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Commonwealth Games 2022: A historic day for golden Kiwis – day six wrap

Commonwealth Games 2022: A historic day for golden Kiwis - day six wrap

Hamish Kerr makes history with high jump gold. Video/Sky Sport

All you need to know from yet another successful day at the Commonwealth Games for New Zealand athletes as they claimed historic gold medals.

king of the mountains

Ben Oliver (L) and Sam Gaze celebrate yet another one-two finish for New Zealand in Commonwealth Games mountain biking. Photo / Photosport
Ben Oliver (L) and Sam Gaze celebrate yet another one-two finish for New Zealand in Commonwealth Games mountain biking. Photo / Photosport

Day six began with a bang for New Zealand as Sam Gaze made it back-to-back Commonwealth Games golds in the men’s mountain bike event after a dominant display that also produced silver for fellow Kiwi rider Ben Oliver.

Gaze was in commanding form on Thursday, finishing 31 seconds ahead of Oliver to make it three straight Games that New Zealand has completed a one-two, after Anton Cooper pipped Gaze in Glasgow and before that outcome was acrimoniously reversed on the Gold Coast.

The race was denied the chance of reigniting Gaze and highly-ranked Cooper’s heated rivalry after the latter withdrew from the event due to Covid-19. That left Oliver the opportunity to make his way up the field and he did so well, improving from his fourth place on the Gold Coast in 2018.

Check out or full report from the circuit here.

Paul Coll rallies to new height

Paul Coll with the gold medal he's been dreaming of all week long. Photo / Photosport
Paul Coll with the gold medal he’s been dreaming of all week long. Photo / Photosport

Coll has capped off a huge few years at the top level of men’s squash by winning gold in a tough five-set battle with Wales’ Joel Makin.

After winning silver four years ago on the Gold Coast, Coll briefly ascended to No 1 in the world earlier this year and in 2021 became the first Kiwi man to win the prestigious British Open title, while defending that crown again in April.

History was made again today as Coll became the first Kiwi man to win a gold medal in squash at a Commonwealth Games.

Earlier in the day, Joelle King blew a 2-0 lead in her bronze medal playoff to lose in five sets to world No 6 and hometown favorite Sarah Jane Perry.

Check out Albie Redmore’s full report from the court here.

White men can jump

Hamish Kerr is building an impressive resume amongst the world's best high jumpers. Photo / Photosport
Hamish Kerr is building an impressive resume amongst the world’s best high jumpers. Photo / Photosport

Christchurch’s Hamish Kerr became the first Kiwi man to win a Commonwealth Games high jump medal, claiming a shiny new gold for his cupboard.

Kerr ended up in a head-to-head battle with Australian Brandon Starc, the 2018 gold medal winner and younger brother of cricketer Mitchell Starc.

Both cleared 2.25m and failed at 2.28m, but Starch had earlier failures at lower heights whereas Kerr had been clear.

Kerr joins Tania Murray (nee Dixon) and Tracy Phillips, who claimed gold and bronze respectively in the women’s event at the 1990 Commonwealth Games in Auckland.

Maddi Wesche was a cool customer on the Commonwealth Games days. Photo/Getty
Maddi Wesche was a cool customer on the Commonwealth Games days. Photo/Getty

Kerr’s medal was one of two in athletics for the day, with shot putter Maddi Wesche taking out bronze with a throw of 18.84m, a touch shorter than her throw of 18.98m in the final of the Tokyo Olympics. Canada’s Sarah Mitton won gold with a throw of 19.03m.

In the women’s 100m final, Kiwi sprinter Zoe Hobbs finished sixth with a time of 11.19s. She would’ve needed to better her personal best of 11.08 to challenge for the podium.

Olympic champion Elaine Thompson-Herah of Jamaica took out gold with a time of 10.95, with St Lucian Julien Alfred second in 11.01 and England’s Daryll Neita third in 11.07.

Check out our full report from the athletics here.

Liti salvages silver from tough day

David Liti poses with his silver medal besides coach Tina Ball. Photo / Photosport
David Liti poses with his silver medal besides coach Tina Ball. Photo / Photosport

Popular Kiwi weightlifter David Liti fell short of a second straight Commonwealth Games gold medal but still came away with a silver on a day when he couldn’t find his best form.

Liti set a new Games record in 2018 with a combined weight of 403kg and lifted a total of 417kg at last year’s Olympics. However, he could only muster a total of 394kg on Thursday, leaving the door open for Pakistan’s Nooh Dastgir Butt to claim the gold with a total of 405kg.

The loss to Butt has sparked a desire for revenge in Liti, who says he’s now looking forward to a repeat match up at the world championships.

“He did really good to keep himself ahead, and next time I face off with him it’ll definitely be a good one,” Liti said. “If he comes to worlds, I’ll show him what’s up.”

Check out our full report from the weightlifting here.

Three medal haul for Judo team

Kody Andrews was a proud silver medalist on Thursday. Photo / Photosport
Kody Andrews was a proud silver medalist on Thursday. Photo / Photosport

It was a superb day for the New Zealand judo team with Kody Andrews leading a three medal haul with silver in the men’s 100kg event after being pinned by Canada’s Marc Deschenes early in the gold medal bout to lose by Ippon.

Moira De Villiers claimed bronze in the women’s -78kg after defeating Ayuk Otay Arrey Sophina of Cameroon by Ippon with 28 seconds left. It’s her second medal from her after winning silver in Glasgow eight years ago. She defeated fellow Kiwi Hayley Mackey in the quarter-finals, one of her her students at the judo club she runs with her husband Jason Koster in Christchurch. She was then beaten by England’s Emma Reid in the semifinals who went onto win gold.

The bronze bout was a close thing but de Villiers kept her calm and got the win just at the end.

“[It’s] super special. It wasn’t what I wanted but I’m still glad I was able to represent New Zealand and get another medal. I just knew she would gas after a minute I just had to keep going and be a little bit of a dogfight. I’m ruthless on the ground so I knew I was going to get it,” she told Sky Sport.

Gisborne’s Sydnee Andrews also claimed bronze with the 19-year-old promising gold in four years’ time after defeating Sarah Hawkes of Northern Ireland in their women’s +78kg bronze bout.

Clareburt bags a bronze

Lewis Clareburt has added a bronze to his medal collection. Photo / Photosport
Lewis Clareburt has added a bronze to his medal collection. Photo / Photosport

Lewis Clareburt’s quest for a third gold medal fell just short as he picked up a bronze to end his campaign.

The Kiwi finished third in the 200m individual medley final with Scotland’s Duncan Scott taking the gold ahead of Tom Dean of England.

18-year-old Erika Fairweather qualified fastest for the 400m freestyle final but couldn’t match world record holder Ariarne Titmus and young Canadian star Summer McIntosh in the final.

Fairweather battled Aussie Kiah Melverton for bronze, just missing out on the medals by 0.60 seconds in a time of 4:03.84. Fellow Kiwi Eve Thomas was seventh in 4:09.73.

To view a full list of every result by every Kiwi athlete and team, check out our full schedule and results.

Medals today:

Gold – Paul Coll – Men’s squash
Gold – Hamish Kerr – Men’s high jump
Gold – Sam Gaze – Men’s mountain bike
Silver – Ben Oliver – Men’s mountain bike
Silver – Kody Andrews – Judo – Men’s 100kg+
Silver – David Liti – Weightlifting – Men’s +109kg
Bronze – Sydnee Andrews – Judo – Women’s 78kg+
Bronze – Moira Koster – Judo – Women’s 78kg
Bronze – Lewis Clareburt – Swimming – Men’s 200 IM
Bronze – Maddi Wesche – Athletics – Women’s shot put

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Categories
Australia

How the Cherbourg Marching Girls moved in step from an Aboriginal mission to sporting history

How the Cherbourg Marching Girls moved in step from an Aboriginal mission to sporting history

Aboriginal sporting history has been brought to life in a new book that details how a group of women from a south-east Queensland mission nearly won a national title in the most popular female sport of the era.

Faced with a future working in heavily controlled conditions in the 1950s, a group of young Aboriginal girls from Cherbourg held their head high and marched.

Marching was the lead sport for Australian women at the time, with participants dressing up in white boots, skirts, sashes and formal hats to perform at agricultural shows, city parades and for visiting dignitaries.

Teams competed against each other on weekends and were judged on their timing, uniforms, synchronization and performance.

On the government-controlled mission at Cherbourg, it was the only sport available to the young women.

A black and white photo of Indigenous girls in the Cherbourg marching girls with their trophies in Melbourne 1962.
Aunty Lesley Williams [second from right] and her team received trophies in Melbourne during 1962.(Supplied)

A sense of pride

Aunty Lesley Williams began marching in Queensland’s only Indigenous troupe in 1957 when she was just 11.

The sense of pride gave her as a young person who had been denied her culture and freedom was something she would never forget.

“We were told you are going to have this career. Stop practicing your culture. You can’t speak your language,” Aunty Lesley said.

“If you look back to this point in time, it was about controlling this group of people.”

Dressed in uniforms created in the community, the Cherbourg Marching Girls went on to become the best in Queensland in the six years they competed, and then went even further to place second at the national championships.

“We had a lot of fun. We were so proud,” Aunty Lesley said.

“We’d travel around on the back of the settlement truck that carted wood, flour and meat down from the slaughter yard to the butcher shop.

“When it was time for us to travel, it was scrubbed down, seats were put on it and we didn’t care because we wanted to travel and be part of what was happening in the wider world.”

A group of Aboriginal women wearing blue skirts, red tops and hats
A photo of the Cherbourg marching girls in 1958.(Supplied)

why marching mattered

Aunty Lesley, her sister Sandra Morgan and a Cherbourg committee, have worked alongside co-authors Professor Murray Philips and Dr Gary Osmond from the University of Queensland to document the history in a book entitled, Marching With A Mission: Cherbourg’s Marching Girls.

Professor Phillips studied sport history and said she was researching in Cherbourg when the idea was born.

“We had just finished the day and [were] walking to the car when one of the female elders said, ‘When are you going to tell our story?’

“And we swung around and said, ‘What story is that?,’ and they said, ‘The marching girls’, and that’s how it started.

“The key drivers at Cherbourg are some women elders and they were giving us all this information about the men’s sport, Eddie Gilbert, Frank Fisher and all these other high-profile male athletes.”

The book’s storyline follows the history of marching, the opportunities it offered and how the sport shaped their lives.

A group of women stand behind a woman speaking at a podium.
Aunty Lesley, surrounded by former marching girls, launches the book at the State Library of Queensland.(Supplied)

Professor Phillips said it was an important period for Queensland First Nations women.

“You’ve gone from that era of protection to assimilation, and these girls really rode the crest of that wave,” she said.

“For many of these women, this was the first opportunity to get out of Cherbourg and see the opportunities that lay beyond.”

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Categories
Australia

Lake Tyrrell traditional owners apply for protection of sacred meeting place, Mallee tourism drawcard

People taking photos at a lake which reflects the sky.

Traditional owners of a popular tourist destination in Victoria’s north west are calling on the federal environment department to urgently intervene and protect the area from further desecration.

Lake Tyrrell, an ancient saltwater lake that is dry most of the year, is a tourist drawcard for the small but vibrant town of Sea Lake.

Indigenous elders from Wemba Wemba Aboriginal Corporation made the application to Tanya Plibersek’s office after the local council approved plans to build a tourist park and put its in-principle support behind the resumption of the Mallee Rally, an off-road dune buggy race.

The rally that runs around the lake, also known to traditional owners as Direl, started in 1973 but was discontinued in 2019 after Victoria’s Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning (DELWP) recommended it stop because of heritage concerns.

A group of people wearing skins and holding a black and red checkered banner.
Traditional owners from the Mallee including Gary Murray and Bobby Nicholls say their application is a last resort.(ABC Wimmera: Alexander Darling)

Preventing further damage

The report found hearths, flaked stone material, directly on the race track indicating the presence of culturally significant artefacts.

Direl, meaning ‘sky’ because of its mirror-like reflections of the sky when wet, is also an ancient meeting place for traditional owners and home to burial grounds, artefacts, mounds, and middens.

One of the lead applicants, Gary Murray, a Wemba Wamba and Wergaia elder, said Direl is culturally significant because it is the home to creator spirits like the dark emu that was also central to First Nations astronomy used for foraging.

He said while the report recommended the race stop, there was a chance it could summarize as the report did not offer the same protections from private development that a Cultural Heritage Management Plan did.

Gary Murray sits on a log
Gary Murray would like the lake to be permanently protected from the Mallee Rally, unregulated tourism, and private development.(ABC Lateline)

“The root cause of our concerns is the Mallee Rally, the lack of heritage protection progress, and poor planning and development regimes around Direl by the Shire of Buloke and [the] state,” Mr Murray said in the application.

He also said the DELWP report did not analyze the salt mining activities and tourism park, even though water and electricity infrastructure that had been installed — according to a specialist First Nations archaeologist who visited the site in November 2021 — had already caused damage.

He said traditional owners were worried that tourism, while encouraged, would be unregulated and lead to damage, pollution, and desecration of sacred sites.

Bobby Nicholls smiles as he stands in a park, dressed in a warm checked jacket on a rainy day.
Bobby Nicholls, a multi-clan Aboriginal elder and applicant, says governments have failed Indigenous landowners.(ABC News: Joseph Dunstan)

Mr Murray criticized the DELWP conservation plan for failing to survey large portions of the lake and shoreline.

Organizers of the rally, the Sea Lake Off Road Club, had offered to modify the route but fellow applicant and Wergaia elder Bobby Nicholls said the rally in any way made it incompatible with preserving cultural heritage because it was an uncontrolled environment.

“They tear around open county … and given there are some very sensitive areas where we need protection … [the buggies] can go anywhere off the track,” Mr Nicholls said.

“We have no choice but to engage the Commonwealth as a last resort.”

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Categories
Business

Townsville’s ‘Sugar Shaker’ hotel is getting a makeover, prompting admirers to sift through its history

A black and white photo of Townsville's cityscape in the mid 70s. A round building, with what looks to be a spout, towers over.

It has been described as one Australia’s most recognizable buildings after the Sydney Opera House, but this icon is set for a face lift.

Townsville’s Sugar Shaker hotel has defined the city skyline for more than 46 years with its original brown sandstone color.

But now the building’s exterior is being completely repainted, prompting admirers to sift through its history.

An old, but color photograph of a busy city street. A post office sits before a much taller circular high rise building.
The “Sugar Shaker” is located in Townsville’s city heart on Flinders Street.(Supplied: Townsville City Council )

The hotel will maintain its silhouette, which resembles a sugar shaker with a distinctive spout-like shape at its peak.

Dr Mark Jones, a prominent Architect and Associate Professor at the University of Queensland, said the Sugar Shaker had become one of the most recognizable buildings in Australia.

“Most imagery of Townsville incorporates this building, not dissimilarly to the Sydney Opera House,” he said.

“I don’t think, apart from those two examples, there’s another building in Australia that so exemplifies the city in which it’s located.”

A black and white photograph taken from a helicopter captures the construction of a circular high rise building in the 1970s.
Townsville’s “Sugar Shaker” was built in the 1970s and remains the tallest building in the CBD.(Supplied: Townsville City Council)

Dr Jones said at the time the building opened in 1976 as Hotel Townsville there were two similar properties in the country; the Tower Mill Hotel in Brisbane, and Australia Square in Sydney.

“I suspect that the architects for the Sugar Shaker drew some inspiration from those two buildings,” he said.

“But they went a step further with this interesting enclosure on the roof air conditioning cooling towers that gives it a sugar shaker shape.”

A black and white photo of Townsville's Flinders Street Mall.
The hotel is often used in imagery used to market Townsville.(Supplied: Townsville City Council)

46 years after the building was erected in Townsville, debate on whether the resemblance was intentional continues.

“I’m not sure if they were directly thinking of a sugar shaker or if that came from people afterwards,” Dr Jones said.

“Either way, it’s a wonderful symbol for cane-growing region.

“I can’t think of another example, except for the sort of kitschy big banana and big pineapple-type installations.”

A wide shot of Townsville's modern CBD.
Forty-six years after the building was erected, the “Sugar Shaker” is being refurbished.(ABC North Qld: Chloe Chomicki)

Director of marketing for lobby group Townsville Enterprise Lisa Woolfe said there were several local theories about the design.

“Apparently, it was modeled off a sugar shaker that was sold in a nearby cafe,” she said.

“But I have also heard over the years people refer to it as a lipstick.”

A color photograph of a regional city with one circular building preceding over all of the other properties.
There is debate about whether the buildings likeness to a sugar shaker was intentional.(Supplied: Townsville City Council)

Townsville’s deputy mayor Mark Molachino said he suspected the architects were intentional with their design.

“I don’t know the history of design, I will be honest,” he said.

“But whoever did design it has made it look as close to a sugar shaker as possible, so they have done a good job with the likeness.”

The hotel has been known as Centra Townsville, Townsville International Hotel and Holiday Inn over the years, but is currently owned by Hotel Grand Chancellor.

Manager Paul Gray said it was a “daunting” task to choose a new color for the “iconic” building.

“Locals are very passionate about the Sugar Shaker, but it did need a refresh,” Mr Gray said.

A photo of several balconies on a sandstone building. Half of them have been painted gray and white.
The ‘Sugar Shaker’ is expected to have been completely repainted by the end of August.(ABC North Qld: Chloe Chomicki)

The refurbishment, including a complete repaint of the building, is due to be completed by the end of August.

“The building itself is being painted in grey,” Mr Gray said.

“It’s going to have white running up the risers, just to break it up a little bit as well.

“I think it’ll tie in quite nicely with the buildings around the city and look a lot more modern.”

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Categories
Australia

Hunting for heritage fig trees introduced to Australia by migrants

Yasmin Sadler stands on the bank of the Murray River

At this time of year, fig trees have no leaves and are nothing more than a rise of branches sprouting from the ground. But it’s the ideal time for propagation and that gets Victorian, Yasmin Sadler excited.

It’s not just any fig tree that the Orbost resident is looking for — she’s trying to find the heritage fig trees that were introduced to Australia by migrants.

“They brought their best with them and they are still in our landscape, so my passion is to preserve them, to hear their stories and see them being grown again,” Ms Sadler said.

The self-confessed “fig hunter” started looking for heritage fig trees in Melbourne where she found 100 and was able to produce about 300 plants from cuttings.

Dozens of ripe, purple figs in dip tins picked fresh from the tree, ready to be eaten
After a cutting is taken it can be up to three years before the fig species is identified.(Rural ABC: Jessica Schremmer)

“Out of all the trees I visited, they were all different,” she said.

“We thought there’d be black Genoas or other common figs, but we haven’t found any of those at all.”

The 300 figs that Ms Sadler has propagated have been shared with others.

“My fig tribe has moved on up into the hills of Gippsland to become firebreaks. Also in Orbost, there’s a gentleman who started a fig farm based on my plants,” she said.

Hands holding secateurs and three cuttings from a fig tree
When Yasmin Sadler finds a heritage fig tree she takes cuttings to propagate.(Rural ABC: Kellie Hollingworth)

fig fossicking interstate

Ms Sadler is embarking on an interstate expedition to find even more heritage fig trees.

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