By Jim Fagan
The little girl was splashing up and down the ornamental pool at Acres outdoor caf¨¦ at Noosaville last Wednesday and quickly her mother snatched her out of the water, scolding, “Other people don’t like getting wet.” A nearby customer called out, “I don’t think the lady will mind. She’s used to water.”
“The lady,” Australian swimming legend Dawn Fraser AC MBE OLY whose record as an athlete includes 8 Olympic medals (four gold and four silver), 41 world records and World Athlete of the Century (awarded in 1999 at the World Sports Awards in Vienna) smiled at the recognition.
The previous evening she had been present at a Noosa Chorale rehearsal for its “Spirit of Olympia—Music from the Olympic Games” concerts in May at the J. Dawn has accepted the Chorale’s invitation to be its Ambassador for the concerts and we were talking about the practice and how she felt listening to the choir.
‘“I got goosebumps when I heard them sing the ‘Hallelujah Chorus.” To me, music like this brings back a lot of memories. When you are at the Olympics you hear the music but, because you are concentrating on your sport, it goes out of your head.
To have it all brought back to me is marvellous.”
Dawn, now 83, has been living in Noosa for 12 years. She first visited Noosa in the late 70’s and about 20 years ago purchased a property. “I couldn’t stay there full time because I was still busy mentoring swimmers and disabled athletes and it was better for me to be based in Sydney.
“My daughter Dawn-Lorraine who was living in Sydney decided to make her home in Noosa with my grandson Jackson who was then about three. I was in Sydney but I was missing them and feeling very depressed. I came here for his fifth birthday, went home, packed up and came to Noosa to live.
“Also, I didn’t have any grandparents and I didn’t want him to grow up like that. I wanted him to know me as his grandmother.”
Dawn is relishing life. She described how she is “on call for a lot of swimmers,” is guest speaker at fundraisers for community groups and not for profits like Assistance Dogs in Brisbane. She is also athlete liaison officer for the Australian swimming team.
She is a keen mentor for swimmers at championships. “If the kids are upset about maybe their stroke, what depresses them, not happy with their coach, they can come and talk to me.
“It’s good that they don’t have to go to their coach and say I don’t like what you’ve done for me. They tell me all their problems and I then go to the coach and say they are not very happy with the way you have them doing this. I say let’s try and do it this way and it works.”
Harry Gallagher, the mastermind behind other swimming greats like Jon Henricks and Michael Wenden, was her swim coach.
For most of his life she called him Mr Gallagher. “We had a wonderful relationship. He taught me self-discipline. As an example, if I wanted to go to the movies, I would have to do double training. That was why I became so good, I guess.
“He was a big influence in my life. His coaching was done in a scientific way that no one then thought was the best way. He wanted to know about the heart so he brought in Professor Edward Both who invented the portable electrographic machine. He trialled it on Jon Henricks and me.
“Today everything is done by computers, in swimming and all sorts of sports. Athletes have physiotherapists with them 24 hours a day. We didn’t have that. I couldn’t afford a massage a week which you need to repair muscles that hurt.”
Harry Gallagher died early this year aged 96 and Dawn described a visit she made to his aged care home on the Gold Coast.
“His name was Henry but he hated it, always insisting on Harry. In the aged care home he was always angry and, when I asked him why, he said they were calling him ‘Henry.’ I saw the boss and asked ‘Will you change his name to Harry?
“He doesn’t like Henry. That’s why he is so cross.”
Dawn agreed she could claim some indelible moments in her life. Post her career as an athlete, she owned a pub in Sydney’s inner west and was the NSW MP for Balmain
She also says she opened probably the first cheese shop in Balmain. “It was just down the corner from the hospital and people, instead of getting flowers, would come and get a cheese basket. It became very successful.”
One achievement which pleases her greatly is having “worked very hard in getting the amateur status of swimmers removed. Today, if you break a world record or do a better time kit it should be recognised.
“Behind the scenes there are people like Gina Reinhardt directly rewarding swimmers. I feel happy that I was a pioneer in achieving that sort of thing for amateurs.
“If I did anything for the television and I got paid 20 pounds, I would have to justify everything, how I spent the money and show invoices and send it to the Australian Swimming Union.
“Officials were receiving all the benefits from what we were doing they were getting money from the gate and were travelling first class all round the world.
“I had to work two jobs a week and train sometimes seven to eight hours a day. I did it because I wanted to achieve.
“A lot of athletes were let down. We had to pay our coaches to train us and that was a terrible injustice.”
Dawn has already started her ambassadorial role with the Chorale. “I told Pat Welsh (sports presenter, Channel 7 in Brisbane) about the concert and how the choir had put together a programme of music from the Opening and Closing Ceremonies from the Games. I also told him the choir thought it was a world first.
“He is very interested and he has promised to send a camera crew to a rehearsal.”
And what next for Dawn Fraser?
She grinned. “Well, I am going to continue to live a healthy life so I can go to the Olympics in Brisbane in 1932. I have also promised Jackson who is 18 that I will dance with him on his 21st birthday. That’s why I keep fit.”
Tickets now on sale. “The Spirit of Olympia” at the J, May 28 and 29. Price $45. Book now at www.thej.com.au or 5329 6560.
