Midget Farrelly

 

Why would I know about Midget Farrelly? Why have I never forgotten his name? Why should we, as Australians , remember his name from time to time and celebrate his achievements? I am not a surfer. I am not interested in surfing. If you knew me, you would know surfing and I do not go together. I can watch top world surfers, of which he was one, and admire their expertise and their capacity to take on the awesome power of nature. They are fit, skilled and not lacking in courage.

I arrived in Adelaide March 13th 1965. My parents had taken us to dinner in town. Later, my sister, five years older than I am, and I were sitting by the Torrens and thinking Adelaide was a nice place to be. Two young lads came up and started talking to us. It wasn't threatening or unpleasant. Our father would have been quietly keeping an eye on us as he sat with Mum but they were not close by. The boys were happy to know we had made the long trip from England and had come to Adelaide as migrants. We knew all about the English pop scene at the time and they could tell us all about Adelaide. At one point one of the boys was proudly talking about Midget Farrelly and seemed to think we would be impressed. Then he said he was a surfer. We knew about football (soccer) and cricket, hockey, netball, tennis. Surfing we had no idea about. So the boys tried to explain surfing to us and the concept of a beach in Australia. We were used to stones and black mud and lots of big red crabs. "Midget Farrelly is my cousin, " the boy exclaimed in the end. "He is so cool. " We tried to be impressed for him even though we were totally clueless. I have never forgotten that first night in Adelaide. Midget Farrelly's cousin and his friend helped us in the short time with us to know our new country better and had tried to teach us what to value now we lived here.

Midget Farrelly, born in Sydney, achieved a lot for us as a nation by just being himself and doing what he loved. The year before we spoke to his cousin he had won the first official surfing world championship at Sydney's Manly Beach The year before he had won a major surfing title in Hawaii and in 1965 he won the Australian surfing title.

We should not forget people like Midget Farrelly. We spend too much time thinking about people who are not very nice who are damaging our environment, our country and our capacity to achieve well in an amazingly positive way. We can't built a positive world on negative thoughts. We need to get out there in the ocean of life and do good things like Midget Farrelly.