Albert Pompey Austin: A Man Between Two Worlds
Australian History Memoir Cultural History Biography Sports History Indigenous Biography Aboriginal Studies Social Justice
Albert Pompey Austin: A Man Between Two Worlds is the long-overdue biography that restores a pioneering Aboriginal sportsman and showman to his rightful place in Australian history. Written by historian Roy Hay, the 2020 paperback traces Austin’s extraordinary journey from the Lake Condah mission in western Victoria to the glittering stages of inter-war Europe, where he thrilled crowds as a professional cyclist, boxer and boomerang performer. Meticulously researched and told with novelistic immediacy, the book shows how Austin negotiated the brutal racial politics of the era—managing to tour the world while still classified as “ward of the state”—and became a cultural bridge long before reconciliation entered the national vocabulary.
What makes this copy especially appealing to collectors and readers is its immaculate condition: a tight, unmarked spine, crisp pages free of foxing or inscriptions, and no shelf-wear or dog-eared corners—essentially a like-new reading copy that can sit proudly on any Australiana shelf. Because the title had a modest first print-run and never received a mass-market reprint, clean second-hand copies now trade for a premium; owning one ensures you hold a piece of living history rather than a digital facsimile.
For students, educators and general readers searching “Indigenous Australian biography,” “Aboriginal sports history,” or “rare 2020 Australian paperbacks,” this volume delivers both a gripping personal narrative and a scholarly window into Aboriginal self-determination, transnational performance circuits, and the power of sporting celebrity to challenge White Australia policy assumptions. Add this copy today and discover why reviewers hailed it as “a quiet triumph of historical recovery” that belongs alongside Bruce Pascoe’s Dark Emu and Cathy McLennan’s Saltwater in every informed Australian library.
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