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Today Queanbeyan is a town with a poulation of over 30,000 people. It has a proud rural-based history beginning its life in the early 1800s as pastoral settlement. Located near the junction of the Queanbeyan and Molonglo Rivers, Queanbeyan became a natural stopping place for travelers on their way to the Monaro and later the Snowy Mountain districts. "Quinbean" was the aboriginal word for clear waters. Match races between horses in the district were held from the 1850's. The first documentation of an official race meeting at Queanbeyan was recorded in The Golden Age in 1860. The local countryside is very undulating and it proved difficult to find a site for a racecourse. However, in 1885, land was reserved to the north of the town by the New South Wales (NSW) State government and set aside for the sport of thoroughbred racing. Racing in the early 1900s was very much a bush affair and was not always regular. However, following World War II, the Club developed rapidly, assisted by the wealth of regional agriculture and population growth in Canberra - Australia's newly established Capital City. Canberra is only a few minutes from the racecourse, across the (NSW), Australian Capital Territory (ACT) borders. Queanbeyan is "Country Racing In The City". Today, Queanbeyan is one of the strongest and progressive country racing clubs in NSW, holding 25 meetings a year, and distributing more than $1,000,000 to thoroughbred owners in prizemoney. In 1999-2000, 12 of these meetings are "TAB meetings" covered by all of Australia's State and Territory TABs. Live racing is beamed into TAB's, casinos, sports clubs and homes (pay TV) through SkyChannel. |
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