Introduction

Abstract

The question of the impact of Britishness on identity has regained a foothold within Australian historiography in the past decade. Neville Meaney’s work, particularly articles published in 2001 and 2003, has been central to this renewed interest.¹ Sport played a cursory role in this preliminary discussion, with Meaney and John Rickard arguing over whether the behaviour of crowds at test matches was suggestive of a significant nationalist response.² In 2006 Tony Collins chided both these historians for assuming that vociferous Australian barracking represented nationalism, and situated Australian sporting culture within Australia’s British inneritence.³ Despite Collins’ intervention, sport still seems firmly outside the fold as far as Australian considerations of Britishness are concerned. A symposium in the December 2013 issue of History Australia considered the impact of nationalism and transna-tionalism on Australian historiography but made only sparing mention of sport. It was referred to as shorthand for diversion from serious debates within Australian political culture as Britain reoriented itself towards Europe in the 1960s; however. James Curran assured readers that the ‘talk of crisis and anxiety that he and fellow Meaney protégé Stuart Ward had identified in this period did not suggest ‘that this crisis of meaning diverted forever the Australian gaze from the sports pages in the newspapers’.⁴