Evonne Cawley Achievements

Evonne Goolagong Cawley born 1951 and a former Australian world number one tennis player won fourteen Grand Slam titles in the 1970’s through to the early 1980’s. Korff (2015) writes about Evonne’s achievements as she “was the first Aboriginal Australian to win a Wimbledon Tennis Championship in 1971.” She had many achievements in the tennis world including Australian of the year in 1971, Order of the British Empire in 1972, Order of Australia in 1982, Sports Australia Hall of Fame in 1985 and International Tennis Hall of Fame in 1988. Evonne left her home and her family at the age of eleven to pursue her tennis dream, she went on to write a book about herself and has had many achievements helping others through organisations such as the Evonne
She loved playing sports and when she was five years old she was obsessed with tennis balls and hit them up against a wall with anything she could use to do so. The ABC interviewed Evonne Goolagong Cawley and she quoted “I used to play this little game with the wall and myself and that was to see how many times I could hit the ball against the wall on one bounce and then write it down.” Evonne joined her local tennis club and trained hard and won many local competitions. One of Australia’s best-known tennis coaches (Vic Edwards) gave Evonne the choice at age eleven, to move to Sydney where he resided, to coach her and to inevitably leave her family behind and for him to become her guardian. Moving was a major setback for Evonne as far as being with her family and friends. She recalls crying nearly every night but knew the importance of pushing forward, to live her winning Wimbledon dream that she had from the age of five to keep her motivated. To make this sacrifice, Evonne’s family worked together to raise enough money for her to give her tennis dream a chance (Evonne Goolagong,
The Evonne Goolagong Story”. Evonne was chosen by the Federal Government in 1997 as a consultant in Indigenous sport, named “The Evonne Goolagong Sports Trust. She looked after Aboriginal sports facilities and raised the funds for new facilities and equipment (Evonne Goolagong Foundation 2015). Evonne was one of the original founding members of the Aboriginal Sports Foundation to give Aboriginals easier access to sport, to encourage them and to arrange tours and competitions for them. The National Aboriginal Sports Council (NACS) replaced the Foundation (Tatz, 1994). From 1988 until 2005 Tennis Australia announced Evonne as a Tennis Ambassador to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island communities and promoted female participation in tennis. Through Evonne’s tennis achievements, she saw a window of opportunity helping other Indigenous people and from 2005 Evonne ran the Goolagong National Development Camp for Indigenous boys and girls aged between twelve and twenty-one. The program is used to promote education into better health through diet and exercise. Promotion in education and employment has seen many participants receive school scholarships and the camp has produced university scholars, tennis players, coaches, sports administrators and helped others gain employment. Development programs are taught to help Aboriginals to lead, plan and organise so that they can