Nicky Winmar is an AFL hero and one of the best Indigenous players ever to kick a Sherrin football. With Nicky as her guest, Julia travels to Pingelly, 158ks outside of Perth in the West Australian wheat belt.
They meet outside an important landmark – an old church some distance from town. This was where, all in the name of training, Nicky's father would turf him out of the car and make him run the distance home. Neil Winmar had spotted his son's athletic abilities early on and knew his boy could achieve great heights if he did the hard yards required.
The Aboriginal housing reserve and the old shack where Nicky spent the first eight years of his life are gone now, but he remembers them with a mix of both happiness and sorrow. He tells Julia about the segregation that existed in town when he was a boy, but also recalls the joy of hunting for kangaroos and the odd goanna out the back of the reserve.
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