St. Moritz Ice Rink

St. Moritz Ice Rink

File:St Moritz Ice Rink.jpg St. Moritz Ice Rink circa 1939-1944
Location	16 The Esplanade, St. Kilda, Victoria
Capacity	750
Opened	10 March 1939

The St. Moritz Ice Rink was a popular historic ice rink located on The Esplanade, St. Kilda, Victoria between the years 1939-1981 and has great historical significance to the sport of ice hockey in Australia.

History

St. Moritz had its origin in the Wattle Path Palais de Danse, one of the world's largest dance halls, which opened in 1922, architects Beaver & Purnell. It was the venue for the first all-Australian dance championship, and featured some of the best dance bands of Australia and America. The building became a film studio, Efftee Studios, for Frank W. Thring in December 1933, before Thring in 1937 abandoned the project, having made some half-dozen movies on the set.

Businessman Henry Hans "Harry" Kleiner and his wife transformed the "Wattle Path" to an ice rink, and St. Moritz was born. The Kleiners were sole proprietors until 1953, when they sold the business to J. Gordon and T. Molony, both champion skaters. The St. Moritz rink operated for over forty years, and finally closed in 1982.

The grand opening of the St. Moritz Ice-skating Palais (its original name) was on Friday 10 March 1939. The arrival of celebrities to the opening were announced on the radio station 3XY and commentary about the interior and events were provided by Norman Banks of the radio station 3KZ. The cost of entry to the official opening of the St. Moritz Ice Rink was 5 shillings, which was inclusive of tax as well as skate hire for the night for over 2000 people that attended. The St. Kilda mayor, Councillor E. C. Mitty, formally opened the new ice skating rink.

Ice Hockey

The Australian prime minister at the time, Robert Menzies advised that, despite the declaration of war, sport should go on, and the Victorian Ice Hockey Association made the decision to continue ice hockey with inter-rink competitions between the Melbourne Glaciarium and St. Moritz Ice Rink teams. The St. Moritz Bombers won the first 3 games. There was also inter-team competition between the Rhodes Motor Co. Topliners and Foy's Gibsonia Fliers.

August 1946

A highlight moment for inter-state ice hockey happened during the annual tournament, where Victoria and New South Wales faced each other for the Goodall Cup in a best-of-three style tournament. The series ended with a tie, making this the second time that the Goodall Cup was not awarded to a winning team, rather it was retained by the previous years champion team. This series also saw a record attendance of 5000 spectators for the final game of the series.

5 August 1946 was the second game in the inter state series between New South Wales and Victoria, where Victoria defeated New South Wales 2-1
The goals were scored by
New South Wales - Thorpe ; Victoria - Nichol, Massina

7 August 1946 was the third game of the interstate ice hockey series for the Goodall Cup between Victoria and New South Wales held at the St. Moritz Ice Rink. The night saw a record crowd of 5000 spectators fill the venue to watch the thrilling final end in a 2-2 tie.
The goals were scored by
New South Wales - Jim Brown, F. Terger ; Victoria - Nichol (2)

The proprietors of the St. Moritz rink granted ice time to the Victorian Ice Hockey Association, free of charge to run a Lightning premiership for 8 B grade teams on 9 July 1954. All proceeds for the matches would go to the hokey association for the betterment and growth of the sport in Victoria.

See also

• List of ice rinks in Australia

External links

• National Library of Australia
• Legends of Australian Ice