Stawell Easter Gift

Every Easter thousands of runners and athletics fans from all over Australia and all points of the globe make the annual pilgrimage to Central Park in Stawell for one of the world’s most famous and prestigious foot races, the Stawell Gift.


The Victorian Railways was well placed to transport patrons to event as Central Park is only a short walk from Stawell Railway station.

B81-B67 on 8150 Horsham - Melbourne pass.

 

Run on grass, athletes are handicapped according to form and ability, and start off varying marks accordingly. Runners race for glory and prize money with many more dollars working their way through the bookies ring. For the sprint events, the athletes run in lanes that are separated by lane ropes, not painted lines. The main race is the Stawell Gift which is run over 120m up a slight gradient, and the final is traditionally held on Easter Monday.


Easter Monday’s operating session included two trains serving the race. The Horsham-Melbourne pass for the day was run as a double consist, consisting of 2 N sets. This was hauled by twin B class. The consist was ACN-BRN-BN-ACN-BN-BN-VBPY-VLPY.

The special utilised a spare Kyneton set of CW-AW-BW-BW built up with spare carriages to a six-car train of CW-AE-AW-BW-BW-BW. This was the first use of wooden carriages west of Ballarat for some months. The train was hauled by a first series X class and ran only as far as Stawell, stabling in the yard during the day.

X31 on Stawell Gift special consisting of BW-BW-BW-AW-AE-CW

The winner of the gift in 1983 was a D.W O’Brien from East Bentleigh with a time of 12.22 seconds.