It is responsible for the Oakbank Racecourse and running the events of the Easter Racing Carnival on that course, culminating in the Great Eastern Steeplechase.
Those involved were Andrew Johnston, William Tucker, Robert Correll (the local blacksmith), Michael Mullins, Frank Inglis, Thomas Ball and Seth Ferry.
Facilities at their meetings were makeshift: Dr. Esau, who was nearly always the judge, would stand on a brewery wagon, and the grandstand would consist of two or three brewers' vans drawn up together.
[1] A race meeting was held on a paddock belonging to Lauterbach and Dohnt in 1868,[2] but reverted to the Johnston property the following year.
Following the success of those events, a meeting held at Woodside on 20 April 1877, Dr. Esau presiding, determined on the formation of an Onkaparinga Racing Club to conduct races under rules of the South Australian Jockey Club.