The Minister for the Arts, the Hon Mary Delahunty; British Consul General, General Peter West; President of the Library Board, Sam Lipski; Chairman of the Foundation, Stephen Kerr; Dame Elisabeth Murdoch, and Janet Calvert-Jones and other members and close friends of the Murdoch family with us tonight...
'We have gathered in this unique place to hold a unique ceremony. Our purpose is this - to reunite the Muscles and the Mind, once divorced, in the bonds of a legitimate marriage...'
That got your attention, ladies and gentlemen. They are of course not my words, but the words of the father of the modern Olympic Movement, Pierre de Coubertin, when opening 'The Advisory Conference on the Arts, Literature and Sports' in 1906.
In following up that speech, exactly 100 years later, I want to share with you tonight, some of my own thoughts about the need for that marriage of muscles and mind, particularly among the youth of the world; and about the values and traditions of sport and recreation from those early days of modern Olympism, to the modern culture of sport, and the various challenges facing it, in contemporary Britain, Australia and indeed throughout the developed and developing world. Along the way, I aim to break the journey with stop-offs at several seminal sporting events - including some notable running races, and the Melbourne and Sydney Olympic Games - and to outline London 2012's Olympic and Paralympic Games vision to inspire more young people to become involved in sport.
It is a great honour for me to follow in the distinguished footsteps of Rupert Murdoch and Professor Peter Doherty in giving the Keith Murdoch Oration. And it is a particular honour to do so in the presence of Dame Elisabeth Murdoch and Janet Calvert Jones.
Keith Murdoch was a great Australian and, through his journalism and his development of the Herald and Weekly Times chain, a great newspaper man who helped to shape the cultural landscape of this dynamic nation as well as Australia's position and influence on the world stage, a legacy that was inherited and enhanced by his son Rupert Murdoch, the pre-eminent media entrepreneur and thinker of our times.
Keith Murdoch's influence was felt well beyond the shores of his own country. The influence of the Herald and its workers in the Olympic world and Australian sports world has also been far-reaching. For example, Edgar Tanner, a member of the sales department of the Herald and Weekly Times, was a driving force behind Melbourne getting the Olympic Games, and went on to become a leading figure in the history of the Olympic movement in Australia. While Harry Gordon, a former Herald and Weekly Times journalist and executive, continues to perform outstanding service as Australia’s brilliant Olympic historian.
It is wonderful that with the Commonwealth Games underway, Melburnians are also able to honour the memory of Keith Murdoch by attending this event tonight, in support also of the State Library, marking a double celebration of sport and culture - a celebration that says something very special about the city of Melbourne.
The State Library of Victoria, of course, is one of the world's great libraries, a precious and beautiful building and a resource not only for Victorians but for visitors from all over the world. The State Library conveys a sense of Melbourne’s vision and ambition, fitting for a city which is the home of outstanding institutions and organisations in the fields of education, and, to use the title of de Coubertin's conference in 1906, 'Arts, Literature and Sports'. With the air around us electric (and a little smoky after last nights fireworks) with the excitement of the Commonwealth Games, I am also delighted to be able to pay tribute to Australia's and Melbourne's contribution to sport and to outline London's vision for the 2012 Olympic Games.
I follow and I love Australian sport not just because of many great personal friendships and not just because of the inherent internationalism of that great universal phenomenon, the Olympic movement, but because I see Australia as having inherited much of the sporting culture and mindset of England. I do not mean this in any patronising sense.
You have taken that British legacy, and comprehensively adapted it, mixing in the cultures of many other countries and of your Indigenous people, your climate, your space, your distinctive attitude to life.
Australia is a world leader not just in elite international sports competition (the Ashes notwithstanding - I just thought I'd mention that) and sports administration, but in the community ethos of sport and recreation; of participation, of volunteering, of keeping fit.
So you have the base of that oft-used model of the sport and recreation triangle - mass community participation; and, at the apex, the champions, who have come from the base but then help maintain it, by projecting their influence back down as role models, as catalysts, as sports community leaders, helping maintain that base. I will have more to say about the major challenges currently facing that process and the triangle.
Pierre de Coubertin was very conscious of British sporting tradition. And of Australia's potential role in Olympic sport. After visiting England in 1890, he noticed the growing interest in sporting contests, especially British sporting contests, and the increasing popularity of the practice of physical exercise. 'How times have changed!' he wrote.
'From the furthest ends of Australian pastures to the ranches of Texas. From the Pampas of South America to the plateaus of the Himalayas, around the Kraals of southern Africa and in the marketplaces of China and Japan...groups gather to hear the story of the battles of strength and endurance'. 'From the furthest ends of Australian pastures' - this must surely be one of the first versions of the phrase, 'the back paddock' or 'beyond the black stump'... De Coubertin was already describing the connection of sporting traditions and mindsets between England and Australia.
In 1887, as a mere 24 year old, in a speech in Paris he said: 'Two things dominate in the English education system: 'two things that are also means for achieving their ends: freedom and sports'. He said that the most noteworthy aspect of English education was 'the role that sports plays in it...this role is physical, moral, and social, all at the same time'.
De Coubertin was a visionary who was way ahead of his time. In 1888, he wrote about the need in schools for 'free time' and play, in a paper called 'The cure for overworking'. This idea went down a treat in both our countries, of course. In 1901, with psychology still an infant science, he espoused the wisdom of having 'sports psychology'.
That quintessentially English work, Tom Brown’s School Days which you may be aware of and which I dare say you might find a copy or two in the State Library, was, believe it or not, an early inspiration for de Coubertin. As a 13 year old, he read the 1875 French version serialised in a youth newspaper. It triggered his enthusiasm for English sports and the need to teach sport, or 'physical culture' to young people; the social and physical benefits of a healthy lifestyle, centred on exercise, recreation and physical education.
De Coubertin wrote the following about the 1894 Paris Congress, which prepared the ground for the first modern Olympic Games, held in Athens two years later: 'Notices of participation (besides) came from directions in which we had not dared to hope, and even Australia sent us its warm wish'. That warm wish in fact emanated from an upstairs room at the Port Phillip Club Room in this great city through the hand of Basil Parkinson, the Honorary Secretary of the Victorian Amateur Athletic Association.
As a result of that far-sighted initiative, Edwin Flack, who grew up in Melbourne, went on to win two gold medals, I note, in the 800 and 1500 metres - and I know how hard that is.
But Edwin Flack was very special. Born in London, his family migrated to Australia where he attended Melbourne Grammar School, showing early sporting prowess as a promising middle-distance runner before returning to England in 1895. He was lured to Athens a year later after hearing about the revival of the Olympic Games and paid his own way to attend the first modern Olympics, where he quickly distinguished himself as the star of the Games, winning the two blue-ribbon middle-distance running events as well as competing in two tennis competitions and running in the marathon, just failing to finish after he collapsed towards the end of the event while leading the field.
Flack's victories caught local officials by surprise, prompting them, according to some reports, to raise the Austrian flag, although, according to other accounts, Flack had been entered in the Olympic Games under the auspices of the London Athletic Club and it seems that organisers instead raised the Union Jack and played God Save the Queen - not even Kiri Tikanawa to soften the blow.
Flack became known as the 'Lion of Athens', such was the impact he had on the Games. His indominitable spirit and victories have since become the stuff of Olympic legend as well as an inspirational moment in Anglo-Australian sporting folklore.
So Australia was involved in the Olympic Movement from the outset and is in that proud handful of countries, including, I'm glad to say, Britain, which has participated in every Summer Olympic Games, from Athens 1896 to Athens 2004.
So from the start, Australia and Britain were suitably and admirably at the forefront of this renaissance of physical education and sport. It was given international embodiment by Pierre de Coubertin through the Olympic Games and then through a growing number of thriving programs and events such as the Empire Games, now of course the Commonwealth Games.
As an Englishman, I can understand but am still astonished by the achievements of Australian sport and the depth and richness of Australia's sporting culture. You have produced so many great sportsmen and women, and champion teams. Bradman is arguably, only the greatest of these. The first question Nelson Mandela put to Malcolm Fraser, after years of isolation in prison on Robben Island was, apparently: 'Is Don Bradman still alive?' That is a moving illustration of Bradman’s magic and of the power of sport to inspire.
I am not going to enter the current Australian debate as to whether soccer is football, football is football, or football is soccer. But I am also an enthusiast for your very own home-grown sport, Australian Rules football. Indeed, my friend and fellow British Olympian, Daley Thompson, and I occasionally serve as fitness advisers to the St Kilda football club under Grant Thomas. Our efforts, regretfully, have not produced a flag - yet.
I am a fully paid-up member of the Aussie sports fan club. It doesn’t make it any easier to say this, when so many of your greatest sporting triumphs - Bradman's and others - have been at Britain’s expense. So, in case I incite the Barmy Army to become more barmy or, worse, more army, I just want to recall again that we won the Ashes back last year - there, that's two mentions. And there may be more yet.
I could take many examples of Australian sporting greatness, and of the size and passion of the Australian sporting audiences. But let me confine myself to my own special love, athletics. In the 1950's, this country - and this state - stood at the pinnacle of middle-distance running. In Vancouver, at the 1954 Empire Games, John Landy, from Geelong, shared the world stage with Roger Bannister. Only months before they made history by both breaking the magic four-minute-mile barrier. The Race of the Century, as it became known, still inspires people around the world. The great Herb Elliott, my own hero, started his surge to world fame in Victoria. I'm sure if I went to Portsea and listened carefully, I could hear the ghost of Percy Cerutty urging him on up and down the sand dunes. Ron Clarke's extraordinary world record-breaking career also began in Melbourne. I share Australia’s hopes that, in the even tougher globally competitive environment of today, Craig Mottram can build on that marvellous tradition in the days to come.
Melbourne's winning the right to host the 1956 Games was a brilliant example of the capacity of leaders of this city to plan and exercise diplomacy in pursuit of a vision. Edgar Tanner, Frank Beaurepaire and others lobbied assiduously from 1946 to bring the Games to Australia. I also know how hard that is. And like their counterparts today, they didn't embellish things too much, although the film they presented to IOC delegates did show magnificent Hawaiian-like surf rolling on to Port Phillip's beaches. And their showcasing of Melbourne's fine wining and dining neglected to mention the six o'clock swill, a spectacle which amazed visiting journalists during the Games. Tanner and Co got Melbourne home by one vote in the IOC ballot in Rome in 1949, an even narrower victory than Sydney's in 1993. And I thought our own win against Paris was tight.
Melbourne ran a brilliant bid and delivered a brilliant Games. But it was not all plain sailing along the way during the preparations. Indeed, history records that 18 months before the Opening Ceremony, the then IOC President, Avery Brundage, said this at a press conference in Melbourne:
'A group of pretty smart Melbourne citizens attended the Rome meeting six months ago, at which the Games were awarded to Melbourne. I don't know how they did it. For six years we have had nothing but squabbling, changes of management and bickering... You have changed the Head of your Organisation several times, and there seems to be much confusion.'
In a couple of years time, when the London Organising Committee is getting some stick about some issue or other from the IOC, as seems an inevitable fate at some time or other for all Olympic Organising Committees at some time or other in their preparations, I will draw comfort from recalling this story and from the warmth and success achieved by the Melbourne Games, despite Brundage's salvo.
Of course, Melbourne this year celebrates its 50th anniversary, and I wish you well for those momentous celebrations in November.
Since 1956, the revolution in communications and the globalisation of the Olympic Movement have changed the task of Games organisers beyond recognition. For example, in Melbourne the Games were covered by five television cameras and there were 5000 TV sets in Australia capable of taking the broadcasts live. In 2012 in London, we will require literally hundreds and hundreds of cameras, while a cumulative television audience of 4-5 billion people could be expected to watch the broadcasts. Information Technology budgets have ballooned, from a tiny level two decades ago to about a third of enormous overall budgets nowadays - Sydney's IT budget was about $800 million.
Melbourne's Olympic organisers, however, had the great foresight to demand payment for the television rights and stuck to their guns in the face of threatened boycotts by international broadcasters. The revenue achieved at the time was about 40,000 Australian pounds. These days that might pay the air travel costs of a medium-sized team to the Games. But the principle laid down was vital and far-reaching, as broadcasting rights are now the single biggest source of Games revenue. Subsequent Olympic Organising Committees, and the IOC, should always be grateful to Melbourne.
These days, with contemporary challenges such as security and transport and telecommunications - and the '24-7' scrutiny of the media - organising an Olympic Games is immeasurably more complex.
But in 2000, the Sydney Games shone like a beacon, in ways that are immediately relevant to our task in London in 2012.
Sydney was conceptually and organisationally a brilliant Games. It centred on the creation of the Olympic Park on the reclaimed Homebush site. I believe that an Olympic Park is instrumental in fostering a magical Olympic atmosphere - in creating an electrifying experience for competitors and spectators - in providing the uplifting spirit which distinguishes the Olympic Games from other sports events. Creating this ambience along with the highly important associated accommodation, transport and security benefits that come from co-locating key venues on the same site, is the first principle of our plans for London in 2012, and our Olympic Park is central to this principle. It will house the Olympic Village, the main stadium and a number of other sporting venues that will leave London with much needed new venues after the Games to help inspire future generations of local young people as well as visitors. And London’s Olympic Park will, crucially breathe new life to a neglected and deprived part of the city in the East End.
Sydney provided a model example of the alliance-building necessary for delivering the Games. London's Games also brings together a tight alliance of Britain's Olympic and sports community with the national Government, the Greater London Authority, and the private sector. As you may know, Prime Minister Tony Blair and Ken Livingstone, the Mayor of London, are hardly close political soul mates over recent years, but the Olympic bid brought them together and their close cooperation was critical to our winning the Olympic bid.
Along with our own home-grown British major events experience which includes in recent times events like the Manchester 2002 Commonwealth Games and the 2003 World Indoor Athletic championships to the annual London Marathon, Wimbledon and many others, Australian technical experience in Olympic and sports organisation will be of great assistance to London. We were fortunate to have the participation in our recent Olympic bid of Sydney Olympic personnel, like Jim Sloman, Chief Operating Officer of the Sydney Games - Melbourne University’s engineering department should be very proud of him, by the way.
But it is more than technical sporting capability that Australia offers us. Just as valuable is the way Australians welcomed the world in 1956 and 2000 and are doing so today at these Commonwealth Games. The Melbourne Olympic Games were of great historical importance for Australia and this city.
But they were also a wonderful Games for the world's athletes and the Olympic Movement, which remembers them as 'the Friendly Games'. In many ways, it was the Melbourne Games that took the Olympics to the world. It was the first Games held outside Europe or the United States, the first Games held in the southern hemisphere and the first Games where live television broadcasts captured the public's imagination at the height of the Cold War. What an achievement for Melbourne! I would be very happy if London 2012 were to win a nickname like that.
One of the extraordinary human contributions of Melbourne to Olympic tradition and values was that for the first time at the Closing Ceremony the athletes entered the stadium, not in teams behind national flags, but all together like one enormous family. The inspiration for this parade came from a Melbourne schoolboy, John Ian Wing, who wrote initially and anonymously to the organisers, outlining his idea, complete with illustrations. His letter says: 'They must not march, but walk freely and wave to the public... War, politics and nationality will be all forgotten, what more could anybody want, if the whole world could be made as one nation.'
I find it fascinating that, at the height of the White Australia policy, the Melbourne organisers accepted this proposal, on the basis of a letter written in longhand, which began, 'I am a Chinese-Australian boy, and have just turned 17'. Sport can build bridges and tease out a generosity of spirit like few other human activities and probably nowhere more so than in Australia and my own country.
I know how competitive you are and how much winning means to you. But I also know how fair and sporting Australians are. It is shown in the way you embraced the Paralympics in 2000. That is something you share with us in Britain. We intend to do the Paralympians proud in London in 2012. And of course, the epitome of Australian fairness was John Landy's giving up his pursuit of a world record and going back to help Ron Clarke, who had fallen, during the national mile championship in 1956. John's act of sportsmanship inspired a nation and helps explain why John is admired as an athlete and a man. And he went on to win the race - in life too, as witnessed in the delivery of the Queen's baton last night.
In Sydney in 2000, Australia rejoiced in the achievements of Cathy Freeman and her fellow Australian Olympians. But you also made the world's athletes feel warmly welcome here and unstintingly acknowledged their performances. Australia's multicultural community, developed over the past half century, was an important factor in this.
In fact, Australia can be very proud of the special qualities and success of the two Games it has hosted. Though in different times, and therefore in 'different places', both Games were strong in diversity and generosity. At a time when the Cold War was at its height, Melbourne went out of its way to cheer the great Soviet athlete, Vladimir Kuts, in the 5000 and 10,000 metres. The Olympic spirit was beautifully captured by Philip Miskin, the Mayor of the Melbourne Athletes' Village, with the quaint title of Commandant, who had suffered the deprivations of a prisoner of war on the island of Hainan for three years. He outlined his task more than 50 years ago in terms marked by such a sense of passion and precision that they should be required reading as a mission statement for anyone or any committee planning to bid or host a major event anywhere in the world.
This is what he said.
'We are to be hosts to the young men and women of about 70 nations, without distinction of race, colour, politics or creed. We have to provide their accommodation and training facilities, and their performance will depend on the quality of what we provide. Their food, living conditions and leisure opportunities must be the best that we can offer. Moreover, we must make no distinctions between any of them. We want them to give the best performances they are capable of. We want to be agents of good will to every one of them, and when they leave us, we want them all to be good ambassadors for Australia'.
Indeed, this could be the blueprint for the organisation of Melbourne 2006 Commonwealth Games.
In Sydney, the volunteers, a concept crafted in the London Games of 1948, were modern-day ambassadors; the crowds were huge, exuberant and fair; the city was open, friendly and exciting; and the spirit of the Games imbued with multiculturalism and reconciliation.
London, too, is a great city where people from 200 countries live peacefully side by side and where 300 languages are spoken. They come from every continent. They practice every religion and every faith. In London, Olympic values of universality, inclusiveness and respect for diversity will also be nurtured and advanced. In the face of terrorist threats, societies like ours need to continue to cherish diversity and tolerance as strengths of our societies, not weaknesses.
Since the great period of decolonisation began around 1960, the Olympic Movement has seen great changes. In particular, it is wonderful that we have seen great champions emerge in some of the poorest countries in the world - in Africa, for example - giving people there hope and inspiration. This has made the Olympic Games the most important and successful popular embodiment of internationalism yet devised by human beings. A galaxy of leading world cities - Paris, Madrid, New York and Moscow - bid against London for the 2012 Games. When they threw their hats in the ring, the IOC immediately dubbed this particular round of bidding the Great Race. Any one of them would have been capable of delivering a great event. All this suggests that the Movement is stronger than ever.
But at the beginning of the 21st century, as London begins its Olympic preparations, I believe that sport - Olympic sport included - faces a new, tough, complex challenge. In Western countries, the age of 24-hour entertainment and instant fame presents young people with a host of obstacles standing in the way of the inspiration and role models which sport offers. Today's children live in a world of conflicting messages and competing distractions. Their landscape is cluttered. Their path to sport is often obscured. When I was growing up, my heroes were two Olympians who lived in my home town. My children's heroes change from week to week. For many, they are not even real people but cartoon or video game figures. Children in the developed world have a range of what a friend of mine calls SBAs - 'Screen Based Activities' - to entertain them, to keep them occupied, to soak up their leisure time: computers, DVDs, game consoles, videos, TVs of course; then there are other e-devices to keep their attention, like iPods. Yes, they are learning, yes they are playing, yes they are developing, but there’s a major downside to all this.
And on the other side of the socio-economic coin, millions of children around the world can't play, can't exercise, because they have neither the resources nor the physical energy to do it. They are spending all day just surviving, getting - perhaps - to the next day. Therein lies another massive challenge, but it is vitally important, for all these reasons that when communities do have an acceptable overall level of physical and economic well-being, that they provide the resources to be able to assist their social and individual development through improved health, which includes sport and recreation.
The modern lifestyle of millions of children from the developed world is, I am afraid to say, coming at a cost. For a number of years, the IOC 'World Sport for All' Program, which focuses on community sport and recreation, has highlighted the social costs of diminished community involvement of social skills and interaction and, hence - I would argue cohesion; the health costs of this, with chronic diseases, such as cardio-vascular problems and diabetes, having now overtaken infectious diseases as the major cause of illness and death; and the huge economic costs - including increased administration and infrastructure costs - of poor public health and physical inactivity, leading to rapidly increasing obesity levels is now beyond dispute.
If de Coubertin could see the need all that time ago, surely our societies can. Public authorities, and community organisations must not consider concepts such as ‘Sport for All’ as a cost, but an investment. They provide significant individual and collective health and social benefits to communities and economic benefits to countries.
These trends, and their rapidly flowing current of consequences, provide us with a major challenge. It is a major challenge in Britain, and Australia as well as in other countries and regions of the world.
And I believe that the power of sport generally and of the Olympic Games in particular provides us with a rare opportunity to tackle this issue of getting more young people into sport.
We are determined that a London Games will address that challenge. The fact that London is pre-eminently the world's city of young people helps our cause. It is the number one destination for young people from all over the world. Six million of them visit us every year. More of them choose London for their education than any other city. As the Live Aid concerts showed, if you want to start a youth movement, you start it in London. And, with more than 1,000 foreign media correspondents based in London, it is a city with a voice that is heard all around the world, a voice that talks to young people. We intend to use that voice, and the unique opportunity provided by the universality of the Olympic Games, to strive for the goals I set out in Singapore, when presenting our Olympic bid to the IOC last July - London's vision is to reach young people all around the world. To connect them with the inspirational power of the Games. So they are inspired to choose sport, as the following video which formed part of our IOC presentation shows.
Roll Inspiration Video (3.30 mins)
Using the undeniably strong forces of the Olympic movement in combination with other international and national bodies and organisations, I want to build a much stronger global alliance, using government and sports organisations, and businesses - to inspire youth to get into sport, to get into recreation - to make sure they enjoy it enough to stay in it; to strive to make clear the benefits of such involvement for them and their communities.
In de Coubertin's terms, I want to build our own, 21st Century 'Committee for the Propagation of Physical Exercise'...
And, very appropriately for the Keith Murdoch Oration, I should reiterate here how important the media is in raising awareness in sport, and how much sport matters. The media is a creator of heroes, of role models, of the profile which enables sportspeople and events to inspire young people, to influence their daily decisions, to spread the messages.
In all its forms, especially the new media, it is an indispensable force in communicating to the youth of the world the emotions and feats which create the heroes and the devotion to sport, And it also vital in communicating the substantive - though often not the headline-grabbing - qualities through sport, of healthy lifestyles and physical exercise.
And I want to raise at this point two specifically Australian elements of this vision, this alliance.
We are currently working to identify organisations and individuals who share our vision to inspire the world's youth through sport and forging bridge heads with like-minded groups around the world, including Australia, who we hope will come on board as we start to build a international platform for this vision.
This would be truly fitting, given Australia's place as a leader in sport and recreation, and the integral, strengthening role they play in the fabric of your society.
There are many programs we can build upon, many excellent projects in Australia, particularly for the disadvantaged, where they receive the necessary resources, guidance and motivation from the many sports-minded Australians willing to put in.
I said before we have to show a new generation that sport matters. But I also want to, you might think strangely, use the shrewd words of Michael Parkinson, a fellow Yorkshireman and lover of cricket (is that four mentions?), who said: 'Sport matters because it doesn’t matter'.
He was referring to all those great qualities of sport which set it apart from those life and death elements of the world today - to the intense emotional experiences gained from playing, coaching, being involved, or merely being one of those dangerous watchers of sport, but which change shortly - shortly for some people is 50 years, mind you - and after the final whistle is blown change again when the ball is bounced for the next game. And I guess we can talk of the 'pressure valve' element of sport as well - better letting it go there than anywhere else. Again, though, an element not to be messed with.
That all holds true, but sport does matter, full stop. There are community and individual social, health, and economic benefits of huge proportions, which I have I hope made clear tonight.
I leave you not with another piece of homespun philosophy, but a good Australian-English (sort of) tale of sport and its importance, about two good friends, who nevertheless have their moments: Dame Edna Everage - a huge favourite in England and now, I believe, on four Australian stamps - and Barry Humphries, who is only on one.
Barry was obviously the anti-de Coubertin of his era. He believed, as a child, that sport was a waste of time. At Melbourne Grammar, he would hide in the lavatories to avoid playing, and run home. Not away, but home. The school captain apparently finally sprung him, uttering the very appropriate words: 'The game's up, Humphries'. So Barry got the nickname 'Queenie'.
Fortunately, he failed to influence his very close friend, Dame Edna. Well before she was an icon - and you’ve got to love any country where a drag queen who throws gladdies is made a Dame by a Democratic socialist, republican Prime Minister - she started her on-stage career with a sketch, in which as the then still humble Mrs Norm Everage, she magnanimously offered her palatial residence at Moonee Ponds, with its burgundy Axminster, to billet some of the 15,000 guests in Melbourne for the 1956 Games.
...Shows what a good sport Dame Edna is compared to Barry, who said recently he was honoured to be named an 'Australian Legend' alongside Don Bradman, whom he had never known but believed to have been a pretty good player - Quote: 'not that I know much about football'. Or cricket - that's my last mention. Thank you.
Transcript of the Keith Murdoch Oration, State Library of Victoria, Thursday 16 March, 2006
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