CBooth1A tribute by Kath Gannaway
CHARLIE Booth made his last trip to Healesville racecourse earlier this year – at 104.
The war had just started when he and wife Cassie moved from Melbourne to Healesville for the health of their baby son Neville.
They set up a guesthouse and it wasn’t long before Charlie had sparked a campaign to get a racecourse up and running.
At Healesville race meetings, as he was at sporting events such as the Stawell Gift, the Kooyong Classic and all levels of athletics events throughout the country, he was feted, not for his healthy longevity – though that always amazed – but for the contribution he made to sport.
And, because he was so very charming, I was privileged to be on the receiving end of that charm in 2004 when I visited Charlie at his Hawthorn home.
I’d phoned to ask him about the racecourse and he said “pop down on Tuesday and I’ll tell you about it.”
He was only 102 at the time, but it seemed reasonable to go to the mountain.
Between cups of tea, a demonstration on the massage-power of two tennis balls and a serenade of “Let me call you sweetheart” on the pianola, he spoke of a life of magnificent milestones in which his Healesville connection was short, but significant.
He was born in October 1903 and, was a champion athlete in the 1920s and ‘30s and is widely acknowledged as the inventor of the ‘modern day’ starting blocks.
In Fields of Green, Lanes of Gold, a history of athletics in Australia, historian and author Paul Jenes says 1929 was a significant year in the sport.
“It was the year Charlie Booth invented the starting blocks,” he wrote.
In the ‘80s and ‘90s he won numerous Masters titles and he is still the Australian record holder for the 100 metres Men 85 and Men 95.
“I’ve won five world championships overseas,” he told me.
“I ran in America and was the only white man in the race and when I won I got the shock of my life.
“I was 88 when I won the World Championship, then I won the World Championship on the Melbourne Cricket ground when I was 100.”
He adds … “It was in the veterans”. Just in case there’s any doubt.
While dates and times are sometimes a little elusive in the grand scheme of things, his memories of Healesville are vivid and very obviously happy ones.
He rattles off the names of people he came to know very quickly – Christie the butcher, McKenzie who ran the bus company, Pollard, the shire secretary, Frank Foxcroft and a footballer.
“He used to live in very humble conditions over the river that goes through the town, and before that on the river flats, at the Aboriginal camp,” he says, grappling with the image he still has of a youngster who he says he built an attachment to.
“Wandin … Jimmy (Juby)… I used to help him a lot. He did well,” he recalls.
His idea for a racecourse got an immediate response.
“I went down to where the racecourse is now, looked across and thought ‘this is the ideal position’.”
A chat with Mr Pollard resulted in a public meeting and, Charlie gives a satisfied grin as he steps back in time … “The place was packed”.
“I love this little spot, but the place is dead for visitors, I told them.”
Two lots of five hundred pounds were pledged that very night and with his connections in the racing industry Charlie soon had the course manager from Caulfield drawing up the plans.
“He put legs in at the seven mile and the mile and a half so the horses could start at different places around the course which was a first,” he said.
“It was a beautiful setting and that first meeting was packed. We’d borrowed so much stuff to run it; people from all the different clubs gave us great help,” he recalls.
“Those town people did so much hard work to get it up and running. People gave us logs for our buildings … this was something new … it had never happened before.”
The excitement of that first meeting still brought a twinkle to his eye.
Healesville Amateur Racing Club members paid tribute to Charlie, a life member of the club, following his death in May.
Former HARC president Pat Lalor, VRC Steward for 17 years, has had a long association with Charlie. He was the starter at the first race Pat rode in at Queenscliffe.
“In recent times Neville used to bring him back to Healesville,” he said. He loved racing and he loved coming back.
Reminiscent of the old days when racing was less of a family affair and more a gentleman’s sport, Pat said he always wore a hat to the races.
Current president John O’Neill said members were privileged at the AGM in October to have Charlie as a guest speaker.
“He was very lucid, very witty and gave a really warm and informative talk which took us back over a lot of the history of the club.”
Tributes to Charlie Booth have flowed since his death on the Gold Coast on 20 May.
He made contributions to sport not just in Australia, but in America.
His contribution in Healesville continues to bring pleasure to the locals and provide something for the visitors … just as Charlie intended.
Charlie is survived by his son Neville.
