Sports fan movements to save suburban-based teams threatened with amalgamation in different football codes in Australia.
Coauthored with Murray Phillips. Published in International Sports Studies, 17:1 (1999), 23-38.
During the late 1980s and 1990s there has been an international acceleration in the rationalisation and relocation of... more
During the late 1980s and 1990s there has been an international acceleration in the rationalisation and relocation of professional sporting teams and competitions. While this process has had a long history in the United States, it has occurred much more rapidly in other societies. In Australia, there has been a dual process of national expansion of professional sporting competitions and pressures placed on historic suburban-based clubs. In addition, there has been a massive infusion of international capital in the form of television interest in Australian professional sports. In rugby league this caused a temporary split in the national competition. In rugby union it has led to open professionalism and greater integration with South Africa and New Zealand. And, in Australian Rules football, the governing
body has worked to protect itself against an outside takeover such as has plagued rugby league. At the same time, both the Australian Football League (AFL) and the National Rugby League (NRL) and their predeessors have worked to rationalise the number of suburban Melbourne and Sydney-based clubs respectively while promoting a policy of national expansion and for rugby league even international expansion to Auckland, New Zealand. We examine fan responses to these changes
particularly when their club is threatened with merging with other clubs, We discuss the dynamics of this process that are unique to the Australian context in our analysis of global capital and local audiences and suggest how this connects with a theoretical understanding of such processes more generally and comparisons that can be made between Australia and other countries.
Making an International Legend: The Media, Pat O’Dea and Midwestern Football in the 1890s and 1930s
Published in Football Studies, 2:2 (1999).
Pat O’Dea (1872-1962), born in Kilmore, Victoria, Australia, played Australian Rules football briefly for the... more
Pat O’Dea (1872-1962), born in Kilmore, Victoria, Australia, played Australian Rules football briefly for the Melbourne Football Club, but made his fame in American football
where he was the star fullback for the University of Wisconsin Badgers between 1896 and 1899. O’Dea’s skills, particularly his massive punting, drop- and place-kicking abilities, were
legendary. He was widely recognised as one of the best players of his day and his record established him as one of the best kickers of all-time in American collegiate football. O’Dea’s story became more intriguing as time progressed, particularly as he disappeared between 1917 and 1934, only to be discovered living under an assumed name in California. O’Dea was brought back triumphantly to Wisconsin where his legend was relived,revived and retold in the early 1930s and at various times through to his death in 1962. Little is known about O’Dea in Australia and he does not appear as a significant figure in many recent discussions of football history in the United States. This article explores the career of Pat O’Dea at the University of Wisconsin and his subsequent ‘reappearance’ and examines press coverage of O’Dea in the late 1890s and again in 1934.
Sport, community, class and religion: Rugby league and cultural identity in the Lockyer Valley, Queensland
co-authored with Damian Topp. Appears in Sporting Traditions 21:1 (2004), 53-65.
Rugby league's history in the Lockyer Valley of Queensland in Australia has been characterised by challenges and... more
Rugby league's history in the Lockyer Valley of Queensland in Australia has been characterised by challenges and changes over time that are emblematic of wider trends in Australia as a whole during the first century of Federation. Little has been written about sport in rural Australia and less still is known about the Lockyer Valley, an area that has produced many great players. The main town of the Lockyer Valley is Gatton, which lies 100 kilometres west of Brisbane. The larger centres of Ipswich and Toowoomba lie 40 kilometres to the east and 30 kilometres to the west respectively.
The story of rugby league in the Valley is emblematic of the changes that have taken place in Australian sport over the past century as leagues grew within local communities during the first half of the century, only to fall victim to increased migration to the capital cities, depressed rural economic conditions, sport on television, and the perceived shrinking of distance through improved transportation infrastructure.
‘Australian Responses to the Indian Famine, 1876-8: Empire, Sympathy and Photography’
Co-authored with Andrew J. May, in Australian Historical Studies, forthcoming 2012
Emaciation or Emasculation: Photographic Images, White Masculinity and Captivity by the Japanese in World War Two
Journal of Men’s Studies, vol. 15, no. 3, Fall 2007, pp. 295-310.
This article argues for the need to historicize the use and reception of photographs taken of Allied POWs upon release... more This article argues for the need to historicize the use and reception of photographs taken of Allied POWs upon release from Japanese prison camps at the end of World War Two. Photographs of semi-naked, emaciated POWs at the time of their liberation were extremely unusual images of white men in a state of almost complete abjection. They provide an opportunity to explore the links between masculinity and war with particular reference to the way visual images—in this case photography—inform and shape that relationship. The images convey contradictory messages to the viewer. They undermine the hegemonic masculinity of the virile male warrior yet unmistakably invoke the power of a quite singular cultural referent: the suffering body of Christ. The argument to be explored here is that this duality of transgression and redemption has contributed to the images' iconic status in collective memories of Australian participation in the Pacific War.
Australian Nurse POWs: Gender, war and captivity
Australian Historical Studies, vol. 36, no. 124, October 2004, pp. 255-74.
'Without Natural Protectors': Responses to wife desertion in gold-rush Victoria
Australian Historical Studies, vol. 28 no. 108, April 1997, pp. 22-46.
“In the Front Line”?: Internment and Citizenship Entitlements in the Second World War
Australian Journal of Politics and History, vol. 53, no. 2, June 2007, 194-206.
This paper analyses the experiences of Australian civilian internees of the Japanese in the Second World War and the... more This paper analyses the experiences of Australian civilian internees of the Japanese in the Second World War and the Australian government's responses to their desires for repatriation, compensation and rehabilitation. It argues that civilian internees stood in awkward relation to understandings about sacrifice in wartime and entitlements to compensation. The dominance of the citizen-soldier in Australian narratives of war placed civilian internees in an ambiguous position. Civilian internees had not played a direct part in battle but did have direct contact with the military enemy. They had personally suffered privation at the hands of the enemy, but were not military personnel in service of their country. Civilian internees expose the tensions around citizenship and citizenship entitlement attendant upon the elevation of war service as the ultimate sacrifice for one's country.
‘The National Service Scheme: Citizenship, Masculinity and the tradition of compulsory military service in 1960s Australia’
Australian Journal of Politics and History, 58:1, March 2012, 67-81.
Between 1964 and 1972, the National Service Act 1964 required Australian men turning twenty years old to register for... more Between 1964 and 1972, the National Service Act 1964 required Australian men turning twenty years old to register for national service. Unlike most scholarship on the national service scheme, which focuses on opposition to the scheme and its unpopularity, this article examines the reasons why most Australians supported the reintroduction of national service and why so many young men complied with its provisions. It argues that compulsory military service was seen as essential in the context of the Cold War, and as a way of ensuring that young men now coming of age were inducted into models of masculinity, citizenship and duty considered essential for a cohesive society. It was the scheme's break with accepted traditions of compulsory military service in Australia that is an overlooked, and important, element of the criticism it generated. In that sense, it was the legacy of earlier wars that fed into the contemporary response to national service.
Courting men: mothers, magistrates and welfare in the Australian colonies
Women’s History Review, vol. 8, no. 2, 1999, pp. 231-46.
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Download (.pdf) Empanelling the squatters: Christian behaviour and politics in Furphy’s Such is Life.
by Susan Lever
Paper delivered at the 'In Search of Tom Collins' conference, Lake Mungo, April 2012
In Chapter IV of Such is Life, Tom Collins tells us that 'there is no typical squatter. Or, if you like, a... more
In Chapter IV of Such is Life, Tom Collins tells us that 'there is no typical squatter. Or, if you like, a thousand types.' (164) This paper examines the various squatters in Furphy's novel, his sympathy for some of them, and his inability to propose any successful alternatives for their dominance of the land. It argues that the subject matter of Such is Life—the ownership of property that should belong to all—is as political as any study of unionism might have been. The ‘absence of the shearers’ indicates Furphy’s identification of land monopoly as a more serious source of inequality than wage injustice.
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The fall and rise of Anzac Day: 1965 and 1990 compared
War & Society 20, 1 (2002)
Gallipoli’s status in Australia as the pre-eminent moment of national self-discovery was securely established in the... more Gallipoli’s status in Australia as the pre-eminent moment of national self-discovery was securely established in the inter-war period. By the end of the century, Anzac Day, the anniversary of the first landings of a campaign that ultimately failed, was the key date for national self-reflection. Yet the intervening period was marked at times by concern that interest in Gallipoli was waning. This article traces the shifting level of public interest in Anzac Day in Australia by comparing two milestones, its 50th and 75th anniversaries. Both occasions followed the familiar pattern of commemorative events, both prompted a return trip to Gallipoli for a party of veterans; both gave rise to newspaper coverage and public musing on the meaning of the anniversary and its future. But the scale and mood of these two occasions were quite different. The article explores some reasons for this, including the shift towards a more inclusive rhetoric, the renewed influence of Charles Bean through fresh academic interest in the subject, and the impact of a powerful cinematic depiction of the campaign.
Beckham, Waugh and the Memory of Gallipoli
in John Crawford and Ian McGibbon (eds.), New Zealand’s Great War: New Zealand, the Allies and the First World War (Exisle Publishing, 2007) ISBN-13: 978-0-908988-85-3
In October 2003, England played Turkey in Istanbul in the crucial qualification game for the Euro 2004 football... more In October 2003, England played Turkey in Istanbul in the crucial qualification game for the Euro 2004 football tournament. Amongst the banners in the crowd, one read [David] ‘Beckham remember Gallipoli’. It is unknown what England’s captain made of the historical reference, but it is apparent that the journalist reporting this story had only a vague understanding of the campaign. He explained that the banner referred to ‘the First World War battle where 22,000 British and Commonwealth soldiers died in a futile last stand against Turkish and German troops.’ The memory of Gallipoli was thus shaped to fit the banal circumstances of a football match – for the Turkish owners of the banner, it suggested the promise of victory; for the journalist, a do or die opportunity or ‘last stand’ that resonated with events of the First World War, tinged with the obligatory idea of its futility. Nor is this the first time that the Gallipoli campaign has been used to inspire sportsmen: in 2001 Steve Waugh & the Australian cricket team stopped off in Turkey to recreate the game on Shell Green en route to the Ashes series. Notwithstanding their respectful intentions, the Australian cricket team were harking back to a humiliating defeat to inspire them for a match where their former brothers-in-arms were now their opposition, and rather than being untried newcomers, they were now the all-conquering team to beat. This essay traces some of the reasons for the divergent memories of the campaign.
From Population to Citizen: The Subjects of the 1939 Aboriginal New Deal in Australia’s Northern Territory
Kontur, 2011, no 21, pp 17–33
In 1939, the Commonwealth of Australia formulated a new policy for ‘native administration’ which mapped a transition... more In 1939, the Commonwealth of Australia formulated a new policy for ‘native administration’ which mapped a transition from ‘native tribes’ to ‘citizens’, staging a modernising Australia. In this article, I discuss the various processes of subjectivation at each point on the ‘long march’ of colonial ‘progress’ or settler colonial elimination. Writing a history of these linked colonial governmentalities casts light on practices of recognition, difference, and the self in the modern world.
In Furphy's Footsteps
by Susan Lever
Feature article in Canberra Times, Panorama section, April 21, 2012
Account of trip in search of the places in Joseph Furphy's novel, Such is Life. Account of trip in search of the places in Joseph Furphy's novel, Such is Life.
(with Carol Baxter) Exposing an exposé: Fact versus fiction in the resurrection of Captain Thunderbolt'
Journal of Australian Studies, Vol. 26, No. 1, March 2012, pp. 1-15
In March 2010, the NSW Legislative Council passed a remarkable motion demanding the release of archival records... more In March 2010, the NSW Legislative Council passed a remarkable motion demanding the release of archival records relating to the death of the bushranger, ‘‘Captain Thunderbolt’’, who was shot by police in the New England (NSW) in May 1870. The interest in this 140-year-old episode from the colonial past reflects a suspicion that the police shot the wrong man in 1870 and that the colonial authorities engaged in a high-level conspiracy to conceal this from the public. More seriously, it has been alleged that the NSW government actively maintained a strict censorship over secret documents that reveal the true circumstances of the bushranger’s death. Even more remarkable is the fact that the Legislative Council motion was employed to advance the claims made in an historical novel. This article considers the alternative account of Thunderbolt’s death presented in Gregory Hamilton and Barry Sinclair’s Thunderbolt: Scourge of the Ranges (2009), and investigates the allegations concerning the censorship of historical records in the service of an ongoing state and police conspiracy. We demonstrate that the case made in the novel, and promoted in the NSW Parliament, has been built on a misrepresentation of the nature and practice of state record-keeping in NSW.