy and D. F. Stewart
(Alexandra) preparing to go on the ice.
< Image: Snapshots, New Zealand Ice Skating Championships (1939). Source: Papers Past
“The Lower Manorburn Dam provides one of the finest stretches of ice in the Dominion, and during the six years it has been built thousands of ice-skating enthusiasts from north and south have made use of it for their sport. Undoubtedly Alexandra is rapidly becoming the leading ice-skating centre of the Dominion. The rather bleak surroundings have been improved by the local Winter Sports Club by the provision of a large parking area for cars, improved approaches, and electric lighting for night skating. “
Evening Star Article, 1939. Source: Papers Past
The War Years
1940-1945 Informal Ice Carnivals
Unfortunately, due to World War II, no National Skating Championships were held after the 1939 ones until 1946.
in July 1943, Sadie impressed a crowd of six hundred at an ice carnival on Manorburn Dam which featured a relay race, hockey game, and exhibition skating. The Alexandra Herald And Central Otago Gazette noted, “There were no dull moments.” She continued to perform exhibitions in these informal ice carnivals throughout the War.
ʌ Ice Carnival (1943) Source: Past Papers
< Images: Manorburn Dam c.1940. Source: Hocken Collection, University of Otago
The War Years
1940-1945 Informal Ice Carnivals
Unfortunately, due to World War II, no National Skating Championships were held after the 1939 ones until 1946.
in July 1943, Sadie impressed a crowd of six hundred at an ice carnival on Manorburn Dam which featured a relay race, hockey game, and exhibition skating. The Alexandra Herald And Central Otago Gazette noted, “There were no dull moments.” She continued to perform exhibitions in these informal ice carnivals throughout the War.
ʌ Ice Carnival (1943) Source: Past Papers
< Images: Manorburn Dam c.1940. Source: Hocken Collection, University of Otago
Alexandra Winter Sports Club Ice Carnival at Manorburn Dam 1946
Footage shows locals in fancy dress showing off their figure skating and racing skills, and having a lot of fun and features ‘Some Enchanted Evening’ sung by Perry Como.
Nancy Swarbrick, ‘Ice sports – Ice skating’. Source: Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand
.
The 50’s & 60’s
During the 1950’s and 1960’s dozens of buses would travel from Invercargill and Dunedin filled with skaters to enjoy Lower Manorburn dam and further N.Z.I.S.A. Figure Skating Championships were held here.
Speed Skating
A record crowd of cars and people packed the Manorburn Dam for the New Zealand Ice skating Championships of July 1959.
ʌ Image: Front skaters the ‘flying Dutchmen’, the Belt brothers, who won all speed events. Bill Belt and Jan Belt in the 200m, third place Jan Havenaar. Source: Genealogy Christchurch
Skaters of Manorburn Dam, Alexandra
The 70’s & 80’s
The outdoor rink was built next to the dam and used by the Club until the new rink was built in town. Work on this rink at Manorburn started in 1969. In 1980 the last National Championships to be held on natural and outdoor ice were held on the Manorburn Dam.
“Growing up in Alexandra in the early 1970s it was the family thing to go ice skating on the Manorburn Dam, a short drive from town. It was a very social occasion, with heaps of the rest of Alexandra there too, daytime and after dark too. You could either go on the natural ice of the dam itself, or restrict yourself to the artificial rink. Even in those days was I impressed with the nonchalance that a Massey-Ferguson tractor was driven over the ice.”
Comment by Mike Pole. Source: MikePole
The End of an Era
1990-1993 Pastures New
The decision to move into town was mainly for economic reasons. The rink needed extensive upgrading, and it was either upgrade or move. With more mums in the work force, and the changes in lifestyle, it was hard getting the kids out to the rink which was 10km from town.
The local council provided the leasehold land in Molyneux Park, Alexandra. A model of the original Iceinline facility was designed by Aad van Leeuwen and was crafted by Doug Brown in 1991 complete with two rinks – the existing one and the new one.
A two-storey pavilion was part of the model, but was only built to one level when Iceinline was established in 1992.
Image Source: Hocken Collection, University of Otago >
The End of an Era
1990-1993 Pastures New
The decision to move into town was mainly for economic reasons. The rink needed extensive upgrading, and it was either upgrade or move. With more mums in the work force, and the changes in lifestyle, it was hard getting the kids out to the rink which was 10km from town.
The local council provided the leasehold land in Molyneux Park, Alexandra. A model of the original Iceinline facility was designed by Aad van Leeuwen and was crafted by Doug Brown in 1991 complete with two rinks – the existing one and the new one.
A two-storey pavilion was part of the model, but was only built to one level when Iceinline was established in 1992.
Image Source: Hocken Collection, University of Otago >
Molyneux Park
1993 – Present Day
The new outdoor Olympic (60m x 30m) sized ice rink was opened in 1993. We’re the biggest outdoor rink in the Southern hemisphere and still going from strength to strength.
The new Indoor Curling Rink facility brings aspects of the original concept to fruition.
Alexia Johnston (May 2021) Rink boost for curling. Source: The News Central Otago
< Image: Cromwell Primary School
Molyneux Park
1993 – Present Day
The new outdoor Olympic (60m x 30m) sized ice rink was opened in 1993. We’re the biggest outdoor rink in the Southern hemisphere and still going from strength to strength.
The new Indoor Curling Rink facility brings aspects of the original concept to fruition.
Alexia Johnston (May 2021) Rink boost for curling. Source: The News Central Otago
< Image: Cromwell Primary School
Read about present day developments
Sources & Further Reading
Rhona Whitehouse (1987) History of the N.Z.I.S.A (Inc.) 50th Jubilee. Source: NZISA
Ryan Stevens (2018) Gold In Alexandra: The Sadie Cameron Story. Source: Skate Guard
Ryan Stevens (2015) The 1939 New Zealand Figure Skating Championships. Source: Skate Guard
Fiona Atkinson (2021) 90 Years of Speed Skating in New Zealand. Source: Genealogy Christchurch
Do you have any interesting photos or sources of information that would enhance this historical account of Alexandra Winter Sports Club and provide a more comprehensive narrative? Please reach out to us to contribute.
