Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are warned that the following article contains images and names of deceased people.
They call it Johnny Mullagh’s “loungeroom”. A tranquil waterhole where emu and kangaroo still venture for refreshment, and where Scott Boland travelled three years ago to begin the road to the MCG and Ashes immortality.
About 15 minutes’ drive out of Harrow in western Victoria, the waterhole is where Mullagh lived for most of his final years, long after the hype of the 1868 Aboriginal tour to England had passed. It’s a rare privilege to spend some time there, listening to the birds and watching the shimmering reflection of the gum trees on the water.
About 15 minutes’ drive out of Harrow in western Victoria, this waterhole is where Indigenous cricketer Johnny Mullagh lived for most of his final years.Credit: Daniel Brettig
Josie Sangster, the gregarious manager of the Harrow Discovery Centre that for 17 years has sought to tell the story of the 1868 tour and all that led up to it, is hushed in guiding us to the site, including the hollowed-out tree that offered shelter by the waterside, shrouded in prickly kangaroo thorn.
It is indeed a special place for anyone interested in the story of Australia and its cricketers. But for Boland, who with his brother, Nick, had only discovered his family link to the Gulidjan tribe near Colac a few months before, a trip to Harrow, the waterhole and finally to Mullagh’s grave was the stuff of cultural awakening.
Peter Cooley, a Bidjigal man from Sydney, has been an intrinsic part of Aboriginal cricket programs in Australia for nearly two decades. He took Boland to Harrow in May 2018, ahead of that year’s commemorative tour to England to retrace the footsteps of Mullagh and his team on the other side of the world.
Scott Boland, centre of back row, on his 2018 visit to Harrow.Credit: Harrow Discovery Centre
“I can clearly visualise when we visited Johnny Mullagh’s waterhole, I could just see the body language from Scott and Nick, that they knew there was something special around them,” he tells The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald. “They knew that they were in a legend’s lounge room. A leader, a role model and someone they can now look up to.
“We had a pretty special ceremony around Johnny Mullagh’s grave before leaving Harrow as well. That was a pretty special moment between a few of us players, where we put some thoughts into some local wattle tree and left that with him on the grave.
“I asked them to put three things into it that they’re going to take away from this trip to Harrow, and what they’re going to take forward on the tour. Then we left that with Johnny Mullagh. That was pretty special for us.
The Johnny Mullagh medal, to be presented at the end of 2022, hangs from Indigenous cricket legend Johnny Mullagh’s headstone in Harrow, western Victoria. Credit: Daniel Brettig
“So the whole experience of 2018, if you look at Scott’s results after that tour, it’s pretty phenomenal what he’s been able to achieve, and he’s become a much better cricketer.”
It can be hard, at times, to quantify cultural, personal and spiritual growth in a person. With Boland, though, there are some salient numbers that make one thing plain: before he went to Mullagh country and then on to England in 2018, Boland was a more than serviceable domestic performer, good enough to have been picked for Australia. After that journey, Boland graduated to a class of red-ball performance essentially without peer in Australia.
Andrew McDonald, who coached Boland with Victoria before moving on to a senior assistant role with Australia, saw an immediate impact in the Sheffield Shield-winning season of 2018-19.
“Consistency from game to game,” he says. “His best and worst performance, there is so little difference. You know what you are getting each time he walks out onto the park. His efforts in 2018-19, leading the attack on flat wickets, was a standout in my time as Victorian coach.
Scott Boland pads up at Arundel Castle Cricket Ground in Sussex during the 2018 tour of England to mark the sesquicentenary of the Indigenous XI tour of 1868.Credit: Darrian Traynor/Getty Images
“He has been on a personal journey in the last few years and is deeply proud of his origins, like all Indigenous people are. It’s an example of a person who is incredibly grounded, humble and who has so much respect within this group and all those who have played with him. What you see with Scott is what you get.”
Pre-2018, Boland had taken his 161 wickets at a cost of 28.65 runs each, striking every 60.7 deliveries. Since, he has scooped 118 at 21.38, at a strike rate of 47.7 balls. Nowhere has he been more dangerous than on the same MCG turf where Mullagh played on Boxing Day 1866: 49 wickets at an eye-popping 13.42, a wicket every 32.1 deliveries.
To Cooley, this all makes perfect sense. “I’m a big believer in the spiritual side of life and having that connection to those old people and a better idea of who you are and where you come from, I have no doubt that’s helped Scott become a better player,” he says. “He’s a very humble young man, and I think all that has played a big part in him becoming an outstanding professional cricketer.
“If you want to drill down and look, that’s all part of building Scott as a person and an athlete. It all goes in together. That strength he gets from culture, identity and connection, I believe that helps with performance. If you’re feeling good about yourself inside, you’re strong. I think that goes into your sport and all parts of your life.
“I’ve no doubt that an event like 2018 certainly contributed to Scott as a person, as a leader and a role model as well. I’m pretty sure Scott would say it really did help him with his sport as well, and him being stronger as an Aboriginal person and to have a stronger connection, it’s held him in good stead, and look what’s happened.”
As much as Boland’s MCG moment will be seen as a breakthrough, there is plenty of recent history to suggest that more work is required. For example, the Discovery Centre was open for 14 years before any sort of Cricket Australia delegation made a visit, a few months before Boland did.
“Even though there’s been a bit of publicity about it, it was documented, the tour happened in 2018,” says Cooley. “But in the big picture, there’s still not a lot of Australians who actually understand or know the first sporting team to leave our shores and play abroad was all-Aboriginal.
Australia’s first internationals: the Indigenous cricketers who toured England in 1868.
“The amount of pieces that had to be put together to make all that happen was phenomenal, particularly when you consider what was happening in Australia at the time around colonisation with the times people were going through, the removal of Aboriginal people from country, the violence and massacres as well.
“For all that to be put aside and this team to be formed and play at the MCG, around Victoria, in Sydney and ultimately going on to England, it’s just a phenomenal story. To have a connection to that story is huge, but then to represent the original players, get to meet descendants, I just can’t put it into words the good that would’ve done for those guys.”
Undoubtedly, the events of the past week serve not only as a happy climax to the journey taken by Boland over the past three years, but also as a jumping-off point for many more Aboriginal cricketers taking their place on the biggest stage.
“I’ve no doubt that a lot of our young people now know the name Scott Boland,” Cooley says. “So when they watch the BBL now when Scotty’s playing, they’ll take an interest. The underpinning thing that Scott would love to see is more young Aboriginal cricketers inspired to play the game. We’re an untapped resource in terms of cricket, and you’ve only got to look at AFL and rugby league to see the ability of Aboriginal people in the sports arena.
Scott Boland celebrates clean-bowling Jack Leach on the second day of the Boxing Day Test. Credit: AP
“For some reason, we haven’t got there yet in cricket, but with people like Scotty doing what he did ... that’s going to be forever etched in history and young kids are going to be saying in the backyard, ‘I’m Scott Boland’. Scotty’s a hero to all of us, but he’s going to be an inspiration for hopefully a lot of our kids as well and this is a catalyst for young Aboriginal people playing cricket.”
McDonald, who looked on proudly as Boland destroyed England’s final Ashes rearguard at the MCG, sees it as a moment when a cricketer “under the radar” emerged to show the world his excellence.
“It was great to watch him going about his business in Melbourne knowing the hard work he has put into his game and the ability he has,” McDonald says. “We certainly didn’t underestimate him and clearly the selectors know just how good he is.
“What we saw at the MCG was incredible, a moment in time that he and everyone who was there will always remember.”
In Harrow, population around 110, the pride in Boland’s performance is palpable. On the noticeboard of the Hermitage Hotel over the road from the Discovery Centre, a tribute is posted: “Congratulations Scotty!!! We will be celebrating at the Hermy tonight! From us all in Harrow. Legend.”