A history of sport in the Moreton Bay District, 1842-1872

Dudley, Robert Peter (1989). A history of sport in the Moreton Bay District, 1842-1872 PhD Thesis, School of Human Movement Studies, The University of Queensland.

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Author Dudley, Robert Peter
Thesis Title A history of sport in the Moreton Bay District, 1842-1872
School, Centre or Institute School of Human Movement Studies
Institution The University of Queensland
Publication date 1989
Thesis type PhD Thesis
Total pages 501
Language eng
Subjects 16 Studies in Human Society
Formatted abstract The purpose of this study is to analyse the development of sport in the Moreton Bay District from 1842 to 1872 in terms of its social and cultural significance.

The period 1842 to 1872 represents the first 30 years of free settlement of the Moreton Bay District as an English colony. The cultural mix of indigenous Australian Aborigines and settlers, mainly from England, Ireland, Scotland, Germany and the older colonies of New South Wales and Victoria, is analysed. The social and cultural roles of sport in the motherland, England, at this time are briefly examined.
The major sports are presented in order of their first appearance in the Moreton Bay District, and analysed in terms of their social significance and the values claimed for participation in them. Where possible, class affiliations of players and organisers are identified. The roles of Aborigines, women and those from non-English backgrounds are portrayed where appropriate. Rivalry between the principal towns of Brisbane and Ipswich is evident in many sports. Achievements in horse racing and cricket were used to compare the new colony of Queensland, founded in the Moreton Bay District, with the older colonies of New South Wales and Victoria. The roles of sport in schools are portrayed. Men who played a variety of sports and those who were leaders in the organisation of sport are identified and their influence described and analysed.

Sport was an important aspect of the developing society of the Moreton Bay District from 1842 to 1872. In this society, which had a propensity for division, sport was used to symbolise allegiance to the motherland, England, and inculcate English patterns of social intercourse and cultural belief. While, at times, sport demonstrated divisions in the Moreton Bay society, at others it showed a unity of the social and cultural fabric. By 1872, sport was dominated by a middle class ethos, and the values of the English rational recreation movement were widely promulgated in the newspapers. Women were generally excluded from sport except as adornments as fatuous spectators. Those men who exercised power as leaders in other aspects of the society also exercised power as the leaders in organised sport. Attempts to create elite sports and the establishment of amateur sporting clubs tended to demonstrate class divisions. Nevertheless, by 1872, the oldest sports of the Moreton Bay District, horse racing, celebratory regattas and cricket were being organised as class-inclusive activities, and the writers of various newspaper articles were able to describe the popular sports held on occasions of general public holiday as rational and healthy entertainments.
Keyword Sports -- Queensland -- Moreton Bay Region -- History
Sports -- Queensland -- Brisbane -- History
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