Boxing & Australian Identity

Les Darcy was born in 1895 at Stradbroke near Maitland, NSW. He earned his first money in the boxing ring as a fourteen year old.

This image shows him at the beginning of his career at age fifteen. By the time he was eighteen, Sydney boxing promoters had begun to import fighters to challenge him. He became the Sydney Stadiums biggest drawcard with his supporters from Maitland travelling to see him.

January 1915 saw his last defeat fighting American Jeff Smith when he lost because his seconds refused to let him continue after being hurt by a foul blow that the referee did not witness. This only served to add to his fame.

Darcy won 22 consecutive bouts, in all winning 46 of his 50 professional fights and was never knocked out.

Smith's toughness, boyish good looks and his working class roots quickly made him a national hero – until he was suspected of shirking enlistment during WWI on his decision to earn money in America.

Denied a passport, he stowed away on a ship where upon he was stripped of his titles and promoters lost interest in him.

This image was taken in the Cameron Studios in his hometown.

Portraits of Australian boxers taken at this time typically adhere to an established stiff, clichéd form: fists poised, pecs primed and guard stance.

A fortnight after Smith enlisted in the army in New York, 1917, he was admitted to hospital with a dental infection, dying shortly after from pneumonia, aged twenty-one.

It is believed 250,000 lined Sydney’s streets as his coffin made its way back toward his native Maitland.

Jerry Jerome was a stockman and boxer born in 1874 at Jimbour Station, north of Dalby, Queensland, of Yiman descent.

He was known locally as an expert horseman, athlete and show boxer.

Amazingly, Jerome didn't begin his professional boxing career until 1908, aged thirty-four.

Whilst not having been trained as a boxer, he proved himself to be a competitive fighter.

He became the first Aboriginal man to win an Australian boxing title, winning the Australian Middleweight title in 1912 at The Stadium in Brisbane in a bout against fellow Queenslander, Charles Godfrey, knocking him out in four rounds.

He was known for confusing his opponents with his speed, dancing and weaving tactics – which also entertained the crowds.

When he retired from boxing in 1915, he had achieved 24 losses and 40 wins, 34 by knock-out, in his professional career .

In their green star spangled satin shorts, the 'Fighting Sands Brothers’, of Dunghutti descent, were the pride of the country.

Sports enthusiasts loved their story of six brothers raised in a small Aboriginal community on the mid-north coast of New South Wales, timbergetters and woodcutters by trade, who exchanged hardship for stardom.

Tom Uren lived most of his life in Balmain, Sydney, where he was born.

At a young age he excelled at football, surfing and swimming. Uren competed in surf carnivals to win prize money to help support himself and his family during the hardships of the 1930s in Australia.

This portrait refers to Uren's early ambitions as a heavyweight boxer, which were derailed by the outbreak of WWII when adventure struck and Uren enlisted in the army.

‘I wanted to become a great fighter, and that was the ambition and aspiration…in those days it was the sport where you really lifted yourself out of the norm.’

Ralph Heimans the artist, has said his portrait also refers to Uren’s fighting spirit in the political arena for issues of social justice.

Heimans captures Uren’s passion for heritage conservation of areas of inner Sydney, which can be seen in the background.

Uren’s father was a cousin of Les Darcy. Uren fondly remembers the support he received from his father during his boxing days.

‘My mother was never happy about that (boxing), but my father was as proud as punch but I really did enjoy fighting and not from the point of view of brutality, but from the point of view of scientific boxing…I was about 19 years of age and I was fighting, I remember, fought in the stadium, like I bid for the Australian heavyweight title, and I really was not fit enough, I'd only had flu a few days before and I shouldn't have fought, but it was the courage, my father said to me how proud he was of me…’

Returning home at war's end, Uren aimed to go back into the fight game but after poor health due to contracting malaria and a decisive defeat in England, he gave up the idea.

'I just couldn't, so the tragedy of all this ambition, of wanting to be a great fighter, and thinking about fighting and planning a future, I'll never forget as long as I live, of lying on that cold bench in that dressing room alone, with just a blanket over me, cooling down, and the thoughts that had gone through and had relived many of the years that I'd spent in prison camp and my aspirations and everything; I thought my world had crumbled around me. So it was a defeat really. If you take defeat in the right way it can be really character-building in a person...I found it a humbling experience...I had to try to build from there on.'