Douglas Nicholls
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Pastor Sir Douglas Ralph "Doug" Nicholls, KCVO, OBE, (9 December 1906 - June 6, 1988) was an Australian Aborigine from the Yorta Yorta people of the Murray river region of New South Wales and Victoria. He was a professional athlete; a pastor and church planter with the Churches of Christ in Australia Christian movement; and a pioneering campaigner for reconciliation.
He was Governor of South Australia from 1 December 1976 to 30 April 1977, when he resigned due to poor health.
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[edit] Education
Sir Douglas Nicholls was born on 1906 on the Cummeragunja mission in New South Wales.
At Cumeroogunja mission, schooling was provided to Grade 3 standard and strict religious principles were emphasised. When he was eight, as he saw his 16-year-old sister Hilda forcibly taken from his family by the police and taken to the Cootamundra Training Home for Girls.
[edit] Employment
At 13 he worked with his uncle as a tar boy and general hand on sheep stations, and he lived with the shearers. He worked hard and had a cheerful disposition. This annoyed one of the shearers so much that he challenged Doug to a fight, with the loser to hand over one week's pay (30 shillings - $3). After six rounds the shearer who challenged him conceded defeat.
[edit] Sportsman
He played Australian rules football. He was recruited by the Carlton Football Club in the VFL but did not play because of the racist attitude of the other players. From there he played for the struggling Northcote Football Club (now Richmond Central Amateur Football Club) for five years and was a member of their 1929 premiership team.
In 1932 Doug joined Fitzroy Football Club where he was the first Aboriginal player to be selected to play for the Victorian Interstate Team in 1935. Knee injuries forced him to retire in 1939, and he was back at Northcote as a non-playing coach in 1940 .
Playing football provided employment during the winter. To earn a living during the rest of the year, he boxed with Jimmy Sharman's Boxing Troupe, a travelling sideshow in which Sharman offered his fighters for challenge against all comers.
He also made money in running races and in 1928 won the Waracknabeal Gift. Following this, the race organisers paid him an appearance fee, board and expenses to enter races. He was the inaugural chairman of the National Aboriginal Sports Foundation.
[edit] Community work and Christian ministry
He was a minister and social worker with Aboriginal people. Following his mother's death he took a renewed interest in Christianity and was baptised at Northocte Church of Christ in 1935 he was conducting church and hymn services as a lay preacher at the Gore St. Mission Centre in Fitzroy.
In 1941 he received his call-up notice and he joined the 29th Battalion but in 1942, at the request of the Fitzroy police, he was released from his unit to work as a social worker in the Fitzroy Aboriginal community. He cared for those trapped in alcohol abuse, gambling and other social problems. He helped those who were in trouble with the police.
Indigenous people gathered to him and eventually the group was so large that he became the pastor of the first Aboriginal Church of Christ in Australia. In recognition of the ministry he was already expressing he was ordained as a minister of the Gospel.
In 1957 he became a field officer for the Aboriginal Advancement League. He edited their magazine, Smoke Signals, and helped draw Aboriginal issues to the attention of Government officials and the general public. He pleaded for dignity for Aboriginal people as human beings. Support for the AAL grew rapidily.
He helped set up hostels for Aboriginal children, holiday homes for Aboriginal people at Queenscliff and was a founding member and Victorian Secretary of the Federal Council for the Advancement of Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders (FCAATSI).
In 1968 he became a member of the new Ministry of Aboriginal Affairs in Victoria.
[edit] Recognition
- 1957 awarded a Member of the British Empire (M.B.E.).
- 1962 he was chosen by the Father's Day Council of Australia as Victoria's Father of the Year for "outstanding leadership in youth and welfare work and for the inspired example he set the community in his unfailing efforts to further the cause of the Australian Aborigine".
- 1968 he received an Order of the British Empire award (O.B.E.)
- 1968 he met the Pope at the Ecumenical Conference held in Melbourne
- 1970 was among Victoria's invited guests to greet the Queen Elizabeth II on her visit to Australia.
- 1972 he became the first Aboriginal person to be knighted and he and his wife Gladys travelled to London to receive that honour.
- 1 December 1976, Sir Doug Nicholls was appointed as the 28th Governor of South Australia.
[edit] Passing
He died in 1988 after a stroke. A State Funeral was held for him and he was buried in the cemetery at Cumeroogunja.
[edit] External links
- Source: Biography of Sir Douglas Nicholls (Pastor)
- Biography of Douglas Nicholls at Darebin Ethnic Communities Council site
- ABC Mission Voices - Cummeragunja. Koorie Heritage Trust
| Government offices | ||
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| Preceded by Sir Mark Oliphant, AC, KBE |
Governor of South Australia 1976–1977 |
Succeeded by Sir Keith Seaman, KCVO, OBE |
