Items

Yarrabah – Foundation Day Sports – Yarrabah – 1939

Report on annual sports day, including sailing races. Source: Northern Churchman, 1 August 1939, p. 6.

Yarrabah – spear and boomerang throwing – Yarrabah – 1939

Opening of tourist season at Y on 12 May, with visitors from Cairns. Spear and boomerang throwing displays. Prep is underway for annual sports day in June. This year there’ll be water sports, which normally they take place later in the year. Source: Northern Churchman, 1 July 1939, p. 8.

Yarrabah – Aquatics – Yarrabah – 1939

A miniature regatta held after presentation of a sailing boat for the boys’ dorm. No details given. Source: Northern Churchman, 1 May 1939, p. 13

Yarrabah – Cricket, Sailing – Description – 1939

Bleakley, Chief Protector, presented Y sports cub with a silver cup for the annual cricket competition. Mr CE Chuter, Under Sec of Dept of Heath and Home Affairs, presented a cup for the dinghy sailing races. “This is promoting much enthusiasm among the people”. Source: Northern Churchman, 1 March 1939, p. 16.

Yarrabah – RL – Description – 1936

Report by “John N. Q’land” [Bishop John Oliver] on Y. Refers to continued popularity of “Corroborees and Games” as well as adaptability to football [RL] and team spirit. Names Harry Clarke as a referee. Source: Northern Churchman, 1 November 1936 pp 5-6 (Oliver's full report pp. 1-6).

Yarrabah – Recreation – 1935

Report by Archbishop of Brisbane (reprinted from Courier Mail). “On arrival in Yarrabah we found the bush brothers teaching the boys some English games. It was amazing how quickly the native boys picked up the games, and how keenly they entered into the spirit of them. They seemed also to pay an almost meticulous attention to the rules: but I was told that as soon as we were gone they would revise all the rules and continue to play the games according to an entirely new native version”. Source: Northern Churchman, 1 November 1935, p. 2-3.

Yarrabah – Foundation Day Sports – Yarrabah – 1927

Report on Y St Alban’s Day sports. No author. Money deducted from Y men’s pay for local Sports Fund. Source: Northern Churchman, 1 August 1927, p. 7.

Yarrabah – Foundation Day Sports – Yarrabah – 1921

Description of plans for annual sports day: full program; men and boys training in advance; visitors coming from Cairns. Source: Northern Churchman, 1 August 1921, p. 11.

Yarrabah – Description – Recreation – 1920

Report on a visit to Y at invitation of Mr Lyon. Not signed, but from context a church rep. Largely positive and propagandistic. Ends with: “I must mention one other thing that struck me. It is the way the children play games. I never saw camp children really playing. But here were to be seen rounders entered into with great zest; a hop, skip and jump contest was informally conducted in an interval of leisure with ringing cheers (not shouts) for the winners. In every way the children are the happy, careless youngsters we see in our own schools.” Source: Northern Churchman, 1 October 1920, pp. 2-4.

Yarrabah – Christmas Sports – Yarrabah – 1909

Requests for prizes for Boxing Day sports – small things like knives, fish hooks, hymn books, handkerchiefs, pipes, belts, writing paper, shaving brushes, scissors, thimbles, etc. Source: Northern Churchman, 1 December 1909, p. 12.

Yarrabah – Sports - 1907

Yarrabah requests, inter alia, donations for Xmas of “cricket bats, footballs (four wanted).” Source: Northern Churchman, 1 December 1907, p. 4.

Yarrabah – Football - 1905

Letter from Gribble. “Football is now very popular, and matches are played on Saturday afternoons. Our friends of St. Mary’s, West Maitland, who so kindly sent us a most acceptable present of clothing, tools and a football, will be gratified to know of the great pleasure which has been derived from the football.” Source: Northern Churchman, 9 October 1905, p. 5.

Yarrabah – Football – Yarrabah – 1905

Report on Bishop Frodsham's vist to Yarrabah (around August 1905): “In the afternoon, an exciting football match took place among the young men. Very fine specimens of manhood they looked, many of them bearing the remains of their savage state in the shape of gashes made across their body and filled with earth – a ceremony necessary to admit them to a place in the fighting line when engaged in tribal warfare.” Source: Northern Churchman, 7 September 1905, p. 9.

Yarrabah – Aquatics – 1918

HG Simpson, who’s in charge of Oombunghi, writes that Back Beach, between Oombunghi and Gilghi Creek, is the site of “a great deal of their [“natives”] leisure” spent in fishing and aquatics (p. 55). Most of the villagers belong to the Fourmile tribe, who inhabited the district when Gribble first arrived. Source: A.B.M. Review, 1 7 1918, 54-55.

Yarrabah – Sailing – Cairns – 1941

"Yarrabah boys will race for a special prize [vee jay class?]" (Cairns Post) “On the 14th September quite a number of our folk went to Cairns to take part in the Cairns Aquatic Club’s annual Sailing Regatta. The Club very generously provided special events and prize money for the competition of our boys, and when our boats are trimmed with bunting and their white sails set to the breeze, Y hearts swell with pride”. Source: Northern Churchman, 1 November 1941, p. 16.

Yarrabah – Calisthenics – Cairns – 1908

Yarrabah participated in a sports day at Cairns, Displayed Samoan dances. "The gymnastics were loudly appluaded, especialy Phillip..."

Yarrabah – Calisthenics – Cairns – 1905

Display of club-swinging and gynmastics by "Yarrabah Mission boys with the band" at Cairns St Patrick Day Sports

Yarrabah – Foundation Day Sports – Yarrabah – 1917

Sports held on Y’s 25th birthday. First report of this happening - previoiusly Foundation Day celebrations did not appear to include sports. Report written by HGS [HG Simpson]. 1. Saturday, 16th June. Race heats, including Mission Championship [150 yds] 2. Sunday, 17th June. Procession to cross on beach that marked site of first missionary landing in 1892 and service. 3. Monday, 18th June. FSport finals, plus other events including traditional Aboriginal events – merrow [mirral] throwing, spear and boomerang throwing, and pipe-lighting race. Prizes distributed at night. One boy who won food at 3 events ate them all. Source: A.B.M. Review, 1 8 1917, 106.

Yarrabah – Football – Yarrabah – 1914

Report on Ration Day in Y, 4 March 1914, written by Superintend King [Rev Cecil King]. People from all of the settlements were in Y to collect their monthly rations. “After dinner a football match with twenty-three aside was played, or rather fought, between the Mission and the combined settlements. The Superintendent acted as referee, and his task was no sinecure, though he had to let old rules of offside and the like go by the board; for, as the comic song says, “Everybody’s doing it now! [sic]. The barracking was simply great! – quite impartial from the women and girls, if not from the men. After an hour and twenty minutes with no respite, the final whistle blew, leaving the settlements the winners by eighteen to eleven” (p 7). Source: A.B.M. Review, 1 4 1914, pp. 6-7.

Yarrabah – Christmas Sports – Yarrabah – 1913

Rev Cecil King new Super at Y. Report on Xmas. After lunch: “The men played cricket and football, although the thermometer was abut ninety degrees in the shade. However, they did not mind the heat, as it made their brown bodies all the more slippery for their opponents to ‘collar’” (197). Corroboree at night. Source: A.B.M. Review, 1 2 1914, pp. 196-97.

Yarrabah – Football – Yarrabah – 1912

Letter from C.C. Macmichael, Holy Trinity Rectory, Beaconsfield, dated 22 August 1912. He and his wife visited Yarrabah as guests of Mr & Mrs Needham [Reverend, Superintendent] for a few days. Watched a football game the day after their arrival: “A Rugby football match was played, and skill in eluding opponents in passing, and swiftness of foot was shown. All were very good-tempered and friendly, though keen on the fight” (p. 128). Seems to have been on a Saturday. On the Sunday after church, sports: “The afternoon was given up to sports. I remember the long jump was 15 feet, high jump 5 ft. 2 in., which is tremendous for boys of short stature” (128). Source: A.B.M. Review, 1 10 1912, p. 128-29.