Sir Douglas Nicholls KCVO, OBE

Readers note: This is an excerpt from the 200 Treasures exhibition catalogue, developed in 2017. This content was written as a brief biography on why this person was included in the exhibition.

Sir Douglas Ralph (Doug) Nicholls was a renowned Australian Rules footballer, pastor, Indigenous activist and governor of South Australia. Nicholls was born at Cummeragunja, Victoria, in 1906; he was a Yorta Yorta man.

At age 14, he was forced to leave Cummeragunja due to new protection laws that gave governments control over every aspect of Aboriginal people’s lives. Nicholls got work constructing levees on the Murray River. An able footballer, like a number of his kinsmen, he tried out for the Melbourne league and, in 1927, signed with the Northcote team in the Victorian Football Association. Nicholls, short and slight in build, was fast on his feet. He won professional running races and his speed on the football field was a great asset. He appeared in three grand finals and was part of Northcote’s winning team of 1929. Nicholls worked for a time as one of Jimmy Sharman’s boxers and then signed with Fitzroy Football Club, playing 54 games for them.

In 1932, he experienced a religious epiphany and became a minister for the Church of Christ in Northcote. Nicholls also gravitated to Indigenous politics, joining Yorta Yorta kinsman William Cooper in the Australian Aborigines’ League (AAL) and attended their Day of Mourning in Sydney in 1938.

In 1940, Nicholls became the AAL secretary. With his wife, Gladys, Nicholls conducted years of vital and extensive welfare work in Melbourne. Nicholls remained prominent in Indigenous affairs and joined the Victorian Aborigines Welfare Board in 1957 when this organisation finally permitted Indigenous members. However, Nicholls resigned in protest in 1963 when the board tried to close the Lake Tyers reserve in Gippsland. Nicholls was a founding member of the Federal Council for the Advancement of Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders (FCAATSI) in 1958. He was honoured with an MBE (1957), an OBE (1968) and a knighthood (1972) and was appointed governor of South Australia in 1976.