A former Northern Territory boxing champion, Tommy McDonald, recently visited Darwin from Canberra and went looking for Charlie’s restaurant in the CBD but was disappointed to hear that it had closed its doors not long ago. He told Little Darwin how a tasty steak at Charlie’s had helped him form the conviction that he would knock out his opponent , Frankie Martin, at a forthcoming professional fight.
After the weigh in for the bout , Tommy headed to Charlie’s and ordered a big steak. While devouring the steak he psyched himself up for the fight against his experienced opponent who had a reputation for going the knuckle.
Both fighters bounced out of their corner and went at it hammer and tongs . Martin hit the deck on his face with blood streaming from two cuts to his face . McDonald , also sporting a cut about his eye, thought it was all over , but referee Tim Angeles, probably thinking fight fans would be annoyed if the bout was over after only one round, delivered a slow count and Martin got to his feet. It was to no avail because Martin went down in the second and was counted out. Both combatants could have done with a platter of Charlie's raw steaks to ease the facial swelling.
An angry fight fan from the Northern Territory News, compositor Bobby Wills, claimed Frankie had taken a dive, having put money on Tommy to win. McDonald rejected this suggestion . Martin had thrown everything at him and had taken a lot of punishment
There were no lasting hard feelings over the fight. Years later , McDonald saw Frankie Martin, running an Aboriginal hostel at the time , in Canberra, with the late Charlie Perkins of the Aboriginal Affairs Department , and they invited him to come and have lunch with them
During this recent visit to Darwin with his wife, Judith , Tommy went out to the McMillan’s Road cemetery to see his father’s grave. While there he came across the grave of a promising Darwin boxer, Johnny Hunter, who was tragically killed during a magpie goose shooting trip before a scheduled fight.
McDonald fought under the name Rocky Mack , some of his bouts taking place in the Rushcutters Bay Stadium , Sydney. He arrived in Darwin from Scotland with his family in l948. As an indication that nothing much has changed in Darwin since those days, he was walking home from the Star Theatre one night and picked up a stray crocodile in the gutter.
Tommy showed Little Darwin an advertisement out of the NT News for the M.V. Johnston Motors WHO’S WHO contest which invited readers to identify six well known Territorians- young Tommy one of them. Others included community fund raiser Billy Pitscheneder , diver Carl Atkinson , Nelly Flynn from Rum Jungle who inspired a character in Xavier Herbert's novel Capricornia, and another girl who was a Miss NT or Miss Australia entrant. The prize, he thinks , was a weekend at Adelaide River .
After the weigh in for the bout , Tommy headed to Charlie’s and ordered a big steak. While devouring the steak he psyched himself up for the fight against his experienced opponent who had a reputation for going the knuckle.
Both fighters bounced out of their corner and went at it hammer and tongs . Martin hit the deck on his face with blood streaming from two cuts to his face . McDonald , also sporting a cut about his eye, thought it was all over , but referee Tim Angeles, probably thinking fight fans would be annoyed if the bout was over after only one round, delivered a slow count and Martin got to his feet. It was to no avail because Martin went down in the second and was counted out. Both combatants could have done with a platter of Charlie's raw steaks to ease the facial swelling.
An angry fight fan from the Northern Territory News, compositor Bobby Wills, claimed Frankie had taken a dive, having put money on Tommy to win. McDonald rejected this suggestion . Martin had thrown everything at him and had taken a lot of punishment
There were no lasting hard feelings over the fight. Years later , McDonald saw Frankie Martin, running an Aboriginal hostel at the time , in Canberra, with the late Charlie Perkins of the Aboriginal Affairs Department , and they invited him to come and have lunch with them
During this recent visit to Darwin with his wife, Judith , Tommy went out to the McMillan’s Road cemetery to see his father’s grave. While there he came across the grave of a promising Darwin boxer, Johnny Hunter, who was tragically killed during a magpie goose shooting trip before a scheduled fight.
McDonald fought under the name Rocky Mack , some of his bouts taking place in the Rushcutters Bay Stadium , Sydney. He arrived in Darwin from Scotland with his family in l948. As an indication that nothing much has changed in Darwin since those days, he was walking home from the Star Theatre one night and picked up a stray crocodile in the gutter.
Tommy showed Little Darwin an advertisement out of the NT News for the M.V. Johnston Motors WHO’S WHO contest which invited readers to identify six well known Territorians- young Tommy one of them. Others included community fund raiser Billy Pitscheneder , diver Carl Atkinson , Nelly Flynn from Rum Jungle who inspired a character in Xavier Herbert's novel Capricornia, and another girl who was a Miss NT or Miss Australia entrant. The prize, he thinks , was a weekend at Adelaide River .
