The 'Unacknowledged' History

DISCOVERING THE ‘UNACKNOWLEDGED’ HISTORY OF TRUGO – using Trove 

Trugo is an uncommon, largely undocumented unique sport that is very rarely reported on, therefore it comes with no surprise that its origin is very vague, with many diverse and sometimes opposing details that have evidently been passed down over several generations of players. Essentially all published reports trace the origin of Trugo back to the western suburbs at Newport railway workshops in the 1920s, where informal games are believed to have commenced in Yarraville, which, in turn, prompted the establishment of formal Trugo clubs in what now appears to be several locations.

The most common version of the off-told story quoted from (Essendon Gazette, 1996, p 9) is as follows:

“During the Great Depression, workers at the Newport railway workshops needed a diversion from the iron horse. At lunchtime they would use wooden mallets to hit rubber rings, taken from railway carriage buffers, through goal posts spaced about 1.7 meters apart. As legend has it, on one occasion when a ring was hit between the posts someone called out “that was a true go”. From that moment the game of Trugo was formed and flippant attempts at fun soon evolved into a serious sport, with clubs formed and a competition established.” (Heritage Alliance, 2006, p 5)

Then a slightly different source provides some additional information stating:

“Some time back in the 1920s, workers at the Newport rail yards, on their lunch break one day started knocking about a few rubber buffer washers (used in the carriage couplings) with their sledgehammers. Before long, some bright spark had set up two cans as goal posts and the first “ring” was set careening through the goals to the resounding cry of “that was a true go.” (Heritage Alliance, 2006, p 5)

Nonetheless, it is this next version that was first distributed by the Age newspaper in 1984 that truly signifies one of the earliest and most detailed published reports of the origins of Trugo.

“Trugo, seemingly a distant relative of croquet, was the product of the bored mind of Mr. Tom Grieves, a Newport workshops worker in 1927. Mr. Grieves’ job was to replace the old rubber rings on the buffers between rail carriages – and he noticed that that as he threw the used ones away they would roll quite a long way... Mr. Grieves took a few rings to his Yarraville home one day and convinced his sons that it would be amusing to hit them about the street with sticks. Older neighbours thought it looked like fun and joined in and soon Mr. Grieves had introduced the game to the Newport workshops where it became the lunchtime sport. Workmen were so thankful to Mr. Grieves that they named the game Tru-go, after his initials T.G.” (Age, 1984, p 5)

“In any case, the connection with the railway yards was to play a significant part in codifying the sport itself. The size of a Trugo court was defined by the size of a typical railway carriage of the time – 90 feet (27 meters) long – while the width of the goals – 5 feet, 9 inches (1.7 meters) – echoed that of the standard railway gauge.” (Times, 2003, p 2)

Additionally, the number of shots permitted for each player was originally set at four, corresponding to the number of rubber rings to each carriage.

The circumstances that saw Trugo develop from a lunchtime diversion at the Newport railway workshops into a full-grown local sport are correspondingly unclearly documented. However, it apparently took place in the mid-1920s, with some sources giving the date as 1925 and others as 1927. (Mail, 2000, p 2 / Times, 2003, p 2)

According to ‘Heritage Alliance, 2006, p 6’, one version of the story insinuated it simply came about as a consequence of the retirement of Tom Grieves himself:

“When he retired he took some of the discs to the Yarraville Gardens and hit them about with a croquet mallet. He put up a couple of goal posts and, from a distance, tried to shoot the discs between them... Other senior citizens became interested and the Yarraville and Footscray Trugo Clubs were formed.” (Footscray 125th Anniversary Book, p 56)

It wasn’t until later in 1937 when the casual Trugo players of Yarraville officially turned themselves into the Yarraville Trugo Club. This was publicly launched in January that same year starting with ten members. This included Tom Grieves, the sport’s inventor, as foundation president, two other early players, Harry Woods and Claus Ebeling all in addition to the new club secretary William Thomas Piggott who, on 13 February that year, made a formal request to the Footscray City Council asking permission for old retired men of Yarraville to play a game called True- go in the Yarraville Gardens.

“It is a Yarraville man’s invention and they are all old ratepayers of Footscray. The game consists of four goal posts, two at each end, 22 yards from one end to the other and 2 yards apart at each end. The goal posts are 18 inches high and stand on the grass. A croquet hammer and rubber rings are used.” (Piggot, 1937)

The council had promptly granted permission, which then led to a successful series of tournaments organised by the new club, which, within only two months of its development, had already doubled in members. Later, commencing on Friday, 12 March 1937, five teams of four players competed for trophies that had been donated by local businessmen.

Heritage Alliance, 2006, p 8, specified “Such was Trugo’s popularity during this early phase that membership of the Yarraville club increased exponentially. The original ten members had not merely doubled by mid-March but doubled again, to forty, by mid-April. This boom was partly due to council support, with the local newspaper noting that the club had ‘good champions in the Mayor and councilors, who are helping in every way to advance the game.” (Footscray Advertiser, 1937, p 9)

“Yet the sport was still played only in Yarraville, with the members of a single club competing against themselves. After the second tournament on 19 March, club president Tom Grieves stated that he was ‘keen to get the game going in other suburbs, so as to create more competition.” (Footscray Advertiser, 1937, p 3)

According to an initial report by ‘the Mail-Advertiser’ in 1987, Trugo originally spread to other suburbs due to the encouragement of the four Yarraville businessmen who had pioneered the sport in the early 1930s.

The same week that a new club was launched at Footscray, the local newspaper reported that a resident of Williamstown who was interested in forming another club there had attended a recent match at Yarraville. (Footscray Advertiser, 1937, p 2) This was executed within a year, as there is a record in June 1938 of a ‘friendly game’ between Williamstown and Footscray at the Western Reserve. (Footscray Advertiser, 1938, p 2)

Due to the success and extent of popularity the game attained, published stories of Trugo drew attention to the games distinctive qualities, always quoting it as one of the few sports that are of entirely Australian origin. In such reports, Trugo has been variously described as “one of the West’s last truly home-grown sports”, “one of Australia’s few native sports”, and “a unique game that really only Melbourne has seen”. Some have even asserted that Trugo is “the only game wholly invented and codified by Australians in Australia” or, put simply, “the only true Aussie sport”. (Heritage Alliance, 2006, p 21)

(Heritage Alliance, 2006, p 34)

(Source: Herald, 11 February 1938)

One of the earliest published illustrations of a game of Trugo, showing Claus Ebeling and friends at Yarraville.

REFERENCES


·      Heritage Alliance, http://nla.gov.au/nla.arc-144449-20140123-1455-home.vicnet.net.au/_vtrugo/history.html,   Footscray Trugo Club Pavilion and Grounds, ‘conservation analysis’, 2006, pp. 5-21  - viewed 24 August 2014

·      Fair dinkum sport set to make world debut’, Age, 11 August 1984, p 5

·      Doin’ doughnuts till they die, Essendon Gazette, 21 October 1996, p 9

·      Trugo, the fair-dinkum game of champions’, Age, 19 December 2001

·      Keeping track of a true game, Times, 30 September 2003, p 2

·      Letter, Piggot to Town Clerk, City of Footscray, 13 February 1937

·      True-go club popular’, Footscray Advertiser, 13 March 1937, p 9

·      True-go club competition’, Footscray Advertiser, 25 March 1937, p 3

·      Trugo: A sport with origins in the Newport rail yards’, The Mail-Advertiser, 11 March 1987, p 42

·      Yarraville’s Competition, Footscray Advertiser, 15 May 1937, p 2

·      Footscray True-go Club, Footscray Advertiser, 27 October 1938, p 22

·      Footscray True-go Club, Footscray Advertiser, 21 January 1939, p 23

·      Trugo began in Yarraville, Footscray125th Anniversary Book, p 56

·      Trugo display, Mail, 29 March 2000, p 2

·      Keeping track of a true game, Times, 30 September 2003, p 2