A Concise History of the Annual Christmas Slurpee Toss.

Slurpee Tossing was a well-established pastime well before it became an integral part of the Annual Christmas Stolp. Its origins can reliably be traced back to Templestowe, Australia in the early Nineties, where a teenage boy named Bart was rapidly developing an interest in tossing. He’d toss whatever he could get his hands on, and, growing up in Templestowe with its abundance of trees, it wasn’t long before he discovered sticks. His love for tossing sticks was so great that he even acquired the (somewhat uninspired) nickname, Stickboy.

We couldn’t go for a stolp without Stickboy eventually spying a stick somewhere and running off to hurl it as far as he could. Templestowe Primary School, No. 1395 (RIP), with its outdoor basketball courts and high brick walls, provided many markers to measure height and distance, and was a natural throwing ground. Playing basketball there would only amuse Bart for so long before he’d suggest a competition to see who could toss the ball the furthest. We’d usually all agree. I’m not sure what it is, but there’s certainly something primeval about tossing. Maybe it taps into a Scotch ancestry and their love of tossing the caber? Who can say?


Anyway, Bart, as stated before, would toss whatever was at hand, and amongst our little group, Slurpees were often at hand. What would have started as a bit of fun, quickly became a competition with rules, boundaries and champions. A favourite area for tossing was the Parker Street basketball court at the Primary (above), with the canteen roof being the benchmark for success. Hitting the roof was good, but hitting the roof and sliding your cup over the far side onto the oval was best.

Eventually, one year, ‘Christmas’ and ‘Toss’ were put together, and the Annual Christmas Slurpee Toss was born. In 1994 our beloved Primary was bulldozed and replaced with netball courts. The landscape had changed, but our connection to the location had not. If we couldn't aim for the canteen roof or the downball wall, we'd just have to find something new. Fortunately, the new netball courts were well-suited to hosting the fierce competition of the Slurpee Toss, and the tradition lived on. The pictures below are from the first Slurpee Toss to be photographed in 2003.

Here we see the efforts of Steve and Kate, with the former caught sliding into disqualification.


Next came Cobbies. Check out his flying cup and straw with its spangled trail of ice.


And finally a barefoot Bart, who set the current Toss Record with a massive effort over the shelter and onto the lower netball court.


See here for the Slurpee Toss 2004 and here for the Slurpee Toss 2005.

See here for 'A Concise History of the Annual Christmas Stolp'.