Beschreibung:

A HISTORICALLY SIGNIFICANT ARCHIVE OF THE ABORIGINAL CRICKET TOUR OF ENGLAND 1868 AND CHARLES LAWRENCE 1828-1917, A FOUNDING FATHER OF AUSTRALIAN AND INTERNATIONAL CRICKET When the aboriginal cricketers played at Lord's on 13 June 1868, they were the first Australians to do so, a decade before white Australians played there and 14 years before the birth of the 'Ashes'. Those who came to see these Australian tourists were watching some of the last of the original inhabitants of Victoria. This was the first and only occasion when tribal Aborigines played cricket in England. It was only 33 years since Batman's treaty with the Aborigines of the Western District of Victoria, on 6 June 1835. White settlers moved into the Western District shortly after, in the 1840's, with disastrous results for the indigenous population. Aborigines, with their traditional attitudes to the land and hunting for food were often seen as a nuisance. Some were shot or poisoned. An estimated tenth of the native population were murdered by whites. From about 11,500 in 1834, their numbers were reduced to about 800 by 1886. By 1850 traditional life had broken down, most drifting to the white settlements and pastoral stations. With many white workers joining the gold rush, the aborigines became convenient and cheap replacement labour. Cricket was played on the stations and settlements. With the Aborigines of Western Victoria this centred around Edenhope station and Lake Wallace. It was here that Tom Wills began playing with and coaching the local aboriginal teams. His own family property, at Ararat, was not far. He himself had narrowly escaped death when his father, other members of his family and station workers were killed in Northern Queensland in the biggest massacre of whites by aborigines, in 1861. The charismatic Wills however, always remained close to the Aborigines and took the team on two tours, in 1866 and 1867, of major towns and cities in Victoria and New South Wales. On the second of these, in Sydney, Charles Lawrence became involved with the team. Lawrence, born in the London suburb of Hoxton, came to Australia with the first touring England cricket side, led by H.H.Stephenson, in 1862. He has the unique distinction of playing in the first England team to tour Australia and in the first Australian team to tour England. A professional cricketer at 17, Lawrence had played cricket in England, Scotland and Ireland. In 1851 he played professionally for Dublin's Phoenix Club. He remained in Ireland for 10 years, forming a professional United All-Ireland XI. In 1854 Tom Wills went to Ireland and was selected by Lawrence to play in his All-Ireland XI. At the end of this first English tour of Australia, Lawrence was induced to remain behind by the recently formed Albert Club in Sydney, as coach at their Redfern ground, becoming Australia's first professional coach. From the moment Lawrence arrived in Australia he had the idea of making a fortune from training Aborigines at cricket and combining this with displays of their traditional skills with boomerangs, spears, fighting clubs, parrying shields. At Lake Wallace he encouraged this and made supplies of the weapons. All the Aborigines in the team were of full Aboriginal descent, most were born before pastoral occupation began. All but two were from the Southern Wimmera, mostly affiliated with the Madimadi or Wutjubalak language, or dialect, groupings. Despite an outcry against their exploitation from various Victorian authorities, including R. Brough Smythe, Secretary of the Central Board for the Protection of the Aborigines, the team sailed for England from Sydney on 8 February, arriving in England after a voyage of 3 months. In England they were based at Town Malling, in Kent. The original scorebook, in Lawrence's hand, meticulously records every one of the 47 games played, documenting the team's gruelling itinerary. The small tour party was reduced to 11 fit players during the tour. King Cole di