FISHER, Ross

"INTERNATIONAL HOCKEY MATCH," reads the photo caption above two teams of six players. “America v Australia played at the Glaciarium, July 17th 1906. Match Drawn.” Ninety years later, former coach of the Australian National Men's Team, Dan Reynolds, presented the photo to Ross Fisher during the inauguration of the Puckhandlers roller rink in Reservoir, now known as Ice HQ. Prior to the Goodall Cup interstate ice hockey series in 1909, ice sports organisers and skaters in Melbourne were inviting visiting warships to participate in ice hockey matches along the banks of the Yarra River. Many believe that the photograph is the first Australian ice hockey team, although local players used a ball instead of a puck until the following season.

Fisher was born on 9 June 1964, and he attended Sunbury Secondary College. He played for the Melbourne Football Club in the Victorian Football League (VFL) from 1981 to 1984, beginning with the U19s.

In 1996, Fisher’s eldest daughter was involved in figure skating, while his son played street hockey and wanted to play inline hockey. In 1998, he leased a basketball stadium from Darebin Council and transformed it into an inline hockey rink, which also accommodated roller derby and lacrosse.

The rink’s surface has produced numerous talented hockey players—both inline and ice—who have advanced to compete in Melbourne’s four national league ice hockey clubs, represent National Teams, and compete in recreational tournaments held in Surrey, San Jose, and Hawaii.

In 2005, Fisher conceived an ambitious project to convert the inline facility into an ice rink. Along the way, he played several dozen ice hockey games for the Saints in the Victorian leagues. In 2018, Ice HQ Reservoir was inaugurated, featuring its own hockey school, eight dynamic development programs, the Melbourne Ducks team, and a Junior Development squad known as the Junior Ducks. IceHQ now has the largest recreational hockey league in Australia, with four teams for ages 25+ and 35+ participating in the 2023 CARHA Hockey World Cup in Vancouver.

In 2022, Fisher transformed the Melbourne Ducks to join the Australian Ice Hockey League (AIHL). When that attempt was unsuccessful, the team evolved into one of four franchises in the newly established Pacific Hockey League (PHL) in 2022. Following the dissolution of the PHL in 2023, Fisher shifted focus to the women’s program—one of his most significant areas of growth—ranging from junior development to the recreational league.

Over two hundred girls and young women participated in the IceHQ leagues located in Reservoir. The Pro Winter League for women featured three competitive teams with a draft system. This was a remarkable advancement for the state’s girls, who were eligible to compete starting at age 14, and many talented players have contributed to their training and development.

Fisher reinvented the Melbourne Ducks for a fourth time, and so this 30-year journey has concluded and a new one begun by successfully securing a place in the women’s national league. The rink developer serves as president of the iceHQ Ducks and the AWIHL Melbourne Ducks, and is usually involved with the player and program development teams in the leagues operating out of Reservoir, such as the Junior Summer League. His programs, leagues, collaborations, and ideas for presenting the game are innovative and highly regarded by players, coaches and patrons alike.

“As a kid from Tassie,” Alex Butler wrote, “just wanting to improve my hockey skills during the holidays, he welcomed me into his home, connected me with competitions and teams, and sent me back with skills and experiences I could share with other kids in Tassie. It’s difficult to articulate the immense impact and reach he has had.”

In 2025, Ice HQ hosted the Youth U16 Pan-Pacific Ice Hockey Series, with teams from Hong Kong and China joining Australia and New Zealand for a four-day event. Such initiatives showcase Melbourne rinks and their facilities throughout the region, which is important in building higher-level competition for Australia.

The skating entrepreneur built his business model around player development and growth, the Victorian tradition of North American beer league hockey, a suite of exciting new ice sports programs, and even the CCM distributorship in Australia, which is why all the rental skates are hockey skates.

“That is a man with an unrelenting quest to achieve something bigger than himself,” reads a comment on his story by an Olympic speed skating medallist, Richard Nizielski. Ross Fisher’s involvement in hockey in Victoria and nationally is approaching a third decade.