Manly Beach, 1913. Olympic silver medalist swimmer, Cecil Healy, meets a local ratbag beach bum for a beer and a chin wag. Hmmm. Maybe this chat never actually happened. But it could have. Tommy skips down the two sandstone steps from the front door of the Seagulls club house, traverses the tarmac footpath, crosses the South Steyne, then wanders past the timber surf club to … [Read more...]
Cecil Healy – the village hero who changed the world through his sport!
One of Australia's least known sporting heroes changed the world in so many ways... but his mercurial swimming and other sporting feats were not much help against the guns and bombs of war! Manly is viewed by most as a commercial, services and tourism hub surrounded by an urban sprawl. Well, it is that. Sort of. But it’s also a village. Even twenty years ago, when I still … [Read more...]