ACT Heritage Library Manuscript Collections

HMSS 0373 CANBERRA ANGLERS' ASSOCIATION RECORDS 

Scope and Content Notes 

The Anglers’ Club was formed in Canberra on 30 October 1929, although there had for some years been a club in Queanbeyan. The Canberra club’s first task was to try to remove some of the anomalies connected with the Fishing Ordinance, in particular the NSW clubs’ right to fish in ACT streams a month before the season opened in the Territory. Another aim was to establish a trout hatchery in the ACT to restock the depleted waterways; the first release, of 100,000 hatchlings, was in November 1930. The Club was still in existence in 1934 but apparently ceased soon afterwards.

In November 1944 the Canberra Times ran an article on the founding of the club, evidently prompting George Westcott to inquire into its history. Finding very little, he convened a meeting on 15 October 1945 to form a new club, The Canberra Anglers Association. A list of founding members is included with the first minutes.

Like its predecessor, the Association maintained a close relationship with Territory administrators in relation to fish stocks, habitat and fishing areas.  It conducts competitions and classes, and in 1994 members began fly casting lessons on the reflecting ponds in front of Old Parliament House.

The collection consists of minutes of the general and annual general meetings of the Association from 15 October 1945 to 29 August 1957, and loose manuscript and typescript copies of a report by the Executive in July 1966.

The records come from the estate of the late Claude Ambrose Burns. 

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