Sport and leisure

Australian swimmers Fanny Durack (left), and Mina Wylie (centre) with British swimmer Jennie Fletcher, medal-winners for the women’s 100-metres-freestyle race at the 1912 Olympic Games in Stockholm. National Museum of Australia.

WORLD OF RECREATION: SPORTING

The two greatest swimming women in the world are now undoubtedly the Australians, Fanny Durack and Annette Kellerman. Fanny has proved herself at Stockholm to be the Naiad of All Nations. She is no beauty like Annette, but she can swim like a duck; the Kellerman’s style is more like a swan’s.

Brisbane Worker, 27 July 1912, p. 7. Read the full article in Trove

Swimming champions

Arms outstretched, muscles flexed and costumes clinging to their curves, these women face the camera with confidence. They are the medal winners from the 100-metres women’s freestyle event at the Stockholm Olympic Games in 1912: Australians Sarah ‘Fanny’ Durack and Wilhelmina ‘Mina’ Wylie, and England’s Jennie Fletcher. This photograph conveys the athleticism and determination of these women, and hints at broader histories.

Durack and Wylie were Australia’s champion women swimmers. In the early years of the 20th century, competitive swimming was becoming increasingly popular with spectators and competitors, male and female, and swimming was encouraged as a graceful, healthy recreation. Women soon became involved in competitive speed swimming. Wylie’s father, Henry, himself a long distance and underwater swimming champion, established Wylie’s Baths at Coogee in 1907. As a child, Wylie competed in carnivals and gave exhibitions of ‘fancy diving’. Durack learned to swim at Coogee and, by 1912, had broken world records. The Sydney sports newspaper, the Referee, described the swimmers as ‘veritable water nymphs, absolute amphibians’.

Undeniably talented, the two women had to contend with prejudice from male and female swimming organisations. The New South Wales Ladies Amateur Swimming Association banned female swimmers from competing in front of men, but, in March 1912, the Sydney Ladies Swimming Club voted that Durack and Wylie should represent Australia in Stockholm.

Despite being granted permission to compete, Durack and Wylie had to raise funds privately to pay for their travel. Stockholm was the first Olympic Games to include women’s swimming. On Friday 12 July 1912 they swam in the 100-metres freestyle final, in a pool without lanes. Durack collided with the side of the pool, but still won the race. Wylie won the silver medal, and Fletcher, bronze.

 Durack and Wylie were Australia’s first Olympic sporting heroines and, without their medals, there would have been little for Australia to crow about at the 1912 games. Wylie later recalled, ‘When the Australian flag went up for 1 and 2 in Stockholm, of course Australia sort of took the credit’. The press hailed their wins as ‘An Australian Victory’.  

The photograph suggests other struggles. The swimmers stand before the camera and spectators scantily clad yet unabashed. For several years, swimmer and vaudeville performer Annette Kellerman had been championing rational swimwear for women. But wet woollen costumes were see-through and mixed bathing remained the subject of debate in Australia. On returning from Stockholm, Durack spoke against public attitudes to mixed bathing, meeting a tepid reception.

Durack’s and Wylie’s achievements in 1912 marked the beginning of a new phase for Australian sportswomen in general, and Australian women swimmers in particular. The Worker asked, in August 1913, ‘There are champions of all sorts in sport and skilled performance; why not more championesses, such as Annette Kellerman and Fanny Durack in swimming?’ Women’s swimming was breaking ground and establishing a place for the female competitive spirit, but not without tensions and the renegotiation of social boundaries.

Rose Cullen

Souvenir photograph from Victor Trumper’s testimonial match, 1913. National Museum of Australia.

VICTOR TRUMPER. RECOGNITION OF A CHAMPION.

Victor Trumper ... unites in his person the utilitarian virtues of Australia with the artistic virtues of the old country, and he has done so in such a way as to almost set up a new standard for both. That is praise, indeed, and praise unalloyed with exaggerated superlative. It practically means that Trumper may legitimately be regarded as one of the very finest batsmen ever known.

Sydney Morning Herald, 5 February 1913, p. 5. Read the full article in Trove 

In 1913, cricket had become Australia’s national sport. Intercolonial competition began in 1856, starting with matches between New South Wales and Victoria and slowly growing to encompass the other colonies. After Federation, cricket quickly became the ideal medium for interstate rivalries. Most important of all were the international clashes between Australia and England. These provided an opportunity to prove the worth of the young nation against the best of the mother country.

In the summer of 1913, Victor Trumper was approaching the end of his career, but was still considered Australia’s greatest batsman. Fellow players and supporters organised a testimonial match at the Sydney Cricket Ground. After a hesitant start on a wet pitch, Trumper went on to score 126 runs. His fellow New South Wales players circulated among the crowd selling souvenir match programs. Autographed photos of Trumper reportedly sold like ‘hotcakes’.

Trumper finished his first-class career in 1914 with a total of 16,939 runs from 255 matches and a highest score of 300 not out. In an age when pitches were not covered during rain, creating difficult batting conditions, Trumper achieved a remarkable average of 44.58.

Collection database records

Cricketing Journeys to and from Australia

Royal Agricultural Society Challenge Shield, presented to the winner of the New South Wales Rugby Football League competition from 1908 to 1913. The shield was presented to Eastern Suburbs captain Dally Messenger in 1913. National Museum of Australia. Photo: Dragi Markovic.

FOOTBALL. OPENING OF THE SEASON.

The Rugby League’s prospects are very bright. The growth of this body is one of the most remarkable events in Australian, or, for that matter, the world’s sport. In a few short years Rugby League football has made such inroads on the Sydney public’s favour that it outdistances all other codes in this respect.

Sydney Morning Herald, 3 May 1913, p. 22. Read the full article on Trove

The various football codes were a major source of entertainment for fans of winter sports in 1913. In Queensland and New South Wales, rugby league and rugby union competed for attention. Soccer, or association football, was also played throughout the country.

Debate raged about the alleged evils of professionalism in football. Rugby union, the amateur code, claimed the moral high ground. Supporters of Australian Rules and rugby league, however, embraced the concept of players being compensated for time lost from work. The evolution of football into an important sports entertainment business had begun.

A key figure in the early success of rugby league was New South Wales player Herbert Henry ‘Dally’ Messenger, known as ‘The Master’ (1883–1959). A rising talent in rugby union, with considerable appeal to fans, his defection to rugby league added credibility to the new code. Messenger quickly emerged as rugby league’s first superstar, taking on legendary status within the game. Messenger captained the Eastern Suburbs team in 1913 and was presented with the Royal Agricultural Society Challenge Shield after Eastern Suburbs won the premiership for the third year in a row.

League of Legends: 100 Years of Rugby League in Australia exhibition

Royal Agricultural Society shield collection highlight

Cigarette cards depicting the teams that competed in the VFA and VFL grand finals, 1913, (from left) Fitzroy, Footscray, St Kilda and North Melbourne. National Museum of Australia.

THE GRAND FINAL. FITZROY V. ST. KILDA.

There is great enthusiasm in the seaside city at the prospect of premiership, and when the team did its final training in the field yesterday afternoon there must have been 2,000 people looking on. The stands and reserves were were quite full.

St. Kilda has had a long stern chase, and some of the loyal supporters, who stuck to the team when for years it did not win a game are now looking forward to reaping the reward of their unswerving support.

Argus, 26 September 1913, p11. Read the full article on Trove

The Australian game

Victoria’s obsession with football, which continues today, can be traced to the formative period of the decade after Federation. By 1901, Australian Rules football, first played in the mid-19th century, had become the most popular winter code in Victoria, South Australia, Western Australia and Tasmania. Championed as the ‘Australian game’, it attracted players and fans across the country, and even enjoyed a brief revival in New Zealand (although the competition was in decline by 1913, and did not survive the onset of war). It was in Melbourne, however, that Australian Rules made its greatest mark (pun intended).

In 1913, there were two elite Australian Rules football competitions in Melbourne: the Victorian Football Association (VFA) and the Victorian Football League (VFL). The VFA was the older of the two organisations with a history going back to 1877. The VFL was a newer competition, established in 1896 after the wealthiest clubs in the VFA left to form a new league. The reason behind the split was simple: money. The VFA, with its spread of outer suburban clubs, was keen for clubs to share resources. The larger successful city clubs – Essendon, Geelong, Collingwood, Fitzroy, South Melbourne, Melbourne, St Kilda, and Carlton – were not interested in subsidising their poorer cousins. They wanted control of their own destiny and, more importantly, to not have to share their gate takings. Hence the VFL was formed, built around the most powerful and successful clubs of the VFA.

The VFL was clearly the dominant of the two competitions by 1913. Richmond and the University of Melbourne joined in 1908. The VFA also grew, however, with teams joining from Footscray, North Melbourne, Brunswick, Williamstown, Prahran, Brighton, Port Melbourne, Northcote, Melbourne City and another team from Essendon known as Essendon Association.

Both competitions attracted passionate support from Melbourne’s sporting public. In the 1913 VFA final, Footscray, the minor premiers, defeated North Melbourne by one point, 10.14 (74) to 11.7 (73) in front of 20,000 spectators at the East Melbourne Cricket Ground. The VFL, however, with its greater proportion of inner city clubs, eclipsed its older rival. The 1913 VFL grand final attracted a record crowd of 59,475 to the Melbourne Cricket Ground. In an all too familiar pattern, St Kilda failed to clinch the premiership after having won the semi-final the week before. Fitzroy was triumphant, defeating the Saints 7.14 (56) to 5.13 (43).

Guy Hansen, Senior Curator, National Museum of Australia

The Maryborough Girls Grammar School Tennis Club, 1913. State Library of Queensland, 145754.

TEST TENNIS. AUSTRALIA WINS. BROOKES DEFEATS PARKE.

The first test match between teams representing the British Isles and Australia was concluded at Double Bay courts on Saturday ... It was hot and steamy in the grandstands; but an attendance of about 5000 patiently endured the heat and watched the play with interest. Amongst them were players of the past and of the present, spectators who never miss a match, and many who apparently had never seen a match before.

Sydney Morning Herald, 20 January 1913, p. 10. Read the full article in Trove 

First played in England in 1874, lawn tennis was soon to arrive in the Australian colonies and was initially a social pastime for those with leisure and space for a court. The Sydney Cricket Ground hosted the first competitive intercolonial tennis match in May 1885. In 1905, Australia and New Zealand (as Australasia) competed in the International Davis Cup and the first Australasian Championship (now the Australian Open) was held.

By 1913, tennis clubs abounded, and the game was a mainstream activity, played by both sexes, socially and competitively. In January, a crowd of 5000 spectators watched Australia win the first tennis ‘test match’, defeating England seven matches to two, in ‘hot and steamy’ conditions.

Rollerskater Nellie Donegan, 1913. Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales, P1/486.

DECORATIVE DANCING. HOW ROLLER SKATING HAS BEEN PLACED IN THE REALM OF ART BY NELLIE DONEGAN AND EARLE REYNOLDS.

Mr. Reynolds and Miss Donegan flutter, glide, and twinkle through many phases of classic dance scores … Miss Donegan comes from Melbourne, where as a tot in pigtails and pinafore she took to roller skating as most kiddies take to toffee. To-day, doubtless, she could go shopping down Rundle Street on roller skates more comfortably than the average woman in a hobble skirt. When [she] married Earle Reynolds, a combination of talent was achieved which has evolved into one of the most engaging spectacles offered on the music halls.

Adelaide Mail, 29 November 1913, p. 12. Read the full article on Trove

Rollerskating was at a peak of popularity in 1913. Those who preferred to watch could enjoy the musical comedy skaters and dancers Nellie Donegan and Earle Reynolds, who toured Australian theatres in 1913.

Competition between skating rinks was fierce. World speed skating records were set at rinks in Sydney, and roller hockey competitions were held at rinks throughout Australia. In June, Rockhampton’s Princess Court Roller Rink invited skaters in ‘Japanese, Chinese, Indian, Arabian [or] Turkish’ costumes to ‘An Eastern gala night’. Reports of the gala sports night at Adelaide’s Elite Skating Rink are teasingly vague about how the wheelbarrow and sack races were conducted on skates. The rink master at Sydney’s Imperial Roller Rink would, by request, perform his ‘Imitation of an albatross in flight’.