Harriet Elphinstone-Dick
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Harriet Elphinstone-Dick (1858-1902) (also known as Harriet Rowell) was an early English and Australian swimming champion, pioneering physical fitness teacher and, possibly a lesbian[dubious ].
Originally from Brighton, England, she taught swimming at Brill's Baths in Pool Valley and won local fame with a series of public swimming feats including a 2 hour 43 minute swim in a rough September sea from Shoreham to Brighton.
In the 1870s, she migrated to Melbourne, Australia with her partner, Alice Moon, and she started to teach swimming at the St Kilda Sea Baths, while also winning prizes in swimming competitions at various venues around Melbourne’s Port Phillip Bay.
She had an intense interest in physical fitness and in 1879 opened Melbourne's first women's only gymnasium, in the Queen Victoria Building, which used to stand where the Melbourne City Square is now. Physical fitness for women was a popular idea of the 1880s and the gym attracted many of Melbourne's independent career women, particularly teachers from the city's growing number of private girls' schools. Miss Dick taught the Swedish Ling Method and ran her gym until 1901.
Miss Dick and Miss Moon lived at the Melbourne suburb of Brighton; they also had a farm in what was then the country at Clayton, Victoria, about 20 kilometres from the Melbourne central business district. John Cooper in his "History of St Kilda" (published in 1931) said they would allow no male animals on their farm.
They were also known as members of Melbourne's spiritualist community, and in the 1890s Miss Dick's spiritual adviser, a spirit known as "Pat", convinced her that there was oil to be found under Point Ormond at Elwood. But although large amounts of money were spent drilling for oil in Elwood, nothing was ever found. Undaunted, Miss Dick weathered the laughs and jeers of a disbelieving public, preferring to follow her own beliefs and to do things her way.
