Brisbane Lions pay homage to their Aboriginal roots in old Fitzroy

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Brisbane Lions pay homage to their Aboriginal roots in old Fitzroy

By Jack Latimore

Yorta Yorta elder Aunty Pam Pedersen remembers how her father, Indigenous footballing trailblazer Sir Douglas Nicholls, would deliver sermons to the Fitzroy mob underneath the Moreton Bay fig tree in Carlton Gardens.

Nicholls, who played for Fitzroy and was the first-known Aboriginal player to represent Victoria in the 1930s, used to preach to the local community beneath the big tree, as many community leaders had done before him.

“We’d all sit around there and yarn,” Pedersen said.

Aunty Pam Pedersen stands in front of the Moreton Bay fig in Carlton Gardens, an important tree for the Aboriginal community.

Aunty Pam Pedersen stands in front of the Moreton Bay fig in Carlton Gardens, an important tree for the Aboriginal community.Credit: Justin McManus

The 150-year-old fig’s significance as the birthplace of Aboriginal rights will live on in both Fitzroy and Queensland, with the Brisbane Lions transplanting six saplings at its training facility to honour the team’s inner-Melbourne roots.

Nicholls played 54 VFL games for Fitzroy between 1932 and1937, and was known for his skill and his speed. A natural athlete, he also contested professional gift races around Victoria. After he retired in 1939 he became a pastor and prominent leader in Aboriginal Fitzroy.

His Lions legacy stands among contributions to the club from a dozen Aboriginal players, including Joe Johnson in the early 1900s, Shadrach James Jnr in the early 1940s, and Edward “Ted” Lovett who ran around for the Roys in the 1960s.

Saplings will be planted in Brisbane in a nod to the team’s roots. Pictured: Indigenous player welfare manager Anthony Corrie (left) and Brisbane Lions player Nakia Cockatoo.

Saplings will be planted in Brisbane in a nod to the team’s roots. Pictured: Indigenous player welfare manager Anthony Corrie (left) and Brisbane Lions player Nakia Cockatoo.Credit: Glenn Hunt

Four Aboriginal players represented the club across the 1980s, while three more pulled on the guernsey in the 1990s when Fitzroy and Brisbane merged.

Inspired by Nicholls’ connection to Fitzroy, Brisbane Lions administrator Jake Anson approached the City of Melbourne to inquire about propagating the heritage-registered tree.

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“When I first rang the City of Melbourne hotline, I’m not sure if they knew how to direct my inquiry,” Anson says.

Sir Doug Nicholls was the first Aboriginal player to wear the big ‘V’.

Sir Doug Nicholls was the first Aboriginal player to wear the big ‘V’.Credit:

“The tree sits in a World Heritage-listed site and is on the Victorian heritage register, so we had to ensure our proposal met with those guidelines.”

Aboriginal people around the state converged on Fitzroy from the early 1920s for reasons ranging from racist “protection” acts legislated in the late 1800s and early 1900s, to seeking reconnection with lost family members, to cheap rent in the inner-city slums, to employment opportunities. By the 1940s, Fitzroy homed the largest Koorie population in Victoria.

After obtaining the go ahead from the city council, Anson called Aunty Pam to seek her consent on behalf of Sir Doug’s family, which she says she was happy to provide.

“The fig tree was at one end of Gertrude Street and our people had houses at the bottom end, about five houses – well, they were old shops, but our people lived in them – at the Smith Street end,” Aunty Pam recalls.

“I was very young. I remember we would have our meetings down in Gore Street by then, where our church was, then we would all go to the fig tree. I remember Dad, he used to stand on a soap box and people from all around Fitzroy all used to gather around there.”

The fig tree in the Carlton Gardens has been an Indigenous meeting place for generations.

The fig tree in the Carlton Gardens has been an Indigenous meeting place for generations. Credit: Justin McManus

Before Nicholls’ time, Aboriginal leaders and activists including Jack Patten, William Cooper, Margaret Tucker, Ebenezer Lovett, Martha Nevin and Bill Onus also held community meetings beneath the old tree’s sprawling canopy.

The site beside the forecourt of the Royal Exhibition Building remains significant to the Aboriginal community as a meeting place today.

After seeds were collected from the tree during the fruiting season, Anson reached out to long-time Lions supporters and Melbourne horticulturalists, Flemings, who carefully propagated the baby figs in its Melbourne nursery.

They were then transported to another nursery in the Sunshine Coast hinterland to spend two years growing to a size where they were ready to transfer to the ground at the clubs’ new Ipswich base.

Nakia Cockatoo continues a long line of Indigenous Lions players.

Nakia Cockatoo continues a long line of Indigenous Lions players.Credit: Glenn Hunt

In a neat twist, Moreton Bay figs are native to the Queensland area.

“It’s fantastic to honour our Fitzroy history with this living connection,” Anson says ahead of a planned dedication ceremony at the Lions’ headquarters.

Anson hopes that it will continue to strengthen the connection between Brisbane and Fitzroy.

The Queensland-based football club that formed in 1996 from the merger of the Brisbane Bears and the once mighty and long-standing foundation club the Fitzroy Lions may have ensured club continuity for fans and ultimately a stronger presence in the AFL.

But it has also provided a mixed bag, according to some critics, in terms of the merged club celebrating its link to Melbourne’s oldest suburb and those that have all called it home, including its Aboriginal community.

Dayne Zorko wearing the Brisbane Lions jumper based on the Fitzroy colours.

Dayne Zorko wearing the Brisbane Lions jumper based on the Fitzroy colours. Credit: Eddie Jim

Some barrackers might be content with the heritage jumper of red, blue and yellow being worn at six of the Lions’ Melbourne games.

Others who attended the Brunswick Street oval celebrations across the glorious three-peat premiership years at the turn of the century may agree that the Fitzroy association is still strong.

But some true believers – the Fitzroy faithful – are still anguished by the decision to change the merger club’s lion logo back in ’09 (a choice that was later reversed after criticism).

And while onfield success generally overcomes ructions at the fan base, for some communities a football club’s integrity encompasses far more than its feats inside the boundary line.

Standing where her father once delivered sermons for the Fitzroy mob from the top of a soap box, Aunty Pam says she feels honoured by the club’s acknowledgement of the legacy of her father, and its homage to the history of “our place”.

“Now we’ll be able to watch that recognition grow,” she says.

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