HOOKES:
Welcome back to Sports Today. Well today in Adelaide, on the eve
of Ian Healy's 100th Test match, the Prime Minister of Australia,
the Right Honourable Mr John Howard opened the Bradman Collection
at the South Australian State Library and
Sir Donald Bradman has given something like 150 of personal items
to the Library and the Prime Minister was there to open it, as we
said, and he joins us on the line on Sports Today. Mr Prime Minister,
thank you very much for your time. What a moment it must have been
for you today?
PRIME MINISTER:
It is a great exhibition, David. The fact that so many personal
items have been donated by Sir Donald, not just the bats that he
used to score his great accumulation of runs but also memorabilia
that he has collected over the years from all around the world.
And it really has been put together in a wonderful exhibition and
I am sure it will be something of a Mecca not only in South Australia
but around Australia, for cricket lovers. And the support that the
exhibition has received from the business community in South Australia,
and of course from the cricketing fraternity, has been immense.
It was really - for a cricket lover like myself - it was quite a
privilege and experience to open the exhibition.
HOOKES:
John, do you think that if you had used one of those bats that
Sir Donald made 1,000 runs, your batting career might have been
a bit better?
PRIME MINISTER:
I am sure it would have been different. I was actually handed one
of them and the one where he got his, where he reached his thousand
runs in the 1930 tour of England and it felt real good.
HOOKES:
John, for those people listening over here in Melbourne, who may
venture over during the footy season to Adelaide and wanted to go
to the State Library, what sort of area does the collection take
up?
PRIME MINISTER:
Oh it doesn't take up a huge area but it is the sort of thing
that you can either take half an hour or six hours. And the Library,
of course, is in the centre of Adelaide. It is not very far from
the Adelaide Oval and it really is in an ideal spot and it has been
very, very beautifully done and there is - as well as all the old
memorabilia - there is plenty of, there is an electronic presentation
of all his records and his scrap books and his performances and
it is the best exhibition of that kind that I think I have ever
seen because its got a very imaginative arrangement. It has got
all of his old blazers, his old creams, his old boats, his old pads
and then of course, naturally, the bats and the stumps and it has
even got a little cocktail table which is held up by three stumps
which was one that apparently he had made for his home. So it is
a wonderful exhibition and of course having it on the eve of the
Test match it gave it an extra special zing. And of course, Donald
and his late wife Jessie, who lived in Adelaide since 1934, are
really, of course, became the most revered citizens of that city.
HOOKES:
And I notice also John that you unveiled a bronze bust of Sir Donald?
PRIME MINISTER:
Yes I did.
HOOKES:
Some 99 of him made and I do believe John that his family spoke
to him about the fact that he had given so much to this library
and so much to the Bowral Museum in NSW that there was nothing left
for the family to have and that Sir Donald was really pleased when
he was presented with that with Michael Brock, the Chairman of that
Committee. And he said to Michael, well I have got something now
to hand down to my family.
PRIME MINISTER:
Typical of the man. He has been very generous in memorabilia and
he has been painstaking in helping the library and the exhibition
and the people sponsoring it in assembling so much. And the only
thing, incidentally, they haven't been able to track down is
a baggy green because he has given them all away. Now I just hope
that as a result of the publicity being given to the exhibition,
somebody who has got one of his baggy greens will donate it to the
exhibition. So it will be very interesting to see if that occurs.
But over the years you can imagine just how many there were and
incredibly enough they haven't been able to get an original,
they have got a replica but not actually one that he wore.
HOOKES:
It is not in the bar at The Lodge is it?
PRIME MINISTER:
No, I have to say not that. It is not in the bar at The Lodge.
HOOKES:
I spoke to you a couple of days ago in Perth and you made the point
that you saw Sir Donald play?
PRIME MINISTER:
I saw Sir Donald play once. I saw his last innings on the Sydney
Cricket Ground. I went onto The Hill at the Sydney Cricket Ground
in 1949 with my father, to see him play in the Kippax Oldfield Testimonial.
And he got, from recollection, about 50. And that was the very last
time that he appeared on the Sydney Cricket Ground and I have never
forgotten the amazing reception that he received from the Sydney
crowd. And, of course, in those days we had The Hill and it was
something that I always remember. But I only ever saw him play once
and of course that is now almost 50 years ago.
But I said in my speech earlier today that the extraordinary thing
about him is that the years haven't dimmed the affection in
which he is held. And he really is the greatest living Australian
and in many ways he was Australia's first celebrity and he
has remained Australia's greatest celebrity.
HOOKES:
Yes and he turns 90 on August the 27th this year.
PRIME MINISTER:
August the 27th this year he will turn 90 and he is just an amazing
figure, who is not only a great sporting giant but he has played
a very significant role in the culture of this country. He was a
great source of hope and inspiration and leadership to a very depressed
group of Australians during The Great Depression.
HOOKES:
He certainly was. Well John we do thank you for your time, we know
that you have got a very busy day today and I also have heard from
your staff that you were hoping to get the first day of the final
Test match in Adelaide tomorrow but you have had to put that on
hold sadly, for yourself?
PRIME MINISTER:
I have had to put that on hold, I really must go to Katherine to
see the people who have been left devastated by these floods and
I therefore won't be able to go to the cricket. But I will
be listening to it, but I really must go to Katherine.
HOOKES:
Well John, thank you very much for your time. Pass on our best
wishes to those people in Katherine for those floods, let us hope
that they can get themselves back in order. We do appreciate your
time and let us hope that tomorrows Test match is a good one and
let us hope those people in Victoria who venture to Adelaide can
get to the library and see the collection.
PRIME MINISTER:
Thanks, th
Thanks, thanks a lot.
[Ends]