Great Aussie victories and triumphs when all hope seemed lost

These are moments it seemed all hope was lost, the defeats the enemy never saw coming as an unlosable victory was snatched by the underdog. Here are the great Aussie upsets and battler triumphs through history.

Sometimes the polls are wrong, and sometimes luck is on your side.

As the dust settles and bookies weep over the biggest political upset in living memory, and as Game of Throne fans find plenty of parallels between the new monarch of Westeros and Steven Bradbury’s dream run on the ice in 2002, we reflect on the other underdog upsets and battler triumphs that adorn Australian history.

AUSTRALIA II SAILS TO VICTORY, 1983

Nobody had ever beaten the New York Yacht Club in the America’s Cup, and the champions had reigned for 132 years.

That was until 1983 when a team from Perth, including businessman Alan Bond, entered on the yacht Australia II, skippered by John Bertrand.

Bob Hawke enjoyed the win as much as anyone.

The hotly contested competition came down to the seventh and final race when Australia II sailed to victory.

The unexpected win led to the late great Bob Hawke, overjoyed by the triumph, to declare any boss who sacked a worker for not showing up that day was a “bum”.

SWEETEST VICTORY OF ALL, 1993

In an election with eerie similarities to Scott Morrison’s come-from-behind win, Labor’s Paul Keating claimed an unlikely electoral victory in 1993.

“I need to know exactly what type of cake,” Hewson said.

After the instability of knifing sitting PM Bob Hawke, Keating faced the Liberals’ Dr John Hewson, who brought a comprehensive policy document called Fightback! to the campaign.

The policy suite included sweeping ‘dry’ economic reform with a 15 per cent GST, which began to come unstuck during a TV interview in which Hewson couldn’t explain GST on a birthday cake.

Despite it being touted as unlosable for the Coalition, Keating took an unexpected majority with 80 seats to the Coalition’s 60.

BATTLE OF LONG TAN, 1966

Pinned down in a rubber plantation under monsoonal rain, a force of just over 100 Australian troops fought off 2500 Vietcong and People’s Army of Vietnam soldiers.

The odds seemed impossible, but somehow just a small band of Aussies held off several thousand Vietnamese soldiers.

In hellish fighting that lasted more than three hours before forces regrouped overnight, 18 Australians were killed and 24 were wounded.

While the exact number is disputed, official records state 245 enemy fighters were killed before the Vietcong retreated.

The battle is remembered for Australian resilience and bravery against overwhelming odds.

THE EMU WAR, 1932

A conflict that could perhaps be seen as an Australian civil war, men fought against birds after a plague of emus wrought havoc on farms in Western Australia.

An organised mob of emus outlasted and outsmarted the military.

Returned WWI servicemen waged battle on the emus for weeks, funnelling them into ambushes and firing on them with machine guns mounted on trucks.

To the astonishment of military men and the government, the war failed to put a dent in the countless emus, who seemed to come back stronger each time and even developed a watch system to detect the approaching soldiers.

Eventually the army retreated.

ST KILDA V CARLTON, 1916

Just four VFL teams were in the competition in 1916 as young men were shipped overseas by the thousand to fight in the Great War.

St Kilda had one of its worst seasons ever.

Out of 12 games played in 1916 they won just two.

But due to the lack of teams, and despite finishing on the bottom on the diminutive ladder, they played in the finals where they defeated minor premiers Carlton.

They met Carlton again in the grand final and led at every break, winning 12.13.85 to 8.8.56 to become the only team to win the premiership from the bottom of the ladder.

WALTON STORES V MAHER, 1988

Retail behemoth Walton Stores fought and lost another David and Goliath battle with Mr and Mrs Maher, who owned a property in Nowra, NSW, which Walton wanted to lease.

It was agreed that an existing building would be demolished and a new building would be erected that Walton would lease.

Demolition work started before the lease was formally signed, but Walton Stores got cold feet and pulled out of the deal.

The dispute went to the High Court where a landmark ruling found that even though a contract hadn’t been signed, it was still enforceable.

THE MABO DECISION, 1992

Torres Strait Islander Eddio “Koiki” Mabo embarked on one of the lengthiest David and Goliath legal battles the nation has ever seen.

Eddie ‘Koiki’ Mabo began a High Court challenge in 1982 that took a decade to decide.

He challenged the assumption of ‘terra nullius’, the idea that Australia was land that had belonged to nobody prior to European settlement.

Mabo died months ahead of the High Court decision that changed the course of indigenous recognition in Australia, after fighting for ten years.

The landmark decision in 1992 led to the Native Title Act of 1993.

STEVEN BRADBURY’S SALT LAKE CITY TRIUMPH, 2002

Etched in the souls of Australian sport fans, the unforgettable moment Steven Bradbury skated to victory past a field of fallen opponents marked a true underdog victory.

Last man standing: Bradbury skating to victory in Salt Lake City.

Bradbury made it to the quarter finals where he finished third, one place short of advancement, but one of the victors was disqualified for obstruction and Bradbury progressed.

In the semi final he started at the rear of the pack, only for a cluster of skaters to fall over, leading him to victory.

In an uncanny repeat of the semi-final, Bradbury remained on his feet in the final race, skating home to win gold.

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BEACONSFIELD SURVIVAL, 2006

In a remarkable tale of determination and hope, miners Brad Webb and Todd Russell survived two weeks in a collapsed mine before being rescued.

Brant Webb and Todd Russell emerge from the mine after their incredible rescue.

The accident killed their colleague Larry Knight and sparked a gargantuan rescue effort that reached almost a kilometre underground to where the two men were trapped.

The disaster and rescue brought to prominence then union rep Bill Shorten, who was dealt a blow at Australian politics’ most recent great upset.

AND THE ONE WHEN THE TABLES WERE TURNED

BANGLADESH V AUSTRALIA, 2005

It seems like a parallel universe to imagine Australia as a dominant global force in cricket, and Bangladesh lucky to get a place.

The Bangladesh

But that was how it was in 2005 when the two teams met in Cardiff.

Bangladesh was chasing 250 runs for victory and shocked Australia, and the world, by winning by five wickets.

The likes of Ponting, Gilchrist, Hayden and McGrath weren’t enough to stop the stampeding Bangladeshis in one of the biggest upsets the cricketing world has ever seen.

Mitchell Toy is a Melbourne writer and artist.