Dawn Fraser's golden training experience in Adelaide marred by arrest/jail for loitering on The Parade in 1961
Swimmer Dawn Fraser, who had trained for her first 1956 Olympic gold medal at the City Baths (top right) on King William Road Adelaide, was arrested for loitering on the The Parade, in Adelaide's Norwood, in 1961 after she returned from a ball staged by the Adelaide department store, most likely Birks (bottom right) in Rundle Street, where she worked.
The arrest and overnight jailing of Australian Olympic swimming champion Dawn Fraser in 1961 on a charge of loitering on The Parade in the Adelaide inner-eastern suburb of Norwood was national news and continued a long-running dispute over policing on that street.
Fraser, at 18, from Sydney, trained from 1955 with coach Harry Gallagher at Adelaide City Baths, managed by Gallagher, on King William Road, Adelaide city, in the leadup to her first gold medal wins at the Melbourne Olympics. In Adelaide, Gallagher put Fraser through what she called “the most concentrated swimming buildup of my life. I honestly believe that it benefitted me for years afterward." On weekends, Fraser took mountain hikes and chopped down trees land Gallagher owned. She won every South Australian freestyle championship: 110 yards, 220 yards, 440 yards and 880 yards.
Fraser also took a job at Birks department store in Rundle Street, Adelaide city, reportedly as secretary to basement storeroom manager Russel Palmer and later in its sportswear department. Fraser returned to Adelaide to train in 1961 after a gold medal and world record in the Rome Olympics but also a scathing report on her conduct by Australian swimming officials who unofficially banned her from events. The South Australian Swimming Association was more sympathetic and had Fraser represent them in meets out of the country. Fraser also was dealing with her father dying of leukaemia.
On top of that came news that Fraser had been arrested on The Parade, Norwood, at 12.30 on a Sunday morning and bundled off to a police cell overnight. Fraser faced court where a charge of loitering was hastily dropped. Despite a concession that Dawn Fraser had done nothing wrong, the prosecutor insisted police “were fully justified in their action”. An apology was offered to Fraser by the police for any inconvenience, “if any has been caused”.
The Bulletin national magazine interviewed Gallagher, uncovering what really happened.The swimmer was driving back in a friend’s car from the annual ball staged by the department store where she worked for, and asked him to drop her outside a Norwood Parade coffee shop, where some friends were waiting. The Bulletin reported in May 1961 that “the car pulled up with a squeal of brakes, which led two young constables to question the driver. What was said is not known but Miss Fraser was ordered to move on. When she told them she was going into the coffee shop, they arrested her for under a loitering law peculiar to South Australia, where police didn’t have to prove intent.
The Fraser incident was highlighted in the South Australian parliament in August 1961 by Don Dunstan, future premier but also the House of Assembly member for Norwood. Dunstan said Fraser had been “grievously mistreated” and part of a disturbing long-running pattern. Dunstan told the house that some police regularly abused the state’s loitering laws. They not only moved people on without any cause but stubbornly insisted on how they should leave.
Dunstan carefully repeated his support for Norwood’s local police officers: “they certainly would not have been involved in a thing of this kind”. Dunstan was alluding to police sent from Adelaide city when he described the recent experience of three of his Italian constituents. The men were talking shop outside a corner deli on The Parade when they were confronted by angry shouting policemen. Dunstan said one officer shone a torch in the men’s faces, ordering them to leave immediately. Threats of violence were made to the men if they didn’t comply.
