In 1877, at a meeting in the basement of a shop in Main Street, five prominent gentlemen from Stawell floated the idea of a footrace to be on the Easter weekend each year.
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It was held in the basement of a shop that would become the Bootmaker's business of WH 'Colonel' Carter, who was later to become President of the Stawell Athletic Club (SAC).
On January 14th ,1878, a meeting was held in 'Readings Provincial Hotel' and was attended by around 50 people and the Stawell Athletic Club was formed.
Three days later, at the first meeting of the SAC held at 'Fays Town Hall Hotel', little interest was shown by the townsfolk in becoming members, with only 20 people signing up, many said this was due to the exorbitant membership fee, fixed at 10s 6d ($1.05).
However, due to the persistence of early club's presidents and committees', the Stawell Athletic Club flourished and has established itself as one of the major athletics clubs in the country.
The first Stawell Gift was held on Easter Monday April 22nd, 1878, with WJ Millard the inaugural winner. His winning purse was £20.
The Gift was held at the Botanical Reserve in Stawell West, which is now the site of the Stawell Caravan Park.
In 1879 it was thought that the Gift would generate greater interest if it was relocated to another area of the Town.
The 1879 Gift was run on the oval at Coopers Flat, the sight of the Stawell Agricultural Society Showgrounds in Playford Street, and later where Stawell Timber Industries ran their business for many years.
In 1880 it was decided to return the Stawell Gift carnival to its original venue at the Botanical Reserve, as it provided better viewing for the spectators and there was more shade.
The Gift continued at the Botanical Reserve until it was relocated to Central Park in 1898 to coincide with the opening of the newly built No 1 grandstand.
The Stawell Gift has been run there ever since, except during World War II (1942 to 1945), and during the COVID-19 pandemic (2020).
Four Indigenous Australian runners have won the Gift; Robert Kinnear was the first in 1883. He was born near Stawell in 1851 and lived a lot of his life at the Ebenezer Mission at Antwerp near Dimboola.
Other indigenous winners were Tom Dancey in 1910, Lynch Cooper (1928) and Josh Ross (2003 and 2005).
Cathy Freeman won the first of her two women's 400m finals in 1995, the second being a follow up in 1996.
A local runner by the name of Jack Edward 'John' Curran from Great Western won in 1923.
He was a former student at Great Western Primary School and with his winnings of £200 was able to pay off his mother's mortgage.
Perhaps the greatest run ever seen at Central Park was the final of the Gift in 1975 when Olympian, Jean Louis Ravelomanantsoa from Madagascar became the first winner of the Gift running from scratch.
