These are an oar, and the actual boat, rowed by the Australian "Oarsome Foursome" which won the straight fours competition in the 1992 Barcelona Olympics. Interestingly, one member of the crew (James Tompkins) has taken part in every games since, including most recently in Bejing. He also holds what I think is a unique honor-- to my knowledge he is the only male athlete to win gold at the world championships in every class of sweep boat-- straight four, coxed four, straight pair, coxed pair, and eight.
So there's your daily Australian rowing history lesson.
