Lorne Victoria Australia

The small flat area on Lorne’s foreshore was the centre of the early town where the pioneers forged our history. The Flat as it became known, was the hub, where everyone gathered for the town’s events and it often became a soaked quagmire during heavy storms. The flat area on the foreshore was used for cricket and football, before it was moved up the hill to Stribling Reserve. Brass bands like the Colac Salvation Army Band, played on a bandstand built on The Flat in the early 1920s.

Football was played in Lorne on The Flat during the 1880s and the local boys matched it with teams from the sawmills and later, guesthouses. The bandstand was used as a dressing room. It was not unusual for the match to be delayed while someone (usually the umpire), swam into the surf to retrieve the ball. Until a sea wall was erected in the 1930s creeping sand dunes posed almost as big a problem to players as the droppings from the Alsops cattle and sheep.

Before Lorne’s central car park was constructed on the foreshore flat, most of the town’s sporting activities took place there, as it was the largest level area in the township. The local butcher grazed sheep to keep the grass down and a warning bell housed in a wooden tower on the beach side of The Flat was rung if anyone was in trouble in the surf. The area was also popular for Joy Flights in biplanes in 1915, but during the 1930’s they were conducted on the beach near the river. The Flat remains the central focal point of the town today.

Lil Beaurepaire ran the Carinya guesthouse, behind the present day Cumberland Resort and in her ‘hey day’ was a renowned Olympic swimming medallist. It is said that she wore a swimming costume beneath her dress on hot days and on hearing the emergency bell ringing on the foreshore, like a comic book super hero, she would run down the hill and remove her dress while pounding out into the surf to save whoever was in distress. Lil was credited with saving many people from drowning and in the early 1930’s she attracted large crowds with her diving exhibitions from a board erected on the Lorne pier.

1906

Lorne ‘The Flat’, showing the Band Stand, Football goal posts, Drowning Bell tower. c1928

 

Cricket match on ‘The Flat’, Drowning Bell Tower c1940s (LHS photo 53 L)

 

1956, showing Fun Parlor, Kiosk and cricket pitch. (LHS photo 1612)

 

1884, Lorne football team on the foreshore. (LHS photo 1842)

1886, Football on The Flat (LHS photo 1841)

Lorne foreshore had a large car park,  tennis courts, trampolines and bowl club. The Lorne Bowls Club on The Flat was closed in 2002 when the Lorne Foreshore Committee needed to create a car park on the site. The Lorne Foreshore Committee financed the bulk of the construction of a new club on the Erskine House croquet lawn. 

Sources:

  • Lorne Historical Society Collections
  • Lorne A Living History by Doug Stirling