Category Archives: Sports

Fay Taylour

For a period in the 1920s Fay Taylour dominated motorcycle racing in both Europe and Australia, gaining fame not as a woman-racer but as one who competed and won at all levels on three continents against both men and women. Despite her successes in that area, her fascist politics tend to dominate her legacy.

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May Knowles

She taught girls’ sport and was Olympic champion Shirley Strickland de la Hunty’s first coach. Knowles was called ‘the hyphen’ as she was seen to be crossing boundaries between men’s and women’s teaching roles. In 1944 she was promoted to principal-mistress at Perth Modern School which made her the top woman in secondary teaching. Then she went to the Kent Street High School where, because as it was a practising school, her salary was £10 per year higher. In 1955 she was headmistress of Girdlestone Girls High School before returning to Perth Girls High School as headmistress.

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Katerina Nēhua

In March 1931 Nēhua entered an open sea endurance competition at Rushcutters Bay, Sydney. Later in the month at the city’s Balmoral Baths she broke the world record with a swim of 72 hours 9 minutes. She went on to break her world record in May 1931 at Brisbane’s municipal baths, swimming for 72 hours 21 minutes.

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