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| Glebe Town Hall. This photograph is copyright Max Solling (used with permission). |
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| Max Solling |
An Interview with historian and author Max Solling conducted
by Rex Walsh
Max Solling is one of Australia’s leading urban and sports
historians.
Born in Sydney, Max Solling has been a resident of Glebe
since 1960. He was educated at Newington College (1955-1959) and the University of Sydney where he was awarded a University Sporting Blue in boxing and was Australian Universities
boxing champion. In 1972 he completed his MA
on the development of nineteenth-century Glebe and he was a founding editor of
the Leichhardt
Historical Journal. He is a qualified and
practicing solicitor.
Publications
- Town and Country A Historical of the Manning Valley Halstead Press ISBN 9781920831561
- Grandeur and Grit: A History of Glebe (2007), Halstead Press, ISBN 1-920831-38-X
- The Boatshed on Blackwattle Bay (1993), Glebe Rowing Club, ISBN 0-646-14811-7
- Leichhardt: On the Margins of the City (1997) with Peter Reynolds, Allen & Unwin. (A social history of Leichhardt and the former municipalities of Annandale, Balmain and Glebe.)
- Contributor, Oxford Companion to Australian Sport
- Contributor, Oxford Companion to Australian Cricket
Awards
- Australian Sports Medal as a local sporting historian (2000) [3]
- Medal of the Order of Australia for service to the community, particularly through researching, recording and publishing the history of Glebe.
Max Solling is working on his latest book with a focus on:
Working Class Culture and Mechanical Hare Racing in Sydney. I spoke with Max regarding this latest
project.
Rex Walsh: Max, what drew you to do a project on Mechanical Hare
Racing?
Max Solling: It is closely connected to my passionate area of working class culture and this is why I decided to write my next book [on this topic]. Writing a history of mechanical hare
racing is very much a cultural, social, economic and political enterprise. And it is closely connected with the
circumstances and values of ordinary people during the inter-war years. The racing tracks were in inner city Sydney and offered a
chance to win a wage from gambling and a night out for ordinary working class
residents. These areas were occupied by residents, transients, boarding
and lodging house populations. These years represented a time of militant trade union
and working class mobilisation.
Working class men who breed greyhounds for racing were able
to adopt an affordable hobby and way to earn a little more money. Times were tough!
At the heart of the worker militancy and
class consciousness lay a striving for order and predictability within a world
that offered the working class very little. These activities helped to sustain close-knit communities amid the
alienation of modern industrial society.
Mechanical Hare Racing represented an exciting and dramatic
cheap form of entertainment that could easily be reached in the evening after
work. “Going to the dogs” was distinctly
working class. The high levels of
unemployment (30 per cent in 1932) and a general fall in working hours
only added to the popularity. The low and irregular wages of manual workers would ensure
that people remained in their position in society.
The local rag, The Referee
told readers that mechanical hare
racing provides remarkable opportunities for small owners to achieve
both fame
and fortune on the track (4 March, 1931, p. 10). Greyhounds provided an
opportunity for working class people to participate in a way that was
not possible with other forms of racing such as
horse racing. They could be breeders,
owners, trainers and punters expressing their individuality and
collective solidarity. Greyhounds became symbols of their owners'
skill and ability and made those who raced and owned them sporting heroes.
[By Rex Walsh].
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| Rex Walsh |
Rex Walsh has qualifications in
Business, Law and Education. He has been fortunate to work across many
universities and has also taught in most units within his disciplines of
Business and Law. He finds that this assists him greatly in his teaching
of all units and in his ability to provide additional support to his students.
His particular areas of research interest involve ethics and contemporary issues in accounting particularly social and environmental reporting. He also works in industry and he is currently working for a community legal service and undertaking professional consultancy work.
As a very passionate teacher Rex Walsh has been fortunate enough to have his lecturing honored with several awards. He has been the recipient of the Curtin Excellence Award, CPA award, received several Commendations from Curtin for teaching excellence, and received commendations from Notre Dame University and nominations for excellence with CQU.
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| This photograph is copyrighted Max Solling (used with permission) |
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