Great Sporting Sites: Australia

About the Author

Andrew Clarke is a Melbourne-based journalist and author. He has written and edited over 30 books and worked in many industries, blending his love of sport and cars with a passion for business and change. His books include The Immortals of Australian Football; Matthew Lloyd: Straight shooter; Skaifey: Life in the fast lane; AJ: How Alan Jones climbed to the top of Formula 1; An Awesome Ride; and Lydia Lassila: The will to fly. This is his second Gelding Street Press book. Gordon Bray was renowned throughout Australia for more than four decades as the 'Voice of Rugby'. He is one of our longest serving sports commentators having started with the ABC in 1969 as a specialist trainee. His name is still synonymous with televised rugby union and his distinctive commentary style remains as much a part of the Australian game as a George Gregan tackle or a David Campese goose-step. A talented schoolboy scrum-half, Bray spent three seasons in the first XV at Homebush Boys' High, captaining the side to a premiership in his final year and represented Combined High Schools before joining Eastern Suburbs DRUFC. Later, as an accomplished referee, he was appointed to 199 games by the NSW Rugby Referees Association. Gordon called his first rugby test match on radio for the ABC in Bordeaux in 1976. Since then Bray has called more than 350 test matches. In 1980 he succeeded the legendary Norman May as the ABC's rugby union commentator on television and called every milestone victory by the Wallabies over the next 40 years, including both Rugby World Cup triumphs. After 25 years with ABC Sport he moved to commercial television and spent 16 years at the Seven Network and 10 years at Ten. Renowned for his versatility, Gordon covered 10 Olympic Games after making his Commonwealth Games debut at Christchurch in 1974. Bray is the author and editor of seven books on Rugby Union including best sellers From The Ruck and The Australian Rugby Companion. He was made a Member of the Order of Australia in 2005, is a past recipient of the prestigious Penguin Award for sports broadcasting and is an ambassador for Legacy Australia. Prolific author and newspaper columnist Peter FitzSimons has described Bray as 'more than a sporting icon, Gordon is no less than the soundtrack of our sporting lives.' Phil Jarratt is a journalist, author, publisher and film-maker with more than 50 years experience in Australian and international media. He is a former editor of Tracks, associate editor of Surfer and editor and publisher of Australian Surfers Journal. He is regarded as one of the foremost global authorities on surfing and has worked inside the executive ranks of two of the world's biggest surf brands - Rip Curl and Quiksilver, where he was a senior marketing executive for 10 years. He has written more than 40 books covering largely surfing and sport-related biography. He lives in Noosa Heads, Queensland, and surfs every day there are waves. Alan Whiticker was born in Sydney, Australia, in 1958. Pursuing the dual careers of teacher and freelance writer, he emerged as an award-winning author of sport, history, biography and true crime. In 1997, he completed a Master's Degree in Education and lectured at the University of Western Sydney in 2008. He then worked as an author, commissioning editor and publisher. Now a fulltime writer, Alan lives in Penrith with wife Karen, with whom he has two adult children, Timothy and Melanie. A lifelong racing fan, Alan is also the author of Immortals of Australian Horse Racing: the Thoroughbreds, published by Gelding Street Press in 2021 and a long list of other sporting books.