A Brief History of the Flinton Race Club Inc

In 1840, Flinton was the Tara Shire’s first recorded European Settlement, even prior to Leichhardt’s journey in 1847.  It is the shire’s earliest gazetted township. During the intervening period, the population has fluctuated, and the town once boasted a school, active tennis, cricket and football teams, shop, post office, hall, church, and the Flinton Races – there is still a church and Race Club.

The Flinton Race club has been holding races since the late 1890’s – and like most race meeting of that era were grass fed horses and held over two days. The horses would be bought to the race track the week prior to the race meeting and placed in the care of a member whose duty it was to alleviate any chance of nobbling or giving a horse any unfair advantage of winning the race.  Local stockmen rode the horses. The race day was a huge social event even then, as it is today. Patrons would travel long distances to attend and as the mode of transport was horse and buggy the meeting were held over two days with a dance in the middle. The beer was kept cold by placing it in sugar bags and placed in the Moonie River.

The race club has had a few name changes during the intervening period, being known as The Ridge in the early days, then became the  Moonie River Race Club and was changed to the Flinton Race Club in the 1990’s.  The club became registered in 1912 and has held races annually and bi-annually since then. It has had a chequered history, but throughout its long history, the many hours of voluntary labour provided by the members has kept this club functioning. The race course was surveyed by one of our members grandfather (Jack Mulckey). Other member’s families have been associated with the club for many years. We have members who have been associated with the Club for over 60 years, and one (Ted Fitzgerald) still attends working bees and starts making phone calls to get us moving 8 weeks before a race meeting.

In the 1950’s a new hall was built to replace the previous one which was on stilts and had to be tied to a tree with guy ropes to stop it falling over. Parts of the old hall were used in the construction of the new hall, wood was milled locally and members donated monies to fund the building and buy fittings.

In more recent times, the race days have become popular with attendance exceeding 1,000. When Queensland Racing axed many small clubs, the Flinton Race Club was one of the unlucky ones. We did not race for that year, but undeterred the secretary wrote many letters to officials in State and Federal governments and Queensland Racing, and spoke to whoever would listen – and some who tried not to listen – and the following year were given the green light to hold a race day providing we self-funded. This means that we have to raise all the money ourselves for prize money of $24,000. The generous support of our sponsors has made this possible and without their continued support, Flinton Races would not be able to succeed. Trainers are keen to support us as well, and the Club received record nominations last year. With the continuing axing of race meetings, it is necessary to have a united support for all clubs.

Thank you to our Sponsors :

Proudly Sponsoring Fireworks