How it all began…

Rugby football has been part of life in Port Macquarie and the Hastings district since the late 19th century, growing from informal picnic games into organised club and representative competition.

Football of some form was played in Australia from the early 1800s, and by the 1870s Rugby Union was formally organised in New South Wales. Local involvement is evident as early as 1876, when Port Macquarie’s Flynn brothers (John, Joe and William) appeared in a Sydney University Rugby Union team photograph.

1876: Sydney University Rugby Union Team with the Flynn brothers. Fifth and fourth from left on back step and fourth from left on front step.

Port Macquarie formed its first football club in 1891. Wauchope also formed a club that year and competitions in the Hastings commenced.The first recorded match in Port Macquarie was played in May 1891 at Jail Hill, a rough, sloping paddock below the old jail, where Port Macquarie and Wauchope fought out a 5–5 draw. Early matches were played in harsh conditions on rocky ground, often with uneven numbers, minimal equipment, and improvised officiating.

The Jail Hill playing field ran east–west, disadvantaging teams facing the sun cabbage tree hats, straw hats, or peaked caps were worn by players to shield from the sun. The surface was incredibly hard, with iron oxide pebbles and poor drainage, contributing to injuries. Long moleskin trousers, tucked into socks were worn for protection from the playing surface. The footwear for the backs was the sandshoe, and in the forwards the dreaded hobnailed work boot was worn complete with steel tip and heel plate, later to be barred, because of the enthusiasm in the rucks, for both man and ball.

Travel to matches was an adventure in itself. Players and supporters journeyed by horse, coach, rowing boat, and steamship. The famous 1893 trip aboard the 64-ton steamship Thistle to Wingham highlights the strong community spirit that surrounded the game, with crowds cheering from wharves and matches followed by banquets, concerts, and dances.

By the turn of the century, rugby had become firmly established. Clubs such as Port Macquarie, Hamilton, Wauchope, Rawdon Island, and Beechwood competed regularly, and team photographs from 1897 to 1911 show the sport becoming more organised. Most players were labourers, sawmill workers, farmers, fishermen, or railway workers, gaining fitness through daily physical work rather than formal training.

During the Edwardian era, football was central to social life on the Hastings. Fierce local rivalries developed, but the district united for representative matches and visiting teams. By 1920, the emergence of Rugby League marked a turning point, but these early decades laid the foundations for more than a century of football tradition in the region.

These medals were presented to William G F Ringland [1877-1960] who played for the Hamilton Football Club for most of his playing years, except in 1895 when he played for Port Macquarie.