Comments on: Is this the first image of footy in Australia? http://askmark.wordpress.com/2007/09/21/is-this-the-first-image-of-footy-in-australia/ Post your questions about Australian Football's Origins Mon, 24 Sep 2007 23:45:19 +0000 http://wordpress.com/ hourly 1 By: Gillian Hibbins http://askmark.wordpress.com/2007/09/21/is-this-the-first-image-of-footy-in-australia/#comment-2 Gillian Hibbins Mon, 24 Sep 2007 23:45:19 +0000 http://askmark.wordpress.com/2007/09/21/is-this-the-first-image-of-footy-in-australia/#comment-2 The Origin of Australian Rules Football: Aboriginal Influence Non-Existent It seems a great shame that most people, including many historians, do not know how the game of Australian Rules football started. There has always been football of some kind. The game goes back centuries and across the world. After all if you have feet and a ball, what do you do? Kick it, of course. The cavemen probably kicked stones! So naturally the Aboriginals played football, not as a consistent game across the colony of Victoria because they were divided into tribes (for want of a better word) who rarely socialised and were often at loggerheads. Why is it asserted that the Aboriginal game, or games, influenced the establishment of Australian Rules? It would be great if this link could be supported but the evidence is not forthcoming. The Rules were laid out by four men in May 1859. Two of the men, William Hammersley and James Thompson came from England and Cambridge University. The other two were Tom Smith from Ireland, and Tom Wills born in Australia and educated at Rugby School in England. Tom Smith was already a keen footballer and it is supposed that this was probably derived from playing football at Dublin University. Recent research by Adrian Harvey (Football: The First One Hundred Years The Untold Story Routledge London 2005) shows that in the 1850s football was played around England, not just at the main private schools as previously claimed, and not in any national code but primarily on a game-by-game basis with the rules agreed before the match began. So these men had this general background and James Thompson later remembered that they had the rules of the top English schools, Rugby, Eton, Harrow and Winchester, in front of them. They chose what they thought would be best for Melbourne, and best for men, not just schoolboys. Tom Wills is seen as the link between Aboriginal football and Aussie Rules, when it is claimed he saw Aboriginal football as a child and was influenced by this when the men discussed the rules. It is true that Tom Wills played on his family’s pastoral station near the Grampians with Aboriginal children. There is, however, no evidence that the indigenous people played football there; and that if they did, that Tom either saw them or participated in such a game. He was at school in Melbourne from the age of seven and left Victoria aged fourteen to go to Rugby School in England. More significantly, the racist attitude of the white men to the Aboriginals in the mid nineteenth century was that they were a simple, barbarous race and it is highly improbable that the colonists would have considered copying anything that the Aboriginals did. In the reminiscences of the four rule-makers and of any other contemporary, there is not one mention of any influence or consideration of Aboriginal football as far as I can ascertain in many years of research. On the other hand, Rugby School, where Tom Wills undoubtedly played football; was a much respected, prestigious English school whose football was more likely to be suggested by Tom. (There is some slight evidence that this is what Tom actually did but he was evidently overruled by the other three as not suitable to Melbourne conditions.) Those who would like to read a detailed account of all of this, should read my Sport and Racing in Colonial Melbourne recently published by Lynedoch Publications, 40 Brighton Street Richmond 3121, especially chapters 8 and 9 and the Appendix 1. www.lynedochpublications.com.au Gillian Hibbins The Origin of Australian Rules Football: Aboriginal Influence Non-Existent
It seems a great shame that most people, including many historians, do not know how the game of Australian Rules football started. There has always been football of some kind. The game goes back centuries and across the world. After all if you have feet and a ball, what do you do? Kick it, of course. The cavemen probably kicked stones!
So naturally the Aboriginals played football, not as a consistent game across the colony of Victoria because they were divided into tribes (for want of a better word) who rarely socialised and were often at loggerheads.

Why is it asserted that the Aboriginal game, or games, influenced the establishment of Australian Rules? It would be great if this link could be supported but the evidence is not forthcoming.

The Rules were laid out by four men in May 1859. Two of the men, William Hammersley and James Thompson came from England and Cambridge University. The other two were Tom Smith from Ireland, and Tom Wills born in Australia and educated at Rugby School in England. Tom Smith was already a keen footballer and it is supposed that this was probably derived from playing football at Dublin University.

Recent research by Adrian Harvey (Football: The First One Hundred Years The Untold Story Routledge London 2005) shows that in the 1850s football was played around England, not just at the main private schools as previously claimed, and not in any national code but primarily on a game-by-game basis with the rules agreed before the match began. So these men had this general background and James Thompson later remembered that they had the rules of the top English schools, Rugby, Eton, Harrow and Winchester, in front of them. They chose what they thought would be best for Melbourne, and best for men, not just schoolboys.

Tom Wills is seen as the link between Aboriginal football and Aussie Rules, when it is claimed he saw Aboriginal football as a child and was influenced by this when the men discussed the rules. It is true that Tom Wills played on his family’s pastoral station near the Grampians with Aboriginal children. There is, however, no evidence that the indigenous people played football there; and that if they did, that Tom either saw them or participated in such a game. He was at school in Melbourne from the age of seven and left Victoria aged fourteen to go to Rugby School in England.

More significantly, the racist attitude of the white men to the Aboriginals in the mid nineteenth century was that they were a simple, barbarous race and it is highly improbable that the colonists would have considered copying anything that the Aboriginals did. In the reminiscences of the four rule-makers and of any other contemporary, there is not one mention of any influence or consideration of Aboriginal football as far as I can ascertain in many years of research.

On the other hand, Rugby School, where Tom Wills undoubtedly played football; was a much respected, prestigious English school whose football was more likely to be suggested by Tom. (There is some slight evidence that this is what Tom actually did but he was evidently overruled by the other three as not suitable to Melbourne conditions.)

Those who would like to read a detailed account of all of this, should read my Sport and Racing in Colonial Melbourne recently published by Lynedoch Publications, 40 Brighton Street Richmond 3121, especially chapters 8 and 9 and the Appendix 1. http://www.lynedochpublications.com.au
Gillian Hibbins

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