• Title
  Aboriginal cricketers alongside the Melbourne Cricket Ground Pavilion, c.1867
• Call number
  MPG/113
  
• Level of description
  fonds
• Date
  
  c.1867
• Type of material
  Graphic Materials, Photographs
• Reference code
  420833
• Issue Copy
  Digitised
• Physical Description
  Photographs - 1 photoprint - 22 x 26 cm. - Multiple tears. Mounted
  
• ADMINISTRATIVE/ BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY
  
  The Aboriginal players in this photo were part of a team of 19 Aboriginal cricketers, along with English player Charles Lawrence as captain and 3 other white cricketers, who toured England in 1868, playing cricket and giving demonstrations of boomerang throwing and dancing. The team played 47 matches, winning 14, losing 14 and drawing 19. One player, Bripumyarrimin ('King Cole'), died on tour of pneumonia, a couple of players returned home ill, one was arrested for drunkenness on tour and nearly all suffered homesickness.
• Scope and Content
  [Team members: at rear (left to right), Tarpot, T W Wills, Johnny Mullagh; front row, King Cole (leg on chair), Dick-a-Dick (standing); seated (left to right), Jellico, Peter, Red Cap, Harry Rose [Tiger Rose?], Bullocky, Cuzens]
• Access Conditions
  
  Access via appointment
• Copying Conditions
  Out of copyright: Created before 1955
  Please acknowledge:: Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales
• Published Information
  Published in: Greg de Moore "The man who invented AFL", SAM (Sydney Alumni Magazine), July 2010, p. 36, which see for an article on Tom (Thomas) Wills
• General note
  
  Formerly titled (on mount) "Mr Wills' arrival in Sydney with the aboriginal cricketers 16 Feb. 1867 (First Australian XI to England, 1868)
  Transferred 1990 from MPG/CRICKETERS
  MSS key to names on reverse; for transcription see Pxn 776
  This is not the full team of Aboriginals who toured England and T W Wills did not tour at all, only coaching the team in Australia
  Original print was "touched up" by W & F Pascoe, Aug. 1980
  Reference sources:
  The Encyclopaedia of Aboriginal Australia / David Horton (General Editor). Canberra: Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies, 1994
  Cricket Walkabout: the Australian Aboriginal Cricketers on Tour, 1867-68 / John Mulvaney, Rex Harcourt. Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 1967
  Photograph restored, June 2003, Digital ID a128392 (pre-restoration photo. at a128035)
  Digital order no:Album ID : 954268
• Signatures / Inscriptions
  
  16th Feb. 1867. Mr [T W] Wills arrived in Sydney with the Aboriginal Cricketers -- on label on reverse in pencil (full label is damaged and incomplete)
• Attributions / conjectures
  
  On a later silver gelatin photographic SPG copy held in the Library, this key to the players:
  "The team comprised the following players: Bullocky, Tiger, Mullagh, red Cap, Dick-a-Dick, Peter, Lawrence, king Cole, Twopenny, Jim Crow, Dumas, Cuzens, Charlie, Mosquito, Shepperd, promoter & manager Mr R. Hayman"
• Subject
  Adult Males
  
• Topic
  Aboriginal peoples (Australians)
  cricketers
  
• Place
  Melbourne Cricket Ground (Melbourne, Vic.)
  
• Exhibited in
  
  Champions: Australian Sporting Greats - State Library of New South Wales (5 July - 16 November, 2003)

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