📍Barellan NSW 2665, Australia
1951 – 1965“Evonne Goolagong was born in Griffith, New South Wales, in July 1951 and grew up in Barellan, a small wheat-farming town in the Riverina, the third of eight children of Kenny Goolagong, a sheep-shearer, and Linda, both Wiradjuri people. The family lived in a tin house with dirt floors and no electricity on the edge of town, and they were one of the only Aboriginal families there. Her mother lived in fear of the welfare officers who took Aboriginal children from their families, and hid the children when a strange car came by. Evonne's first racket was a paddle cut from a fruit box, and she hit balls with a broom handle against the walls. One day the president of the Barellan War Memorial Tennis Club, Bill Kurtzman, saw her peering through the fence and invited her in to play. At seven, given special permission because of her age, she joined the club, and soon she was beating the adults. She loved the game's freedom and played with a natural, joyous grace. In 1961 coaches from Vic Edwards's tennis school in Sydney held a clinic in Barellan and told him about her. At fourteen, in 1965, she moved to Sydney to live with the Edwards family, training at his school and going to Willoughby Girls High School. In 1971, at nineteen, she won the French Open and Wimbledon, and she won seven Grand Slam singles titles, including a second Wimbledon in 1980 as a mother. She became the first Aboriginal Australian to win a Grand Slam title, and Barellan proudly displays a giant replica of her racket.”
🗺️ Approximate location today
📍 Street view today