Names

Australian sports collections

IDs

nma-collection-201

http://www.nma.gov.au/collections/highlights/sport/

Descriptions

Sport is a major area of collection interest for the National Museum of Australia. While not all sports are represented the collections includes some very significant items relating to boxing, cricket, horse racing, tennis, rugby league, netball, rugby league, Australian rules football, rugby union, mountaineering, surf life saving and other sports.

Key collections held by the museum include the Swan Richards Collection which documents Australian test cricket from the 1930s to the 1980s including memorabilia from Greg Chappell, Rod Marsh, Bill O'Reilly and Wally Grout. The Evonne Goolagong Cawley collection includes Evonne's 1971 and 1980 Wimbledon singles trophies, the trophy from her 1974 doubles win and two racquets used in these tournaments. Boxing is represented with material from legendary Australian boxers Les Darcy and Lionel Rose. The Dally Messenger collection consists of a beautiful black mahogany shield embossed with silver which was presented to Eastern Suburbs star captain Herbert 'Dally' Messenger in 1913, after his rugby league club won the trophy three years running. Perhaps the most famous sporting object in the Museum’s sporting collection is Phar Lap’s heart which was returned to Australia following the death of the race in suspicious circumstance in the United States in 1932.

Copyright National Museum of Australia

Physical access to the collection by appointment only

Related Collections

Dates

2012-05-30 23:43

2011-06-27 10:42