TAKE THAT: Don Bradman, on his backside, after a ball bowled by Eddie Gilbert.

TAKE THAT: Don Bradman, on his backside, after a ball bowled by Eddie Gilbert. Contributed

THE feats of legendary Aboriginal fast bowler Eddie Gilbert should never be forgotten.

And that is why a group of Ipswich residents are lobbying for the cricket ground at the old Wolston Park Mental Hospital, now under the control of the Queensland Police Service, to be named the Eddie Gilbert Memorial Field.

Gilbert died at the hospital in 1978 at the age of 72, a lonely and unrecognised figure.

But 47 years earlier, while representing Queensland in a Sheffield Shield match, he knocked the bat out of Don Bradman's hands before dismissing him for a third-ball duck.

Bradman later said of Gilbert's bowling that his deliveries were "faster than anything seen from Harold Larwood or anyone else".

Those who saw both Gilbert and Australian speedster Jeff Thomson bowl, including late ABC commentator Alan McGilvray, say there is no doubt Gilbert was the fastest of the pair.

Gilbert took 87 wickets in 23 first-class matches for Queensland at an average of 29.98, but those statistics don't tell the story of the hoops he had to jump through to achieve them.

Author Colin Tatz, who wrote Black Gold and Obstacle Race: Aborigines in Sport, says Gilbert's career was forged against extraordinary odds.

He lived at Cherbourg's Barambah Aboriginal mission under the repressive 1897 Protection of Aboriginals Act.

"Eddie was what was called a controlled Aborigine," Tatz says.

"He couldn't vote; he couldn't drink; and he couldn't get married to a non-Aboriginal person or join a trade union.

"He was basically locked up, as all Aborigines were on reserves or Christian missions.

"Out of these impossible conditions he learns to play cricket and in 1930 he was good enough to play for Queensland, which is notoriously racist.

"He had to have special permission to leave the reserve and chaperones wherever he went, in case he got involved with white women.

"So he comes to cricketing fame amidst the most fantastic obstacles.

"It was not just his triumph over opponents, but his triumph over his whole life circumstance that was so remarkable.

"Whenever his mates in the Queensland team went to Sydney, they would travel by road in convoys of cars and they would put Eddie on the train.

"There was no social camaraderie. He was just this unique freak of a guy who had to be kept segregated."

What made Gilbert's speed more remarkable was that he bowled off a run-up of four paces.

"He used to sling it off his shoulder and was as fast as Thomson, but to do it off four paces was unbelievable," Tatz says.

"If he had been a free Aborigine and not a controlled Aborigine, he might have been a chance to play Test cricket.

"But he was taking on a whole system of government, administration and law. Not even cricket was able to get out from under that tight control.

"Even when he retired, a letter was sent to the Cherbourg mission superintendent from the Queensland Cricket Association saying, 'Please return Mr Gilbert's clothing and have them laundered first'.

"He wasn't even allowed to keep his cricket gear."

Tatz says while there was some suspicion over Gilbert's action, "only one umpire in his entire career called him for chucking".

The Wolston Park Centenary Cricket Club, which plays at the ground near where Gilbert lived his later years, now contests an annual Eddie Gilbert Perpetual Trophy.

There is a statue of Gilbert at Allan Border Field, but Tatz says the naming of the field at Wolston Park in his honour would be "very timely and very appropriate".

Gilbert's life was beset by hardships. Battles with alcohol and mental illness saw him end up at the hospital, where he lived the final 29 years of his life.

Goodna's Keiron Butler, who used to work there, recalls playing cricket as a youth at the ground where Gilbert would observe the action.

Butler will be taking a petition to the State Government to name the field in Gilbert's honour.

"They have got to name the field after a famous cricketer, and there is no more famous cricketer that has lived and died in Wolston Park than Eddie Gilbert," Butler says.

"I spoke to nurses who worked at Wolston Park for 50 years and not one of them had a bad word to say about Eddie. They all agree the field should be named after him.

"When I was a youngster I played Warehouse cricket over there. Eddie would stand there and watch the games.

"He never showed any emotion. If you walked up to him he would nod. In the end, he lost his speech.

"He was a quiet, dignified gentleman and he wore the blue uniform that the patients used to wear.

"One day they couldn't find him at 10 o'clock at night and one of the charge nurses found him on the field looking at the pitch. It was memories for him.

"He had bad memories of cricket, I suppose. He was ostracised because of his colour and didn't get a fair go in his life.

"If he wasn't an Aboriginal, I have no doubt he would have played for Australia.

"He was way ahead of his time. He was the Dennis Lillee of the 1930s."

Ipswich author Lyle Reed also used to work at the hospital and says Gilbert "loved sarsaparilla".

"I'd go up and see him and take him a can of 'sars' and an ice cream," Reed recalls.

"I'd always say hello to him but he would never say anything back.

"Then just before he passed away I said to him, 'How are you going Ed?', and he said, 'I'm alright mate'.

"When I was first working up there, a mate of mine said, 'That's Eddie Gilbert, the Aboriginal cricketer that got Bradman for a duck.'

"I saw this pitiful looking fella and I felt sorry for him.

"From then on I wanted to find out more about him, so I wrote a thesis on him.

"He is a forgotten man now, but what he achieved in cricket in such a short space of time is just incredible.

"We have all these other dignitaries that get bridges, highways and fields named after them. Why not Eddie Gilbert?

"He should have represented Australia in 1932/33 to counteract the bodyline bowling of Larwood.

"It was spoken about in papers that Gilbert was the answer and must be included, but it never happened.

"He was the fastest man ever."