IN 1936, Mallawa Amateur Picnic Race Club president Charles Jardine, a former amateur Australian heavyweight boxing champion and Olympic Games representative turned western districts sheep grazier, won the opening race as an owner at Mallawa with Spear Loch.
On Saturday, his 91-year-old daughter, Dorothy Wiseman, arrived unheralded at the Mallawa races to relive the memories her father created 89 years ago.
Dorothy was two years old when Spear Loch beat Bundahbereen and Inaila in the Narba Maiden Plate at the old Mallawa racecourse on the property, Elenera, about seven miles from the present-day racecourse, which was established 17 years later.
“Coming back to Mallawa for the races has been on my bucket list for quite a while – the last time I was here would’ve been 50 years ago,” Dorothy said.
Dorothy Wiseman, 91, flew from Rockhampton to Moree, via Brisbane and Sydney, to attend the Mallawa picnic races on Saturday. Her father, Charles Jardine, was Mallawa club president in the 1930s.
Incredibly, she can remember ‘snippets’ from the day Spear Loch won the Narba Maiden 89 years ago.
“I was only two years old, but I can remember my father walking along and shaking hands with the committee,” she said.
“I followed along and shook hands with them as well and they were all saying how I was a beautiful little thing,” she laughed.
Her father was a sporting celebrity in the 1920s, with newspapers reporting after Spear Loch’s win: “There is not a more popular sport, or a good all-round fellow, than Charles Jardine in the north-west, and the win was very gratifying to his host of friends and admirers.”
Dorothy Wiseman at Mallawa picnic races, circa late 1950s, with mother Dorothy and uncle, Bill Jardine.
Dorothy married cattle farmer Bruce Wiseman at Inverell in 1960 and they had two sons, David and Sam.
Sadly, Bruce passed away three years ago. He was the great-grandson of Londoner Solomon Wiseman, a skilled bargeman who arrived in Australia a convict in 1806 after being found guilty of stealing wood.
He was given his ticket-of-leave in 1810 and pardoned two years later.
In 1827, Wiseman, by now an innkeeper, was granted permission to operate a ferry across the Hawkesbury River.
The tiny, historic village about 60km north-west of Sydney, bears his name.
Dorothy has quite a bit of fame on her side of the family, too.
Her father, Charles, was an Australian boxer who competed in the 1924 Olympics Games in Paris.
As an amateur pugilist, he won the NSW Amateur Heavyweight Championship in 1922, and the following year the Australian Heavyweight Championship.
Dorothy’s father, originally from the Inverell district, was a keen sportsman, and well-known for rifle-shooting, shot-put, and throwing the hammer – but as a boxer, he was an Australian champion.
In 1933, Charles married Dorothy Eunice Wisbey at Windsor and the following year their daughter, Dorothy, was born.
Dorothy and her husband, Bruce, farmed in the Inverell district in the 1960s before relocating to Gunnedah.
“Bruce’s family had a cattle and mixed farming property out at Bedwell Downs at Wallangra,” Dorothy said.
“We stayed at Wallangra for a few years, and sold and went to Gunnedah. After that, we went to Theodore in Queensland, and lived in Rockhampton for 20 years when we retired,” she said.
Australian champion boxer Charles Jardine, a former Mallawa Picnic Race Club president.
Dorothy flew from Rockhampton to Sydney via Brisbane and onto Moree to take in Saturday’s Mallawa Cup meeting, and will return home this week.
She said having close, historic ties to the district meant there were plenty of stories to share with people whose families have been farming in the Mallawa district for generations.
“I thoroughly enjoyed myself. People came out of the woodwork to talk to me,” Dorothy smiled.
“There are still plenty of ties in the district and everyone was so generous and nice.”
Mallawa Picnic Race Club president Nick Gillingham said the club was honoured to have Dorothy trackside on Saturday.
“It was great having Dorothy, a daughter of one of our very first presidents, come along for the day and see all the changes. She shared a lot of memories with a lot of people,” Nick said.
Saturday’s meeting, round two of bush racing’s Golden Triangle, drew a big crowd and near-record numbers out on the track, with 47 horses facing the starter across six races.
“The day has gone extremely well, and the weather’s been great,” Nick said.
“The cup was a very good race, and the biggest field we’ve had for a very long time – the biggest I can remember. We got a lot of horses as well as a lot of jockeys.
“We only got about 3mm of rain on the Monday before the meeting, and that was just enough to settle the dust,” he said.
Dorthy Wiseman and Mallawa Picnic Race Club president Nick Gillingham at the annual Mallawa races on Saturday.
About Charles Tennant Jardine
Last year, to mark 100 years since Charles Tennant Jardine competed at the Paris Olympics, a small, personal archive of photographs, letters and newspaper clippings were donated to the Inverell Shire Public Library and Inverell District Family History Group.
Charles was born in Bathurst in 1889, one of seven children to John and Fanny Jardine.
He passed away on October 6, 1942, at Moree Hospital after a brief, measles-related illness.
Charles, known widely as Charlie, was 52.
Not long after his birth, Charles’ family relocated from Bathurst to Blair Athol, Inverell.
The Jardine family later purchased Birrilee, a grazing property near Dinton Vale, about 15 miles north of Inverell.
In about 1908, Charles selected a property adjoining Boonal, near Boggabilla, which he named Nymboida, where he farmed until about 1930 – the year Mallawa Amateur Picnic Race Club came into being.
He sold Nymboida and acquired Gundare, west of Moree, and married Dorothy Wisbey in 1933.
The family shared their time between Inverell and Moree, and were regarded both Moree and Sapphire City locals.
Charles’ boxing prowess came about when he tried out at Snowy Baker’s Gymnasium in Sydney and was told by Baker he was a “born boxer”.
Baker knew what he was talking about – he won silver at the 1908 London Olympics as a middleweight.
Charles and the Australian squad travelled by sea to France – a five-week journey – on the Ormonde. The Inverell Times stated “the genial ‘Charlie’ is a great favourite with the Sydney crowd and he was one of the most popular athletes in the team, judging by the cordiality of his send-off as the boat left the wharf”.
The 1931 Mallawa Picnic Race Club committee: (at back from left) Ross Inglis, John King, Horace Lillyman, Harry Hickey, Hugh Flood (patron), Bob Garland (president), Les Boland, Charles Jardine, Bill Hunt and (at front from left) Max Grace, Lyle Grace, John Hickey, Kyrle Grace, Jim Lillyman (secretary) and Col Inglis.
The Inverell Times went on to say Jardine “is a fine type of man, standing six-feet and weighing just over 14-stone. He is a strong and pretty good boxer, using the left well. He goes to the Games with Australia’s endorsement as the best amateur heavyweight in the country. The amateurs of today are not so good as in the years gone by, but Jardine ranks among the best boxers. He is sure to give a good account of himself, and wherever he goes he will be a good advertisement for Australia”.
Charles was eliminated in the first round of the heavyweight class to the ultimate gold medallist, Norwegian Otto von Porat, who defeated Danish boxer Søren Petersen in the final.
Charles returned home a hero who wore the green and gold with pride, and went back to sheep farming west of Moree.
In 1935, Charles was appointed Mallawa Amateur Picnic Race Club president, a position he held until his death.
The Inverell Times said Charles was “large of stature and large of heart, generous to a degree and the soul of integrity. It is therefore all the more tragic that such a lovable character should be cut off in the prime of life”.
Words: Bill Poulos
He must of had a son Charlie as well as I remember in the 80,s at Charlie jardine at Gundare