36 Facts About Douglas Nicholls

Douglas Nicholls was a professional athlete, Churches of Christ pastor and church planter, ceremonial officer and a pioneering campaigner for reconciliation.

Douglas Nicholls was born on 9 December 1906 on the Cummeragunja Reserve in New South Wales.

Douglas Nicholls was the youngest of five children born to Herbert Nicholls and Florence Atkinson.

Schooling at Douglas Nicholls's mission was provided to Grade 3 standard and strict religious principles were emphasised.

At 13 Douglas Nicholls worked with his uncle as a tar boy and general hand on sheep stations, and he lived with the shearers.

Douglas Nicholls played some seconds matches for Carlton but did not play a senior game.

Douglas Nicholls subsequently joined the Northcote Football Club in the VFA, and became a regular in the Northcote team by 1929.

Douglas Nicholls made his name as an energetic and speedy wingman, capable of spectacular feats, and came to be regarded as the best wingman in the VFA at the time.

Douglas Nicholls was a member of Northcote's 1929 premiership team, and finished third in the Recorder Cup voting in 1931, his final season with Northcote.

In 1932, Douglas Nicholls joined the VFL's Fitzroy Football Club and in 1935, he was the first Aboriginal player to be selected to play for the Victorian interstate team, ultimately playing four interstate games.

Douglas Nicholls played a total of six seasons for Fitzroy, before returning to Northcote in 1938.

Douglas Nicholls returned to Northcote as non-playing coach in 1947.

Douglas Nicholls won Fitzroy's Reserves best and fairest award in 1937.

Douglas Nicholls competed in gift races around Victoria during the athletics seasons, and in 1928 he won both the Nyah and Warracknabeal Gifts.

Douglas Nicholls was the inaugural chairman of the National Aboriginal Sports Foundation.

Douglas Nicholls organised and captained Aboriginal teams in football matches used for patriotic fundraisers during the war, many of which were played against Northcote.

William Cooper, an uncle to Douglas Nicholls, mentored him in leadership, eventually placing him as the secretary of the Australian Aborigines' League.

Doug Douglas Nicholls rose to support the resolution on behalf of the Victorian Aborigines League that day, saying:.

In 1949, a letter written by Douglas Nicholls prompted a Labor MP, Kim Beazley Sr.

Douglas Nicholls was a minister and social worker with Aboriginal people.

Douglas Nicholls officiated at church and hymn services as a lay preacher at the Gore Street Mission Centre in Fitzroy.

In 1941 Douglas Nicholls received his call-up notice and he joined the 29th Battalion but, in 1942, at the request of the Fitzroy police, he was released from his unit to work as a social worker in the Fitzroy Aboriginal community.

Douglas Nicholls cared for those trapped in alcohol abuse, gambling, and other social problems, and those who were in trouble with the police.

In 1957 Douglas Nicholls became a field officer for the Aborigines Advancement League.

Douglas Nicholls edited their magazine, Smoke Signals, and helped draw Aboriginal issues to the attention of Government officials and the general public.

Douglas Nicholls pleaded for dignity for Aboriginal people as human beings.

Douglas Nicholls helped set up hostels for Aboriginal children, holiday homes for Aboriginal people at Queenscliff and was a founding member and Victorian Secretary of the Federal Council for the Advancement of Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders.

Douglas Nicholls became Governor of South Australia on 1 December 1976, after being announced on 25 May on the nomination of Premier Don Dunstan.

Douglas Nicholls was the first non-white person to serve as the governor of an Australian state, and is the only Aboriginal person to have held viceregal office.

Douglas Nicholls took exception to a question directed at his wife, calling the interviewer a racist and requiring him to leave his house.

Douglas Nicholls said there were "grave dangers" involved, as "there is something inherent in the personality of the Aborigine which makes it difficult for him to adapt fully to the ways of the white man".

On 25 January 1977, Douglas Nicholls suffered a stroke and was admitted to the cardiac ward at Royal Adelaide Hospital.

Douglas Nicholls had a history of high blood pressure and had suffered a mild heart attack some years earlier.

Douglas Nicholls was not discharged until three weeks later, with Lieutenant-Governor Walter Crocker serving as Administrator of the Government in his place.

Douglas Nicholls subsequently awarded him a second knighthood, Knight Commander of the Royal Victorian Order.

Douglas Nicholls held office for only 150 days, making him the shortest-serving governor in South Australian history and the only governor to serve for less than a year.