Homing club vice president Rob Nelson said the organisation was founded in 1917 by prominent Horsham residents.

“It was the who’s who of Horsham,” he said.

“There was a newpaper editor, the secretary of the hospital, the head of the Langlands store.”

A portrait of the club’s founders, which also includes members of the Waterfield, Wright and Hosking families, hangs in its building on Railway Avenue.

Pigeon holes cover the walls and the rafters are lined with images of its fastest birds over the years.

Mr Nelson said the club’s pigeon’s could cover distances of 506 miles in eight hours.

“That’s an average of more than 60 miles per hour,” he said.

“We’ve had races up to 700 miles.

“If there’s a tailwind you can get birds that go faster.” 

Mr Nelson said the club will try to have at least 25 races in 2017.

The club describes itself as the last surviving pigeon racing club in the Wimmera.

Mr Nelson said there had been a drop off in numbers.

“We had 40 about 20 years ago and now we are down to about 22,” he said.

“Kids have so many other activities these days.”

World War Two appears to have been a tough time for the club but it had managed to grow its membership by 1946.

Club member Graham Elbourne said the army took over a pigeon coup in the middle of Horsham to aid the war effort. 

The Horsham Times reported that the club’s post-war annual general meeting had summed up a good year.

"Before the outbreak of war, the membership was approximately 14 senior members and to this day it stands at 23 senior and 18 junior members,” the club’s life president W. P. Pryor said in 1946.

“To this increase in strength we must give credit to our popular president, Mr E. Shepherdson and to Mr Bert Thomson, who during the war years worked hard to keep the club together.”

Mr Nelson said the club had moved the location of its centenary due to the number of people who were interested.

“We’re expecting 250 people,” he said.