In a recent radio interview, Tennis ACT Board Member, Carolyn Paris, spoke passionately about the role community tennis plays in Red Hill. It is a story that many people identify with in their own local clubs. Social interaction, friendship, healthy sport and recreation, and a sense of community for young and old, male and female alike, are the reasons we enjoy our local clubs.
But, do we know much about the role of tennis as a ‘foundation’ sport in the birth of the nation’s capital, and the development of a sense of local community in Canberra?
From the late 1800s, tennis – primarily as a social and recreational pastime- grew in popularity on the properties and in the villages of the Region. Early settler families developed courts, as did Queanbeyan and the villages of Hall, Wallaroo, Jeir, Fern Hill, Weetangera, Ginninderra and “The Pines”. Names such as Curran, Reid (Read), Ridley, Southwell, Schumack, Buckmaster, Sullivan and Maloney came to the fore.
The establishment of Duntroon in 1911 and the naming of Canberra in 1913 as the new national capital, acted as an impetus for new courts and clubs but, during World War 1, most tennis clubs lapsed.
It was the heady post-war years of the 1920s that saw substantial interest develop in tennis and the growth of community clubs. As part of developing the new capital, the Government provided the materials, and construction was largely undertaken by volunteers. A notable contributor was Tom Boag, a Supervisor of Roads and Bridges, and father of Charles Boag, a future Association President. Ant bed, earth, gravel, clay and even concrete courts, were built as tennis competed with codes of football as the primary winter sport.
On 21 March 1923, at the instigation of the Eastlake Amusement Association, the Federal Territory Tennis Association was formed, to promote and organise lawn tennis throughout the Territory.
The construction of Parliament House, which opened in May 1927, and the move of public servants from Melbourne provided a further impetus for the growth of tennis. This followed a survey in 1926 that identified tennis as the No 1 preferred sport for those relocating to Canberra, together with a requisite need for appropriate facilities.
Whilst the Federal Capital Commission certainly responded, with the Manuka ‘complex’ opening in 1928 with six gravel courts, the quality of the facilities was dubious. The complex consisted initially of the six courts, a small shed (office), dressing room, store-shed, kitchen, two other sheds and two earth closets – located 150 yards away and only to be used in cases of ‘dire distress’! With two more courts and a pavilion added in the 1930s, Manuka became the headquarters of tennis in Canberra, until the opening of the initial Lyneham complex in 1970.
By 1929, some 30 public courts existed within the city limits, with ‘community’ clubs established at Reid, Causeway, Canberra, Ainslie, Braddon, Acton, Forrest (formerly ‘Blandfordia’), Yarralumla (formerly ‘West Ridge’), Northbourne (formerly ‘Doonkuna’), Kingston (formerly ‘Eastlake’ and before that, ‘Power House’), and Barton*. A 1929 survey of public tennis courts displayed on a 1927 Canberra survey map graphically indicates the extensive growth of courts. Overall, almost 15% of Canberra’s population at that time were tennis club members.
Courts also existed at the ‘camps’ of ‘Westlake’, Russell Hill and Molongo, together with the ‘private’ courts at Duntroon, Government House, Hotel Canberra, Parliament House and the Prime Minister’s Lodge. Tennis continued to be popular in the villages of Ginninderra, Hall, Mulligan’s Flat, Sutton, Tharwa, and on surrounding properties. All in a city with a population of almost 5000, of whom less than 10% were licensed to drive.
Oh for the days when there were more tennis players than car drivers!
The clubs provided a community hub within easy walking, biking (or horse) distance from peoples’ homes, temporary residences, boarding houses and workers’ camps. The opportunity for regular social gatherings, recreation and sport at low cost and with no barriers for individuals and families of all ages and abilities proved popular for many. With few competing alternatives, the tennis clubs also provided opportunities to establish new friendships and relationships as well as a chance to discuss local news and gossip, not to mention the attraction of home-cooked afternoon teas.
The new clubs, built, managed and maintained by volunteers were not only a base for social interaction. Competition was intense and most clubs established club championships, tournaments and pennant competitions along with inter-club visits involving healthy rivalry (and even some poaching of players).
When interviewed by Wendy Levy for the Canberra Times in 2000, Jean Boag described her life in Reid after arriving in Canberra in 1927.
“Tennis was a social winner in early Canberra, with an awful lot of social tennis. We all joined as a family, Mum and Dad, too. With wooden racquets strung with catgut, the family would belt it out on the courts, morning and evening, in all seasons”.
In “Voices of Old Ainslie” by Louise Lyon, Olive Browning, an Ainslie Club foundation and life member, expressed similar sentiments: “All the family played tennis. Tennis was great for young couples with children as all the family could go. We made many friends playing pennant and social tennis at other clubs in Canberra and accepting invitations to play at Sutton, Hall and Weetangera”.
In mid-1928, Canberra hosted a visiting NSW representative team let by Cliff Sproule, the Davis Club Captain, and by 1930, tennis had become the predominant sport for the new capital’s population. Canberra teams (admittedly including Queanbeyan players) competed and won in the prestigious Sydney Country Week Carnival.
Top players emerged in the city, notably Ally Nish, Keith Carnall, S Gee, Ivo Smith, Miss C Kemp and Miss J Bruce (who won the PW Sandral Cup for Ladies Open Singles three years in succession and who was able to keep the Cup as a result).
Whilst the Depression, World War 2 and the demise of the Federal Capital Commission was to have a negative impact on Canberra’s growth, finances and aspirations over the next 20 years, tennis had become the sport for ‘all’. Its roots had been firmly established for the tennis boom years of the “fabulous fifties and the sizzling sixties”, as coined by Roy Smalley.
Although outside commentators described the capital as ‘a good sheep station spoiled’ and ‘a city without a soul’; for residents, Canberra became ‘home’, with tennis very much at the forefront of their local community.
* Barton formed in 1929 but did not operate from its own courts until the early 1930s.
(With a special acknowledgement of thanks to Roy Smalley’s “Anyone for Tennis?” 2012 – an excellent history of tennis in the Territory).
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