Donald George Bradman was born in the western NSW town of Cootamundra on 27 August 1908, fifth child of George and Emily Bradman.
Baby Don was the youngest of the five Bradman children, with brother Victor and sisters Islet, Lilian and May. The Bradman family lived in a slab hut on a property in the village of Yeo Yeo, about 25 kilometres from Cootamundra, a regional town situated 375 km south west of Sydney.
In 1911, the Bradman family moved to Bowral NSW, a small town of approximately 3,000 people, 115km south of Sydney. At the time this was predominantly a dairy and beef cattle producing region.
Bringing the Bradman family to Bowral was based on several factors. Don’s mother Emily was born in Mittagong, near Bowral, and she still had family ties in the area. She is said to have suffered from the heat and dust on their farm at Yeo Yeo and Bowral offered a cooler climate. There is also the suggestion that the back-breaking rural work in the state's south-west was not yielding as good an income for Don’s father, George, as had been expected.
The Bradmans’ purchased a weatherboard house at 52 Shepherd St. Bowral, within walking distance of the Bowral School where the young Don began his schooling two years later, and just one street away from Glebe Oval. This ground was to become Bradman Oval in 1947.
George found a job at a local timber-yard, owned by Alf Stevens, where he worked as a carpenter and fencing contractor. Alf Stephens was also the Captain of the Bowral Cricket Club and very soon George was a member of the team.
While living at the Shepherd Street residence Don Bradman immersed himself in the simple pleasures of living in a country town. Despite the depressing news from the battlefields of the First World War, he led a carefree existence, walking to and from school, playing with his siblings and becoming involved in sport. He enjoyed tennis, which was very popular, and occasionally accompanied his father to local cricket matches where he would often perform the duties of scorer for the Bowral team.
At the Shepherd Street home, the young Don developed a solitary game where he would repeatedly hit a golf ball with a cricket stump against the curved brick base of the family water tank. Using the house wall as one boundary on his off-side, he managed to construct ‘Test’ matches in his head where he, as the batsman, would pit himself against the unpredictable balls ‘delivered’ by the tank stand. His repeated application to this game, using the challenging tools that he’d limited himself to, acutely developed his hand-to-eye co-ordination.
Don Bradman wrote…”Armed with a small stump, which I used as a bat, and throwing a golf ball at the brick part of an old tank a few yards away, I would try to hit the ball on the rebound. I was never satisfied unless I could hit it, say, three times out of four. The small bat made this no easy matter; as the ball came back at great speed and, of course, at widely different angles. I found I had to be pretty quick on my feet and keep my wits about me, and in this way I developed, unconsciously, perhaps, sense of distance and pace” Sydney Morning Herald, 1930..
In 1924 the Bradman family moved to their next Bowral home in Glebe Street, now directly opposite the cricket field. George Bradman built the house, a brick ‘Californian Bungalow’. It remains today a three bedroom home with little changes to its appearance since 1924. Don was then an increasingly confident youngster of 15 and was already known locally for his cricket prowess as he’d been very successful in the few school games he’d played.
While Bradman was living in the Glebe Street home, opposite the sporting ground now named Bradman Oval, his batting ability attracted attention from beyond the confines of the Southern Highlands for the first time.
Aside from school and backyard cricket, the young Don was a very busy boy, participating in piano lessons, choir practice, acting as a golf caddie and helping his father with odd jobs. At this stage, Don believed his career would lead him to become a house painter. Don was also a good musician, and it was his sister Lilian who taught him to play the piano, and also helped to instill in him a great love of music.
As a young boy Don used to walk across the Glebe wicket (which was renamed Bradman Oval in 1947) to his school, Bowral Public which is located just a block away from the Bradman Museum.
His First Real Game
At the age of twelve he was invited to play for the senior school team and in his second game on the Oval he scored 115 not out from a team total of 150. He also took 8 wickets.
It was at about this time that Don Bradman's future wife, Jessie Menzies, came to live with the Bradman’s for a year as her parents owned a property out of Bowral and she could not get to school. According to Sir Donald it was during this year that he decided that he wanted to marry her.
On weekends Don acted as scorer for the Bowral team which included his father, brother and two uncles. One day the team was short a player and he was sent in at the fall of the eighth wicket, scoring 37 not out. For the return innings, the following Saturday, on the Glebe wicket (Bradman Oval) he scored 29 not out. As a reward for his fine effort, a Bowral team member gave him his first cricket bat. Don's father had to saw one inch off the bat to suit the young Don. He later used this bat in his first full season in the senior men's team. This prize possession is now on display in the Bradman Museum.
As a teenager, he continued to be busy with sport playing rugby, tennis, cricket and competition athletics.
Don’s Boyhood Dream
Don travelled with his father to Sydney, in February 1921, to watch his first Test match, the Fifth Test between England and Australia at the Sydney Cricket Ground. The two day excursion so impressed Don, he vowed to his father, that he would never be satisfied until he played cricket on that ground.
Don Bradman wrote…”When 13 years of age I set out on the greatest adventure of my young and crowded life. For then it was that I beheld the Sydney ground and saw for the first time first-class cricket. My father had taken me to Sydney from Bowral, my home, some 80 miles away. I was quite a little fellow in knicker-bockers, but I remember how the enormous crowd and the magnificence of the ground fired and captured my fancy. It was amazing and unforgettable. I thought then, and still think, it is the finest ground in the whole world.
During one of the intervals my father took me by the hand and we walked round the ground to take a peep at the pavilion, and perhaps rub shoulders with the players. I vividly remember my feelings at that moment. I turned to my father: “I shall never be satisfied until I play on this ground”, I said. He smiled with affectionate tolerance. As it turned out, my next visit to the Sydney Cricket Ground was when I stepped on it as a player.” Sydney Morning Herald, 1930.
Going to Work
At the end of 1922, aged 14, Don left school and took a position with Mr Percy Westbrook, as a Clerk in a Bowral Real Estate Agency. Mr Westbrook played a very important role in Don's early career by allowing him the time to play cricket in Sydney when the offer came in 1926.
Don Bradman remembered this at a farewell function in Bowral, 1930..."After leaving school I spent five years with Mr Westbrook before going to Sydney. Everything lay in his hands, but at great inconvenience he let me go to Sydney. It was due to him that I got my chance in big cricket".
The Start of a Career
Now aged 17, Don had developed himself as a serious cricketer for the Bowral team. He continued to bat high scores, take wickets and hold catches, making an enormous impact in the Berrima District competition.
His mother, Emily, promised Don a new bat if he made a century in the final between Bowral and Moss Vale. The match, held over five consecutive Saturdays, saw Don complete an innings of 300 runs, a local district record score. Don joked with his mother that perhaps his score deserved three bats. He gratefully received the one instead.
In October 1926, the State Selectors invited Don to a cricket trial in Sydney at the SCG. The Selectors were mostly looking for promising young bowlers, however the press of the day were to report ..."the practice produced a batsman, and a batsman from the country too". Because Don was used to playing country cricket on concrete and dirt pitches, his footwork was considered to be slow. He would soon adjust to the grass wickets.
Soon after the trial, he was invited to play for the Southern team in a Country Cricket Week in Sydney. During that week he agreed to play for the St George Cricket Club if they paid his train fare to and from Bowral. Each Saturday, Don had to get up out of bed before 5 am to catch the train from Bowral to Sydney, often not getting home until midnight.
Don played first-grade cricket for St George, a Sydney surburban cricket club, from November 1926 until he moved to North Sydney in 1932.
