Charles Moses Stadium

Charles Moses Stadium

Army officer, public service head, radio sports broadcaster, ABC radio station manager, RAS Vice President – Sir Charles Moses CBE was also a foundation member of the Australian Elizabethan Theatre Trust and the five-man Sydney Opera House committee. But most importantly, it is his name displayed on the woodchop stadium at Sydney Showground.

The Charles Moses Stadium is home to the Wimbledon of Woodchop, 11 days of flying woodchips, sharpened axes and feats of strength, precision and power during the Sydney Royal Easter Show. Moses was introduced to the sport of woodchopping at the Bendigo Show in 1923 and was captivated. By 1944 it was a hobby he dedicated every weekend to, and in 1951 he was elected to the RAS Council and took a position on the Woodchop Committee – becoming Chairman from 1960-1970.

He was the ABC radio voice of the 1934 Australian cricket tour of England, rose to the rank of Major in the Australian Imperial Force in 1941, was knighted in 1963, and was inducted into the Australian Media Hall of Fame in 2013. But to those who woodchop, he was the man who was still felling trees at 75 and got a laugh out of running his sharpened axe along the arm of an innocent bystander – just to safely shave off a hair or two.