Records show that rowing matches between crews of visiting ships had been taking place on the harbour from as early as 1805.

By 1874 Trickett was gaining a reputation as a rower and in the Balmain Regatta of that year, he won the outrigger race and was in the winning whaleboat crew.

Later that same year he placed second to Michael Rush in the Clarence River Champion Outrigger Race.

In June the following year fellow Australian Michael Rush challenged Trickett for the World Championship.

However, by the mile and a half point Trickett had overtaken the leader and from then on the race was a procession and he crossed the line twenty-two seconds ahead.

Alan May wrote in Sydney Rows magazine that it was "a race that was said to have excited more interest than any other event that has ever happened in the sporting world of Australia."

Trickett won several non-title races over the next couple of years and earned enough money to buy a hotel.

However, in June 1878, he was involved in an accident when a rolling keg of beer crushed his hand and several fingers had to be amputated.

This was to affect the balance of his stroke in future races and was possibly the cause of the downturn in Edward Trickett's rowing.

The esteem in which he was held can be estimated by the fact that he was still asked to pose in a photograph of key Australian scullers at a Lord Mayoral reception in 1903 with the likes of Stanbury, Pearce, Peter Kemp (rower), Bill Beach, Rush, Trickett and the Towns brothers.

The Title Race had an unusual extra dimension in that the winner was to be chosen to represent New South Wales against Ned Hanlan who was champion of Great Britain and the United States.

Laycock had previously beaten Trickett so his backers had high hopes of taking the Championship which was for £200 a side.

Laycock took an early lead but by four hundred yards Trickett had passed him and was never tested for the rest of the race, winning "as he liked" by some fifteen to eighteen lengths.

Harry Kelley piloted the Australian, and Bright performed the same office for Hanlan, but the race seemed to be over before they reached Hammersmith Bridge.

Or he found religion whilst wandering the streets of Sydney which gave him the strength to continue and then, through Salvation Army contacts, he obtained employment in the Customs Services.

He lived and worked at Moama on the Murray River in New South Wales for some time and his family remained in Sydney.

He remained a committed Salvation Army envoy throughout the rest of his life and became a good speaker for their cause.