The Aboriginal Pioneers – Australian Sport’s First Tour Part Two

by Satish Sekar © Satish Sekar (October 11^th 2009)[1]

Editor’s Note

The 74^th Ashes Series will begin in November 2025 in Perth, Australia. England has won 32 series outright and retained the Ashes once as they were the holders in a drawn series – Australia has kept the Ashes six times in drawn series. They have won 34 series outright, meaning they have held the Ashes 40 times, compared to England’s 33.

            The first tour by Australians took place before the ‘first’ Ashes Series. It was made by Aboriginals in 1968. It has taken far too long to credit their achievements, some of which are detailed below.

The Editor

After The Return

Arrahmunijarrimun (Peter): Ballrinjarrimin (Sundown), Boninbarngeet (Tiger), Brimbunyah (Red Cap), Bripumyarrimin or Brippokei (King Cole), Bullchanach (Bullocky), Grougarrong (Mosquito), Jallachmurrimin (Jim Crow), Jungunjinanuke (Dick-a-Dick), Murrumgunarriman (Twopenny), Pripumuarraman (Charley Dumas), and Zellanach (Cuzens) were the first Australians to come to Britain for a cricket tour of England. They were part of the Aboriginal Cricket Tour of 1868 which took place almost a decade before the ‘first’ match between England and Australia.

In their lifetimes they were known by nicknames or names given to them by white people. Their Aboriginal names are now rightly acknowledged and celebrated as is their achievement. They arrived back in Australia in February 1869 and played a game against a military team a month later, after which they split up. Zellanach died of dysentery a couple of years later. Two of them disappeared and records of the fate of another two no longer exist. Seven died on the indigenous reserves that were set up by the colonial administration of Victoria, purportedly to protect them from exploitation by unscrupulous white people, but despite such legislation, that curtailed their movement. Two of the talented players Murrumgunarriman and Unaarimin were not completely lost to cricket.

Murrumgunarriman played for New South Wales against Victoria in 1870, having moved there, probably before the legislation that all but destroyed indigenous Australians’ cricket in the colony. Unaarimin remained in Victoria and was briefly employed by Melbourne Cricket Club after the tour, because of his obvious cricketing ability. He even played for Victoria against the English tourists in 1879, top-scoring in the second innings with 36, despite batting down the order.

Plans for a second tour in 1869 were scuppered by lack of finances and also by legislation in Victoria.[2] The Central Board for Aborigines declared it illegal for any indigenous Australian to travel from the colony without the permission of the relevant minister. It effectively prevented further tours and sewed the seeds of other racist legislation that affected the development of indigenous Australians’ sport and also that of the country as a whole.

Former Australian captain, Ian Chappell[3] was one of the strongest advocates of honouring the achievements of the indigenous Australian team of 1868. In 2002 the entire team was inducted into the Sports Australia Hall of Fame and two years later the players were awarded individual numbers. James Sutherland, then Chief Executive of Cricket Australia said: “The 1868 Aboriginal tour of England was a critical event in Australia’s sporting and cricket history. In recent years the remarkable and courageous achievements of the 1868 team have become more widely acknowledged and celebrated, and we would like that history and recognition to be ongoing.”

Shameful

During their lifetime the indigenous Australian tourists were treated disgracefully. Racism undoubtedly played a major part in the failure to develop the sporting ties that were made in England to their maximum potential. There was no return tour and the colonial government of Victoria made travel for indigenous Australians virtually impossible. Despite their obvious sporting prowess, demonstrated during that tour, indigenous Australian sportsmen and women were denied the opportunity to excel and to be treated as sporting equals on the field of play.

When Sydney hosted the Olympic Games in 2000, Australia embraced its indigenous heritage and the indigenous Australian athlete and the country’s great medal hope, Cathy Freeman, was the heroine of the games. Australia loved her. Freeman was proud of her heritage and carried both the Australian and indigenous flags on her victory lap, but an interesting question was never posed.

Australia had hosted the Olympic Games once before – the only other time that the games had been held in the southern hemisphere – in Melbourne in 1956. Two important events that year led to boycotts: the Suez Crisis and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republic’s invasion of Hungary. Australia failed to acknowledge its indigenous heritage and the rest of the world thought nothing of the human rights of indigenous Australians who had been dispossessed: subjected to genocide and subjugation, while hypocritically protesting about human rights elsewhere.

There was no concern for the right of indigenous Australians to compete in the Olympic Games in 1956. Sport eventually isolated South Africa over apartheid. Where was the condemnation of Australia’s treatment of indigenous sportsmen and women? The role models were there and some possessed great talent and sporting prowess that should have been nurtured.

Cricket could and should have played an important role in the integration of Australian society and sport, but it failed to grasp the historic opportunity.

It was not alone, but it should be a matter of shame for Australia that despite their cricketing prowess and over a century passing only one cricketer of acknowledged indigenous descent Jason Gillespie – the great-grandson of a Kamiliroi warrior – has represented Australia at the top level (Test Matches)[4].

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[1] This article was first published in the Magazine in 2009. It was originally not in two parts, but it has been split for the convenience of readers.

[2] England had toured the USA, Canada and Australia previously, but the Aboriginals were the first Australians to represent the country abroad – a remarkable achievement in its own right.

[3] Chappell carved out a second cricket-related career in media after retiring as a player. He announced his retirement from that too in 2025.

[4] This is no longer the case. Faith Thomas and then Ashleigh Gardner were the second and third Aboriginal players to play Test Matches for Australia – Thomas was the first woman. Since then, Scott Boland became the fourth. He played an important part in Australia’s recent win in the series against India to take back the Border/Gavaskar Trophy.