The Dapto Dogs are not only known and fondly regarded around Australia, but the globe. They are an icon and an institution.

The news on Wednesday the Dapto Dogs would be ceasing immediately sent shock waves through the Illawarra community.

It threatens to close the cover on a long and much loved part of Australian sporting history. It was a history which began in 1856.

On Sunday, November 8 of that year, a public meeting was called at George William Brown's Illawarra Hotel in Dapto to discuss the formation of an agricultural society.

Yet it wasn't until 1936 that a sub-committee of the Dapto Agricultural and Horticultural Society was formed and work started on enclosing the harness track to allow greyhounds to race.

The first greyhound meeting was held at Dapto on February 25, 1937, with a total of 108 pounds in prize money. The club was approved to host 40 meetings a year.

In 1942, the army seized the showgrounds and buildings as part of the war effort, but they would resume in 1944.

From then on, the Dapto Dogs would become an Australian Thursday night institution.

The Dapto track was a grass track until 1991 when the Dapto Greyhound Racing Club became one of the first greyhound racing tracks to introduce loam, a type of clay and sand.

It was feared greyhound racing would come to an end in 2017 when then NSW Premier Mike Baird announced he would ban all greyhound racing in the state from July 1 of that year.

However, the ban was reversed on October 11, 2016.

Sourced from daptodogs.org.au