Cricket Walkabout: Swansea and the Aboriginal Cricket Tourists of 1868

Tell us what you think of this episode In this episode we meet and talk to a visiting Australian group who are from the Harrow Discovery Centre, a small museum in Victoria Australia. The museum is dedicated to spreading the story of the first touring Australian sporting side, a group of aboriginal cricketers, who came to the UK in 1868. Led by an English professional cricketer by the name of Charles Lawrence they played 47 matches stretching from May through to October and, as part of the tour, they came to Swansea. The Harrow Discovery Centre has just published the 4th edition of a book about the cricketers and their visit was part of a promotional tour for the book. Swansea plays quite a significant part in the story they have to tell. The photograph taken at Swansea on the day of the match, is one of the few surviving photographs of the team. When Cricket Australia decided to honour the most famous aboriginal cricketer, Johnny Mullagh ( traditional name, Unaarrimin ) by naming a man of the match medal after him, descendants of the players wanted to have an image of the whole team at the centre of the buckle produced. So now, the Swansea photograph sits at the heart of the Mullagh Medal which is presented to the Man of the Match for the Boxing Day Test at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. The episode features speeches and interviews with the Australian party and the Swansea Cricket Club as well as the museum's own Andrew HIgnell. For those interested in discovering more about the aboriginal team, including Johnny Mullagh, you can visit the Harrow Discovery Centre website here: https://harrow.org.au/ Fiona Clarke, the descendant of two of the players who was in attendance is an artist who has gained great prominence in recent years in Australia. You can see her work here: https://www.fionaclarke.com.au/ The book about the tour, Cricket Walkabout, does not have a UK publisher, but is available via the internet (we will not recommend any particular sites) but you could consider purchasing a copy from the Discovery Centre shop which is available via their website. All profits from the sale of the book will go towards the work of the discovery centre.