Perth Voice Interactive

PADDLERS from Australia’s oldest dragon boat team will be jetting off to Hong Kong to compete at the International Dragon Boat Festival in June. 

Twenty-four athletes from the Fremantle Swan Dragon Boat Club will be competing against 4000 athletes from over 170 international teams. 

FSDBC president Wade Spackman says the club has a longstanding tradition of attending the festival in Hong Kong, which he says is the “biggest competition” in the region. 

World stage

“On the world stage, you can compete in Canada, the USA, Italy,” Mr Spackman listed, “and we’ve been to Penang, Macau, China.

“Hong Kong is definitely the hub of dragon boating though.”

The oldest functioning club in Australia, the FSDBC was founded in 1981 by David Blackley.

Based at the Swan Yacht Club in East Freo, they didn’t actually have a dragon boat in their possession so used a decorated surf boat to train.  

They’ve come far, however. 

The club competes at state, national regattas and international regattas, but this year marks eight years since Fremantle was represented in Hong Kong. 

They’d planned to travel to the Festival in 2021 for their 40th anniversary but were prevented by WA’s border closures during Covid. 

“It’s been on the cards for a good five or six years,” Mr Spackman said.

Rosalie and Stewart Routledge will be flying to Hong Kong in honour of their husband and father, Kim, a founding member of the club and its first coach and captain, who died in 2022. 

As a kid, Mr Routledge grew up around the club while his dad was coaching, and even represented the team as its kangaroo mascot in Hong Kong in 1985. 

Cooler

“Paddling would have been lot cooler than hopping around in the Hong Kong heat in the Skippy uniform,” Mr Routledge laughed. 

“There’s going to be hundreds of teams competing in Hong Kong this year, compared to what was just a very small number when I was there in 1985,” he said. 

“You can sense the team’s excitement.”

Mr Routledge says he and his mum Rosalie are “really excited” to be able to join the team and “carry on the tradition” of their involvement with the club. 

“It’s not easy to get everyone at a small club banded together internationally to compete,” Mr Routledge said. 

“It’s a great effort for the heavily involved members who’ve been pushing forward and driving for this to happen.”

The Fremantle Swan Dragon Boat Club will be competing at the Hong Kong International Dragon Boat Festival on June 15-16.

by KATHERINE KRAAYVANGER