Online Exhibition for St Augustine’s Boys’ Home Boxing and Wrestling Teams

 

The Manly Art of Self Defence

 

The teaching of boxing at Christian Brothers Boys’ Homes was a normal practice up till the end of WWII. However, the manly art of self-defence as it was called lasted longer at St Augustine’s Boys’ Home in Geelong up till the late 1960s when they won many championships.

St Augustine’s Boys’ Orphanage in Geelong had facilities to play a wide range of sports, e.g., cricket, football, basketball, baseball, tennis, along with a full gymnasium for boxing and wrestling. This online exhibition is about the very successful boxing and wrestling teams from St Augustine’s Boys Home.

The St Augustine’s boxing and wrestling teams travelled around Victoria and interstate for competitions in Adelaide, Sydney, Brisbane throughout the 1950s and 1960s. The Geelong advertiser carried headlines such as “St Augustine’s won 27 medals,” in the state Amateur Boxing and Wrestling Championships at Caulfield Youth Centre.

Pictured left a boy from St Augustine’s posing with boxing gloves, St Augustine’s annual report 1968.

In the talking back to records exhibition, Johno as a young boy who was in St Augustine’s tells of going to Festival Hall in Melbourne to compete in boxing bouts.

These boxing and wrestling bouts were often fundraising events for the orphanages however, they produced holders of state championships as the article (right) describes.

 

Annual Competitions between St Augustine’s Boys Home and St Vincent de Paul’s Home in South Melbourne.

 

Huge crowds attended annual boxing championships and repeatedly showered the ring with coins. St Augustine’s boys would very often distinguish themselves in both boxing and wrestling at these annual events. There was always strong barracking for both teams.

These competitions were well covered in newspapers in both Geelong and Melbourne commending the toughness of all boys in the bouts who often ended up with gory noses and black eyes. They earned their coins!

 

 

The Australian Orphanage Museum was given a donation of boxing and wrestling trophies and medals, plus some newspaper articles by Care Leaver Cyril Ellis.

 

Cyril Ellis was in St Augustine’s Boys’ Home during the 1950s and 1960s and was part of the successful boxing and wrestling team. He was taught boxing and wrestling by Brother Robinson from St. Augustine’s. Cyril travelled across the state to participate in boxing and wrestling matches. He represented the Geelong region in the Western District’s competitions.

The St Augustine’s team travelled to Bendigo for the country championships were Cyrill secured the winner’s cup. In the Melbourne Championships, he came runners-up. St Vincent’s de Paul’s organised a Golden Gloves competition, which was an 8-week tournament. Cyril won all the divisions for his weight and was Champion of Champions. The first time that title had been awarded.

 

 

Wrestling at Festival Hall

 

Westling bouts between St Augustine’s and St Vincent’s troupes would also be held at Festival Hall in Melbourne. This newspaper article from 1940 describes how St Augustine’s boys were too clever for their wrestling rivals chiefly using “half-nelson’s,” the most effective move in wrestling. St Augustine’s won sixteen points, – eight wins overcoming St Vincent’s four points, – two wins. The article goes on to say all but three bouts were won by decisive two falls.

Cyril Ellis donated the AOM his third placed wrestling medal in the Junior Victorian Championships in 1955.

The second trophy which has no engravings was typical of what boys would get for coming 2nd in a wrestling bout.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Our Lives, Our Stories Talking Back to the Records

Our Lives Our Stories: Geelong Care Leavers Talking Back to the Records is an exhibition that focuses on Geelong Orphanages and Children’s Homes and five Care Leavers who were in some of the Geelong Orphanages. Care Leavers tell what they liked, didn’t like, and what they would have wanted to know about from their childhood records.

This is the Australian Orphanage Museum’s first temporary exhibition at its new home in Ryrie Street, Geelong, and features the stories of Care Leavers who grew up in one of the region’s many children’s institutions.

Commissioned by CLAN (Care Leavers Australia Network), the exhibition was developed and written by historian Abigail Belfrage from The History Dept., with design by Megan Atkins. It explores the importance of records to people who grew up in orphanages and children’s homes, and the complexities of accessing records for Care Leavers. This has been a focus of CLAN’s advocacy for many years.

Childhood records are vitally important to Care Leavers, but they can be difficult to access. Records can also fall way short of people’s needs and expectations and give a distorted view of people, events and experiences. Care Leavers have a strong urge to “talk back” to the records of their childhoods in institutions. Listening to the voices of Care Leavers, adding memories of their lived experiences and challenging the version of the past in their records, helps to “set the record straight”.

As a microcosm of a larger story, the exhibition has a geographic focus on the thirteen children’s Homes and orphanages of Geelong, the earliest of which dates back to the 1850s. This was the most outside any capital city in Australia.

Exhibition booklet now available to purchase: Our Lives, Our Stories: Geelong Care Leavers Talking Back to their Records – Stories from an exhibition at the Australian Orphanage Museum, Geelong, June 2023

Bound copies of the exhibition booklet are now available to purchase for $20.

An accompaniment to this powerful exhibition, the publication contains full transcripts of interviews with 10 CLAN members who all spent time as children in Homes in Geelong. Contact us to get your copy.

 

 

Australian Orphanage Museum gratefully acknowledges the Local History Grants Program and Public Record Office Victoria, supported by the Victorian Government through the Community Support Fund.

 

 

 

 

Royal Historical Society of Victoria

2023 VICTORIAN COMMUNITY HISTORY AWARDS WINNERS

Commendation in the Oral History Award to Our Lives, Our Stories: Geelong Care Leavers Talking Back to their Records Abigail Belfrage, Consulting Historian with The History Dept. with the Australian Orphanage Museum Project Team Australian Orphanage Museum, 2023