Stamina, Speed and Adventure: Australian Women and Competitive Cycling in the 1890s

Abstract

The scholarship surrounding women's cycling in Australia during the 1890s is slim. However, a focus on female competitive cycling, just one of many diverse cycling activities that women pursued in this era, reveals a rich seam of information. Accordingly, this paper surveys endurance riding, adventure touring and racing, introducing new historical and biographical detail and highlighting the significance of competitive cycling for women in the late nineteenth century. The discussion shows that women's competitive cycling constituted a significant component of Australian cycling history, and helped to re-define women's identity in an era when feminine roles were in flux and the traditional gender order was being contested.

Keywords:

• Cycling
• bicycle
• women
• gender
• racing
• touring
• endurance riding
• Australia

Notes

 1. Kinsey, ‘Australian Women Cyclists in the 1890s’; Kinsey, ‘Radical Sport Cyclists’; Kinsey, ‘Reading Photographic Portraits’.

 2. Fitzpatrick, ‘The Spectrum of Australian Bicycle Racing’, 335–7.

 3. Langmore, ‘Sarah Maddock’; Stell, Half the Race, 21; Russell, ‘Recycling Femininity’, 37.

 4. Langmore, ‘Sarah Maddock’; ‘The Champion Lady Cyclist – Mrs Maddock on her Recent Ride – Cycling as a Ladies Pastime, by Oriole’, Evening Standard, September 1894, in Langmore, ‘Maddock Newspaper Clippings’.

 5. ‘A 600 Miles Trip by a Sydney Lady’, 1894; ‘Sydney to Melbourne, 570 miles, A Lady Does the Journey’, 1894, both in Langmore, ‘Maddock Newspaper Clippings’; Australian Cyclist, 26 May 1898, 29.

 6. Langmore, ‘Sarah Maddock’; ‘A Lady Cyclist on Tour’, 1893, in Langmore, ‘Maddock Newspaper Clippings’; ‘A Distinguished Lady Cyclist Mrs E.A. Maddock’, New South Wales Cycling Gazette, 14 August 1897, 16.

 7. ‘Cycling. A Lady Rides from Sydney’, 25 September 1894; ‘The Champion Lady Cyclist – Mrs Maddock on her Recent Ride – Cycling as a Ladies Pastime, by Oriole’, Evening Standard, September 1894; ‘A Lady Bicyclist – A Wonderful Feat – Travels 600 Miles’, 5 Oct. 1894; ‘Cycling. Wheel Notes by Philibuster’, 1894, all in Langmore, ‘Maddock Newspaper Clippings’.

 8. Australian Cyclist, 4 October 1894, 5, 8; ‘Cycling. A Lady Rides from Sydney’, 25 September 1894, in Langmore, ‘Maddock Newspaper Clippings’.

 9. Australian Cyclist, 4 October 1894, 8; Langmore, ‘Sarah Maddock’; ‘A Lady Cyclist Rides from Sydney to Melbourne’, 1894; ‘Sydney to Melbourne – Travelled by a Lady Cyclist – Melbourne, Sunday’; ‘Arrival of Cyclists – Mrs. Maddock's Long Ride From Sydney to Brisbane’, September 1895, all in Langmore, ‘Maddock Newspaper Clippings’. See also ‘Sydney to Melbourne – 570 Miles – A Lady Does the Journey’, 1894; ‘A Lady Bicyclist’, Oct. 1894; ‘A Lady Cyclist Rides from Sydney to Melbourne’, 1894; ‘A Lady Bicyclist – A Wonderful Feat – Travels 600 Miles’, Oct. 1894; ‘A Bicycle Ride from Sydney – The Trip of Mr and Mrs Maddock, Melbourne, Sunday’, September 1894, in Langmore, ‘Maddock Newspaper Clippings’.

10. ‘A 600 Miles Trip by a Sydney Lady’, 1894, in Langmore, ‘Maddock Newspaper Clippings’. See previous note for evidence of media interest.

11. See among others, Langmore, ‘Sarah Maddock’; ‘Arrival of Cyclists – Mrs. Maddock's Long Ride From Sydney to Brisbane’, September 1895; ‘Overland to Brisbane – An Exciting Ride – Bush Fires and Smoke’; ‘Cyclists on Tour’; ‘From Sydney to Brisbane’, 19 September 1895; ‘A Lady Cyclist – Mrs. Maddocks – 1600 Miles on a Machine’, September 1895; ‘Cycling’, 1895, all in Langmore, ‘Maddock Newspaper Clippings’; Cycling Gazette, August 1897, 16.

12. Australian Cyclist, 26 May 1898, 26; 2 June 1898, 25–7. NSW Cyclist, 1 June 1899, 24.

13. Australian Cyclist, 15 November. 1894, 7. NSW Cycling Gazette, 14 August 1897, 16.

14. Stell, Half the Race, 21; Melbourne Punch, 19 Oct. 1899, 399.

15. Australian Cyclist, 30 January 1896, 40.

16. Australian Cyclist, 19 November 1896, 15.

17. Australian Cyclist, 20 February 1896, 41; 25 March 1897, 4.

18. Australian Cyclist, 9 January 1896, 18, 26.

19. Australian Cyclist, 12 November 1896, 40; 5 Nov. 1896, 26.

20. Australian Cyclist, 28 November 1895, 15.

21. Australian Cyclist, 11 April 1895, 20; 1 April 1897, 21; 19 Dec. 1895, 11; 23 December 1897, 36; Free Lance, 14 May 1896, 12; Free Lance, 25 June 1896, 12; NSW Cycling Gazette, 14 August 1897, 16.

22. Australian Cyclist, 8 April 1897, 10.

23. Harper, The Ways of the Bushwalker, 64, 84.

24. For example, Australian Cyclist, 4 February 1897, 22–3; Australian Cyclist, 9 September 1897, 9; Australian Cyclist, 23 September 1897, 37.

25. Australian Cyclist, 11 April 1895, 16; Australian Cyclist, 19 April 1895, 2–3; Australian Cyclist, 25 April 1895, 5.

26. Australian Cyclist, 29 April 1897, 38.

27. Australian Cyclist, 29 April 1897, iv, 27, 38, 40; Australian Cyclist, 22 April 1897, 17, 23. Australian Cyclist, 6 May 1897, 3, 5.

28. Australian Cyclist, 6 May 1897, 3, 5; Australian Cyclist, 29 April 1897, iv, 27, 38, 40. For a further example of the use of the term ‘bushed’ see Australian Cyclist, 20 February 1896, 41.

29. Australian Cyclist, 29 April 1897, 27, 38; Australian Cyclist, 6 May 1897, 3.

30. Australian Cyclist, 18 February 1897, 13; Australian Cyclist, 8 April 1897, 23, 25.

31. Australian Cyclist, 29 April 1897, 38, iv, 27; Australian Cyclist, 22 April 1897, 17, 23; Australian Cyclist, 13 May 1897, 23; Australian Cyclist, 26 August 1897, 11.

32. Australian Cyclist, 6 January 1898, 46.

33. Australian Cyclist, 23 September 1897, 37.

34. Elaine Macdonald, ‘Journalists' Child’ & ‘File 1a’, MS000198, Box 53/1, Royal Historical Society of Victoria, Manuscript Collection, 151.

35. Australian Cyclist, 4 February 1897, 22–23; Australian Cyclist, 12 March 1896, 17–19.

36. Macdonald, ‘Journalists' Child’, 151, 153–4.

37. Australian Cyclist, 12 March 1896, 17, 19.

38. Australian Cyclist, 4 February 1897, 22–3.

39. Australian Cyclist, 27 January 1898, 35.

40. Australian Cyclist, 18 February 1897, 13.

41. Australian Cyclist, 8 October 1896, 7, 21; Australian Cyclist, 5 March 1896, 19; Australian Cyclist, 28 May 1896, 20; Australian Cyclist, 2 July 1896, 23; Australian Cyclist, 24 December 1896, 41; NSWCyclist, 2 June 1898, 17; Fitzpatrick, ‘Australian “Cyclistes” in the Victorian Era’, 14, Fitzpatrick, ‘The Spectrum of Australian Bicycle Racing’, 335–6.

42. Australian Cyclist, 7 May 1896, 26; Australian Cyclist, 14 May 1896, 40; Australian Cyclist, 21 May 1896, 24, 32; Australian Cyclist, 28 May 1896, 33; Robertson, MacRobertson, 57–60; Dunston, The Confessions of a Bicycle Nut, 52, 54 citing Austral Wheel, November 1896 and Table Talk, 13 November 1896.

43. Free Lance, 21 May 1896, 12; Free Lance, 4 June 1896, 12; Australian Cyclist, 14 May 1896, 40; Australian Cyclist, 21 May 1896, 17, 24, 32.

44. Note that Australian Cyclist, 21 May 1896, 32, lists 3,000 spectators while the Australian Cyclist, 28 May 1896, 33, edition lists 30,000. It is difficult to know for certain which figure is correct, but it is probably the former.

45. Simpson, ‘Respectable Identities’, 70.

46. Australian Cyclist, 21 May 1896, 17; Australian Cyclist, 28 May 1896, 20; Australian Cyclist, 2 July 1896, 23; Australian Cyclist, 19 Nov. 1896, 17; Australian Cyclist, 24 Dec. 1896, 41.

47. Australian Cyclist, 28 May 1896, 20.

48. Australian Cyclist, 8 Oct. 1896, 7, 21.

49. ‘Ladies Cycle Race’, Mt Gambier, circa 1900, Richard E Collett (Photographer), State Library of South Australia, Image Number B46443, http://images.slsa.sa.gov.au/mpcing/46500/B46443.htm. Frew Park', Mt. Gambier, ca.1890s, State Library of South Australia, Image Number B3382, http://images.slsa.sa.gov.au/mpcing/03500/B3382.htm.

50. NSW Cyclist, 2 June 1898, 17; Australian Cyclist, 24 Dec. 1896, 41; Australian Cyclist, 5 March 1896, 19; Maldon News, 22 Dec. 1896, 2, 3; Maldon News, 29 Dec. 1896, 3.

51. Stell, Half the Race, 21.

52. Simpson, ‘Respectable Identities’, 70–1; Simpson, ‘The Development of Women's Cycling', 34–8, 40. Petty, ‘Women and the Wheel’, 122–3.

53. Australian Cyclist, 28 April 1898, 56; Australian Cyclist, 12 May 1898, 38; Australian Cyclist, 2 June 1898, 41, 48; Australian Cyclist, 16 June 1898, 20; Australian Cyclist, 23 June 1898, 28; NSW Cyclist, 2 June 1898, 17; Fitzpatrick, ‘The Spectrum of Australian Bicycle Racing’, 336.

54. Kinsey, ‘Australian Women Cyclists in the 1890s’, 91–2. Kinsey, ‘Reading Photographic Portraits’.

55. Kinsey, ‘Australian Women Cyclists in the 1890s’, 91–3. Russell, ‘Recycling Femininity’, 32–5. Winkworth, ‘Women and the Bicycle’, 97, 105–6, 108, 114–15.

56. Australian Cyclist, 28 November 1895. Kinsey, ‘Australian Women Cyclists in the 1890s’, 92; Simpson, ‘Respectable Identities’, 69–70.

57. Fitzpatrick, ‘Australian “Cyclistes” in the Victorian Era’, 14. Fitzpatrick, ‘The Spectrum of Australian Bicycle Racing’, 335–6. See also Simpson, ‘Respectable Identities’, 70–2.

58. Kinsey, ‘Reading Photographic Portraits’.

59. Free Lance, 4 June 1896, 12; Australian Cyclist, 12 May 1898, 38. See Kinsey, ‘Reading Photographic Portraits’, for discussion of the feminine identity of these women racing cyclists.

60. Russell, ‘Recycling Femininity’, 42.