Douglas Nicholls: Encyclopedia II - Douglas Nicholls - Employment

Douglas Nicholls - 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 weeks pay (30 shillings - $3). After six rounds the shearer who challenged him conceded defeat.

Douglas Nicholls - Sportsman

He played Australian Rules Football, he was recruited by the Carlton Football Club in the Victorian Football League but did not play because of the racism of the other players. From there he played for the struggling Northcote Football Club (now Richmond Central Amateur Football Club) for 5 years and was a member of their 1929 premiership team. In 1932 Doug joined Fitzroy Football Club where he remained until knee injuries forced him to retire in 1939. In 1940 he was back at Northcote as a non-playing coach. In 1935 he was the first Aboriginal player to be selected to play for the Victorian Inter-state Team.

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 race organisers paid him an appearance fee, board and expenses to enter races.

He was inaugural chairman of the National Aboriginal Sports Foundation.

Douglas Nicholls - Community work and Christian ministry

He was a lay preacher and social worker with Aboriginal people. Following his mother's death he took a renewed interest in Christianity and 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 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.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Employment", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki