The moment that cost Ray Meagher a Wallabies jersey

So familiar is Ray Meagher after more than 30 years on Home and Away, you’d be forgiven for thinking you know all there is to know about the man who plays Alf Stewart on the long-running soap opera. But he’s full of surprises.

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So familiar is Ray Meagher after more than 30 years on Home and Away, you’d be forgiven for thinking you know all there is to know about the man who plays Alf Stewart on the long-running soap opera.

But the 74-year-old original Summer Bay resident, who was born in the small Queensland country town of Roma before moving to the even smaller town of Dirranbandi, is full of surprises.

For instance, had it not been for one simple shake of the head from a rival rugby team’s coach — who also happened to be a national selector — this profile may have been penned on Ray Meagher: Wallabies legend.

Home & Away legend Ray Meagher. Picture, Sam Ruttyn

The young fly-half had been playing club rugby in Queensland and appeared in a couple of games at state level when he was asked to trial for the Wallabies ahead of the team’s 1969 tour of South Africa.

Watching on in the stands were a couple of selectors, including Brothers coach Joe French, who would go on to be an admired administrator of the game. Meagher’s teammate was sitting behind the two men and watched on as they held the young player’s future in their hands.

Obviously impressed when Meagher scored a brilliant try, the other selector turned to French and said ‘wow, what do you think of that one?’ Without uttering a word, French slowly shook his head and put to rest any hope of a green and gold jersey.

“If ever I had a ghost of a chance it was gone in one headshake,” Meagher laughs. “I didn’t deserve to go anyway but I think it’s quite a funny story.”

A young Ray in his rugby uniform. Picture: Supplied

While a career at the highest levels of rugby may not have eventuated, in a roundabout way, it was his involvement in the sport that led to Meagher developing a love of the arts.

One of his teammates was involved in amateur theatre in Brisbane and the company was on the hunt for some extra help. Meagher and his flatmates, who were also players, went along to check it out.

“He said they’re looking for a few heavies to be in this pantomime and us blokes should come along,” Meagher says. “So we went hungover one Sunday morning after a game and a drink. I watched a few people going in and thought they looked a bit dodgy.”

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Meagher left but his roomates all stayed and later came home excited, shouting “we got parts!”

Just before the production was set to begin, someone pulled out and Meagher reluctantly stepped in.

“So that was my first start — as the rear-end of a pantomime horse,” he laughs.

But it was walking around the stage as a horse’s bum where he developed a taste for “this acting thing”.

“I was underneath a canvas horse costume and there was a bloke on our back — former Wallaby Alex Pope,” he says.

Meagher, who plays Alf Stewart in the show, is the only original cast member remaining.

“I could hear these people coming on and doing their stuff and I’d sort of subconsciously give them marks out of 10. I’d say ‘I reckon I could do that at least that good’.”

So, come the next opportunity, he put his hand up for a more significant role.

“When the next show came along I decided to audition and got a part and that happened with the next half dozen plays,” he says.

When one of the shows, was wrapping up in Brisbane and moving to the Gold Coast, the producers asked him to take on a more significant role hiring new actors and stepping into the director’s chair.

“I said ‘this is the first job I’ve ever been paid for and you want me to direct it?’ ” he recalls.

And that was it. He was in, he was being paid and he was loving it. “I couldn’t believe you could get paid for having fun,” he says.

Sydney soon came calling when he was offered the same part in that city’s production of the play.

Meagher with former Summer Bay long-timer Kate Ritchie in a 2003 episode.

“I thought I’d give it a year and if I can get some work I’ll stay, if I can’t, I won’t,” he says.

Meagher found constant work in his new home, including in Overpaid, Oversexed And Over Here at a theatre restaurant owned by Geoffrey Edelsten and friends. Meagher says the whole set-up was comical, especially given the venue hadn’t been able to secure a liquor licence.

“It was like the prohibition days, they’d run down to the corner pub and bring the grog back because they didn’t have a licence,” he says. “It was just a bloody shambles.”

He also got his taxi licence and spent “six weekends” driving around Sydney.

“I’d like to apologise to any person I drove during that period — I had no idea where I was going,” he says.

It was only a short stint, but he kept renewing the licence as he never thought the acting dream last.

“I held on to the cab licence for maybe 20 years because I always thought I’d never work again as an actor,” he says.

The 74-year-old might seem like an open book, but he has a few surprises.

It was around this time he landed his first television part on cop drama Matlock Police and went on to land roles in movies such as The Chant Of Jimmy Blacksmith, My Brilliant Career and Breaker Morant, and guest roles on television shows like Number 96, Prisoner and Kingswood Country.

While on a three-week break between two mini series in 1988, Meagher was asked to audition for the pilot of a new Australian soap called Home and Away. He thought he’d sneak it in between the two other productions and that would be the end of it. He originally auditioned for the role of Tom, the father to the foster kids on the show, but was knocked back but offered another part as Alf Stewart.

Nobody had high hopes of a long-running series.

“Some of the more cynical older actors thought ‘oh, we might get three weeks work out of this,’ and then 31 years later, here we are,” he laughs.

But the show, which starts its 32nd season tomorrow, just kept growing.

As with fellow soap Neighbours, Home and Away became a huge hit with audiences in the UK. That recognition opened the door to further opportunities for Meagher, who has spent a lot of time there on stage.

Meagher in a scene with Judy Nunn.

“I did pantomimes all over the UK for nearly 20 years and had two stints on the West End with Pricilla Queen Of The Desert,” he says. “That was absolutely sensationally fun.”

Having been there from the start, Meagher has witnessed some of those who have left to go on to global fame. Asked if there were any actors he knew were going to become hugely successful, he points to three.

“Chris Hemsworth, obviously, because God was very kind to him for a start,” he laughs. “And secondly because he had a fantastic work ethic and was a really humble bloke.”

He also knew there was something about Ryan Kwanten — who he says had
a “quiet personality but was sharp as a tack” — and the “beautiful and very smart”
Isla Fisher.

After so long in the same role, it wouldn’t be out of place for Meagher to feel tired and cynical, but he has nothing but praise for his time on the show and he’s not going anywhere soon having recently signed a new three year deal. But there’s a caveat — he’s going to be working less and holidaying more.

“I’m so happy, blessed and humbled by my wretched little career, I can’t tell you,” he says.

Home and Away returns to Channel 7 tomorrow at 7PM