Pittwater Online News

Beverlie Farrelly in interview with PBWBA Secretary Robert Mackinnon: “Two Lives: Beverlie & Midget Farrelly”

Tuesday May 13, 2025

Bernard "Midget" Farrelly AM (13 September 1944 – 6 August 2016) was the first world surfing champion. Mr. Farrelly, was the first Australian to win a major surfing title, the 1963 Makaha International Surfing Championships, the unofficial world surfing championship of the day. In 1964 he won the inaugural World Surfing Championship at Manly Beach in Sydney.

He was also the first president, in 1961, of one of Australia's oldest continuous surfboard riders club, the Dee Why Surfing Fraternity. He presented a ten-part television series about surfing in Australia, The Midget Farrelly Surf Show, for the ABC. Midget was posthumously inducted as a Member of the Order of Australia in the 2017 Queen's Birthday Honours.

Palm Beach Whale Beach Association Secretary Robert Mackinnon's interview with Beverlie at the 2024-2025 AGM of the Association.

Seen through the eyes of Beverlie Farrelly, discover how different the Avalon Beach of the 1950s and 60s was from the one of today: life was simpler and moved at a slower pace as a community was formed in the wake of WWII.

As wife of the late Midget Farrelly, Beverlie shared insights into the remarkable life of this multi-faceted man who became Australia’s first international surfing champion. 

Robert: I think Beverlie is the main reason people have come out tonight (applause) and I’m absolutely thrilled that she could.

When you think about the sporting greats of Australia – and perhaps I’m showing my age – you think about cricket and Don Bradman, you think about tennis and Rod Laver – you think about surfing and you think about Midget Farrelly.

He put surfing and Australia on the map around the world, and we were so fortunate to have him living here among our community. For those of us who go to the beach on a regular basis, we might have been lucky enough to see Midget surfing.

That was always a thrill – he was never in the water very long, but he always showed an absolute mastering of the waves. He could read the waves, he knew what was going on – other people would be falling off their boards and Midget would be making it look so easy. That was the nature of the man.

He has so many accolades – I will read just a couple of them as when you get a man like that in our midst it is so easy to forget his remarkable achievements:

He became a Member of Australia’s Hall of Fame in 1985. Posthumously, sadly, in 2017, he was awarded an Order of Australia.

As we know he died in August 2016, and many people here this evening may have bene present at the Hawaiian style paddle out that took place on Sunday the 11th of September 2016. 

That was a very very moving occasion – you looked round the crowd; there were tears in eyes, hundreds of people attended, coming from all over Australia and various parts of the world as a token of their respect. It’s interesting that we have the press here tonight in Pittwater Online News, and I think that within 24 hours the Paddle Out Tribute for Midget and preceding Community Tribute for Midget had had around 100 thousand views – people were so interested in this man who had made such a contribution to the sport.

I think we’re awfully glad as well that at Black Rock we now have a memorial to Midget because he is the sort of sportsman that people will be talking about in 50 and maybe 100 years time.

That’s a big intro for Midget but the stature of the man requires that. 

I’m really glad that his wife is here and thought we might start off by asking her some questions because you have been a girl of this place all your life, and your parents came here after the Second World War. 

Can you tell us what it was like here hen and why they came here and what your initial living conditions were like?

Beverlie: I believe in 1945 my dad and his army mates would come out to Avalon, pitch up their army tents and I think spent weekends there at Avalon camping grounds. 

In 1947 is when we moved permanently into the tents. Now the tents had an annexe, they had wooden floors, they had a kitchen, we had two bedrooms and we had the amenities of toilets and a laundry. That’s what I can remember. 

Robert: There were lots of tents there where the surf club and sandhills are now?

Beverlie: I’ve only seen a photo of how many tents were there – they were at the bottom of the sandhills. I know our tent was right at the very bottom of the large sandhill and that’s where we used to spend a lot of our days, running up and down with pieces of tin, sliding down.

The camping area was closed in 1956. There were stores in Avalon; the McDonalds’ and Le Clercq’s milk bar, and on Avalon Parade, where the butcher shop is now, my dad got a job there when it was the Parsonage’s Butcher Shop. We moved out of the tents into the flat on top of the butchers’ shop. I remember I used to help my dad make sausages downstairs. 

Robert: How has Avalon changed from what it was like then?

Beverlie: it was an amazing place to grow up. We went to Avalon school in 1950, we were the first kids – there were three classes in Avalon school. We would spend the whole time at the beach, every weekend, every afternoon – life was free from cares. My mum used to take us with her friends to the Newport Hotel, and we could play there too, they had a garden. It was a wonderful way to grow up.

Robert: speaking of growing up – I’d like to hear about when you first met Midget, where it was.

Beverlie: ok; it was in a milk bar in Avalon Parade owned by an ex-boxer called Jimmy Carruthers and us girls, I think we were 15, were in there having a milkshake and in walked these very handsome surfers. There was one particular one - very brown, very blonde, faded blue jeans, white t-shirt, and I just thought ‘oh my God, who is this guy?’. That was 1961 and he must have not long been home from the first time they went to the Makaha. So that was my first sighting of him.

I didn’t see him again until 1963, after we’d left school. We all became a group that would go to Dee Why and associate with the Dee Why guys.

Robert: Just for those who didn’t know, Jimmy Carruthers who had a milk bar in Avalon Parade – he was the bantam weight champion of the world in 1952, so another person whose name is still up there in lights. 

Now, I believe Midget had some fairly unconventional parents who had some different ideas about things?

Beverlie: Yes, his dad, as a lad, was in the Merchant Navy. Midget was born at Paddington but his dad couldn’t settle, so first of all they went to Ireland, lived there for a while, didn’t like that. Then they went to Canada and he remembered going to school there in the snow. He apparently didn’t like that. Then they went to New Zealand, and they were there for a while at Takapuna, then when Midget was about 10 and a half, 11, they moved to Manly, which he was very very pleased about – and that’s where he started surfing in 1955/56, aged 12. 

Robert: I believe when they were living in New Zealand he disappeared one afternoon?

Beverlie: Yes (laughs) – he made a raft out of bamboo and at Takapuna there was an island just across from the beach, Rangitoto island, and he paddled across to the island, he was probably only 9 and back again. So he was very into the water even then and adventurous – and a perfectionist he was. 

Robert: his uncle and his sister both contributed to his surfing – can you tell us about that?

Beverlie: his uncle Ray Hookham, was a Bondi boy, from the North Bondi Surf Club and he took Midget, in between travels, out on a board – he said that that was the first time he’d been out on a board – at age 6, which would have been 1950.

Robert: His sister Jane did ballet and Midget followed in her footsteps?

Beverlie: Yes, he went to some ballet classes for a little while, he was into everything.

Robert: you can see that if you look at some of the old videos of him surfing, you can see that cat-footed way he’d walk along a board, so that must have come from the ballet. I’ve read as well, in an interview with Tommy Carroll, that he’d studied Midgets’ life to the extent that he actually took ballet lessons himself to support him getting better at his surfing.

Everything changed when the World Surfing Championships were held at Manly on the 16th and 17th of May 1964, almost 61 years ago today. This was a big deal, like the surfing Olympics and drew surfers to Australia – there were competitors from California, from Hawaii, from France, from England, Peru – all down here at Manly. They say the crowd was somewhere between 60 and 70 thousand people, which is monstrous. To put that into context, in June 1964, for those that remember, the Beatles came here and they had 6 or 7 concerts in Sydney at the Stadium, and each concert brought about 12 thousand people to town. So the surfing brought almost as many or more people to Manly as the Beatles in 1964. 

Of course, you were there, and I think a Mike Doyle was tipped to win?

Beverlie: I think it was Joey Cabell that was tipped to win, but he dropped in 3 times so he lost points.

Robert: what was it like being in the crowd, and how were you all dressed?

Beverlie: It was so stressful – I didn’t even see Midget for most of the afternoon, he was gone doing what they do. I was sitting right up the back at Manly, just in the crowd, and I don’t even remember watching him surf. It was just one of those days when it was all happening so fast. I didn’t really see him until it was all finished and they were announcing the winners.

Robert: Looking at the videos it’s remarkable what people were wearing.

Beverlie: yes, the men were in suits and ties and hats – back then all men always wore a hat. It was a hot afternoon.

Robert: In the aftermath of that things happened really fast for Midget, he almost instantly achieved international fame. A book This Surfing Life in 1965, co-authored with journalist Craig McGregor, two years later it was published I the United States and sold its head off, he had a newspaper column in the Sydney Morning Herald, he had a tv show that ran to 10 episodes on the ABC…

Beverlie: Which was filmed when we were in California, at the third World Titles, in San Diego – we were there for 3 months. In that 3 months he flew home for two weeks and made that series, and then came back.  

Surfabout : World Contest, California, 1966.

Extract from Unaccredited: 1966 World Championships Surfabout; Volume 3 Number 6, December 1966, pages 9 to 12.

Introduction.

A very brief contest report of the third official World Surfing Championships held in California 26th September  to 2nd October, 1966. While the Men's was emphatically won by Nat Young, it should be noted that, technically, half of the six finalists were Australian.

Midget Farrelly placed sixth and Rodney Sumpter (5th), although representing the United Kingdom, originally developed his surfing skills at Avalon on Sydney's northern beaches.

Second placed Jock Sutherland was the only representative from Hawaii.  Corky Carroll (3rd, and the only goffy-foot) and Steve Bigler (4th) represented the United States. - Page 8

THE HIGHLIGHT OF SURFING this year, was the world contest held at San Diego, California, from September 26, through to October 2. The original concept was to have three separate events. A point break, reef break, and a beach break contest. Actually, it ended up as three separate beach types.

Two were held at Ocean Beach, and one across the breakwater at Pacific Beach. The one at Pacific Beach was blessed with 6 foot tubular lefts, and all contestants raved about the shape. Ocean Beach had 3-5 foot beach peaks that were excellent for performing.

The long awaited battle between David Nuuhiwa and Robert "Nat" Young fizzled out in the second event. David, through lack of experience, poor judgment, or whatever other excuse you can think of, failed to catch the required five rides in his qualifying heat, and there went the California team's hopes.

I didn't see Nat in anything but the finals. All of the six finalists were superb.

The thing that Impressed me most about Nat, was his wave judgment. While the others were riding everything that came through in the final heat, Nat waited for the bigger waves and made the most of them.

In Saturday's event, Midget Farrelly and Peter Drouyn were outstanding. Nat had already qualified for the final and did not compete. Both of these surfers easily won their qualifying heats.

Midget was so far ahead of his other competitors it looked like a mis-match. John Peck from California, also had a standout performance Saturday morning. 

All of the Australians did well. When it was all over, they had a first and sixth in the mens, and fourth and sixth in the womens. This was against the largest field of world competitors ever assembled and in the Californians backyard.

There was a flaw in the system, where it was possible for the winner to be known before the final event. This detracted somewhat from the finish, at least for some of the finalists.

However, nothing can change the fact that a great champion was so far ahead of the field after two heats, that all he had to do was go in the water the last day to win. So, he went out and won again.

The passing up of the contest by Felipe Pomar, last year's champ, left a bad taste, but Felipe knows as well as anyone that beach surf is not his cup of tea.

All of the contestants were well housed and fed. The General Motors Corporation furnished each team with a new Cameo model to help them see the San Diego area. Midget Farrelly's wife, Beverly, wowed the local press with her well filled Australian bikini.

The Australians came to California to win and they did not go away empty handed.

RESULTS
Men 
1. Robert Young.
2. Jack (sic, Jock) Sutherland. 
3. Corky Carroll.
4. Corky (sic, Steve) Bigler.
5. Rodney Sumpter. 
6. Midget Farrelly.

Women 
1. Joyce Hoffman.
2. Joey Hamasaki. 
3. Mimi Monroe.
4. Gail Couper.
5. Josette Lagarderre.
6. Phyllis O'Donnell.

Robert: and he had to give up an apprenticeship as well? 

Beverlie: Yes, but I don’t think he really wanted to be a mechanic. (audience laughs)

Robert: something I’d encourage people who are interested in Midget’s history to do is look at the number of videos available on YouTube, especially the interview of him on Four Corners by John Penlington, a very David Attenborough type, and midget was just incredible – as a 19-year-old, he was so articulate and sounded so sensible, he sounded more like an accountant than a sportsman. He answered all the questions so sensibly, intelligently – I’d encourage people to have a look at that because he was the face of surfing, but also so sensible and speaking in a family-friendly way when it was beginning to become a bit of a rebel sport. 

I think he had a bit of a wild side as well though, that didn’t show up there – in the car that he drove?

Beverlie: Yes, he used to like the old Chevy’s, all the old cars – yes, they loved them.

Robert: I think that one of them that he had was a Ford Customline Twin Spinner – his was  from about 1952,and hey called them a ‘Twin Spinner’ because they had these two big bullet shaped chrome Rondels in the front grill. 

Beverlie: Yes, they loved their big cars – I don’t think the back doors shut properly, he had it tied shut with a rope if I remember rightly.

Farrelly in hospital

SYDNEY, Friday. — Former world champion surfboard rider Midget Falrelly is in hospital in a satisfactory condition tonight, following a car accident at Palm Beach today. Farrelly in hospital (1966, December 24). The Canberra Times (ACT : 1926 - 1995), p. 4. Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article106953955 

Robert: back in those days a lot of people smoked and I think he did as well?

Beverlie: Yes, he was a heavy Rothmans smoker up until he was 21 and his dad died, very quickly, and he had been a very heavy smoker. So Midget said it was ‘time to stop’ and he just gave it up. He had that sort of discipline.

Robert: we’ve spoken about Manly but people may not know he had his first big win at Makaha in January 1963. I’ve looked at a paper from Hawaii, the Honolulu Star Bulletin, and the headline reads ‘Hawaiian Surfing Prestige Wiped Out’.  They could not believe that an Australian had won this important competition. He’d also been to Hawaii with a group of surfers prior to that, by ship? 

Beverlie: They went when he was about 15 or 16, in 1961, he and his Freshwater mates. They were a little older than him, and they went to Hawaii to compete in the Makaha. 

DOWN THE MINE" ON SURFBOARDS
By KERRY YATES

"Who are these handsome surfboard champions? Where are these beaches?

Can I REALLY learn to ride a board from the instructions in the book?"

THESE were just a few of the questions I fired at 19-year-old Sydney boy Lee Cross.

Lee, a suntanned blond from Bronte Beach, had just shown me a copy of the ''Australian Surfer," a book which he had written and published himself.

PETER THOMAS, of Manly (left), wearing zip-tweeds, "goes down the mine" at Fairy Bower. Below, three of Sydney's outstanding riders show what they can do on a surfboard - (from left), Johnny Payne, of Newport, rides toes-on-the-nose. Bob Evans, of Queenscliff, ready for a "head dip" (diving off), and Bernard "The Midget" Farrelly doing a perfect "quasimoto." Ron Perrott, of Harbord, took the pictures on this page and the one at the foot of the opposite page.

'"Grab your swimsuit next Sunday morning," he offered. ' "and we'll Ix- oH with my surf board to lind out."

So at 8 o'clock that Sunday morning Lee and some of his surfing mates called in a car with surfboards tied on the roof to take me along on their usual weekend wave hunt. The forecast was that the best surf would be rolling on Sydney's northern beaches, decided to start at Fairy Bower, near Manly. Travelling north to Palm Beach, we would have 16 surf beaches to choose from

The boys said they would looking for "hot-dogging'' wave (long, tapering swells; on uni. they could "go down the mini (ride their boards, sometimes hundreds of yards .

We beeped our car horn to a passing truck with surfboard piled on top. I buttoned a heavy coat over a chunky sweater and began to feel excited about surfing on a sunny winter's day.

As we crossed Sydney Harbor Bridge to the north side ( I was strictly a south-sider, coming from Bondi!), Lee Cross told me a little about himself and why he wrote his book on surfing.

Lee has been a keen surf-board rider for four years and spends most of his weekends and holidays riding the waves. Since he left high school two years ago he has worked with a North Sydney advertising company.

He believes that surfing should be given more encouragement as a world-wide sport.

DAVID JACKMAN, of Harbord, on one of the mighty waves surging over the Queenscliff bombora last June.

So Lee set out to produce a book about the Australian surfer, the best surfing spots, how to ride a surfboard, about the new South Pacific Surf Riders' Club (the first successful attempt to form a club to cater for the needs of the surfboard rider), with pictures and news about the local champions.

And he did just that, with the help of some of his teenage surfing mates.

The dramatic cover shot of a surfboard rider was taken by 17-year-old Terry Flemming, of Bronte, a trainee photographer with the Sydney Water Board.

Illustrations and jokes were drawn by an 18-year-old East Sydney Tech, art student, David Letts, of Newport.

Lee was telling me of his plans to bring out a second edition of the book before the end of the year when we arrived at Fairy Bower.

One of the "Bower Boys" yelled that the "waves were on" and the surf was "too much" (his term for fabulous).

We raced to the top of a cliff overlooking the spot where the boards were starting their journey "down the mine," about one mile off Manly Beach.

The surf looked wild and rough, but the boys had it mastered, and the champs of this area, like "Nipper" Williams, Hob Pike, and Glen Richie fall pictured in the book), dared to ride with no fear of hitting the craggy stone bottom.

BOB PIKE, a renowned "Bower Boy" is hit by a backwash from the beach while cutting across a ware.

We were off again, giving Manly a miss, and were heading for a closer view of the Queenscliff bombora.

The great bombora, where the sea surges over seven layers of rock, nearly two miles out from North Steyne Beach, thunders in a big sea.

It has been conquered by only a handful of boys, including 21-year-old Dave Jackman, of Freshwater.

Three months ago "Jacko" successfully cracked four of the mighty bombora waves. (See picture above.)

Northwards again, we passed Freshwater, Curl Curl, Dee-why, and Long Reef without stopping. The surf was too big and there was danger of losing surfboards, which would go crashing against the rocks and so "ding" (a bang which splits the fibreglass on a surfboard) badly.

The boys told me that Long Reef usually supplies the works-everything from 3ft. to 30ft. waves. The top man among some mighty locals of this area is Peter Clare, the senior surf-board champion for 1961.

The Collaroy boys were really "hot-dogging" on "Pitt Street" shoots (waves with five or six riders catching them), but we were off to find where the surfboard riders from the south side had "camped" for the day.

We didn't have to go far. As we reached the sands of North Narrabeen we could see cars, surfboards, and riders, and we knew that this was THE beach for the best surf.

Shark scare

North Narrabeen is best known as the "home-water" for Bernard ("The Midget") Farrelly. At 16 "The Midget," a surfboard-maker by trade, is the junior champion of the Sydney surf-riders, and in November he is going to Hawaii to compete in the International Surfing Championships.

Lee Cross and his friends untied their surfboards from the top of the car, changed into their "zip-tweeds," and were off into the surf.

I was at the edge of the water, reach to take my first plunge of the season, when there was a yell and everyone headed for shore. I looked out to sea about 150 yards and saw three shark fins circling the area.

Everyone was quick to agree to head further north in search of another beach.

But we were out of luck. At every beach the waves were too big for me, so we headed back to Collaroy, where we watched the experts do their surfing tricks.

Some were riding "toes on the nose" (standing with feet on the front of the board), some were going for a "wipe out" instead of cutting off a wave when it begins to dump, they keep on riding it till they are thrown off the board), and others were crouching in "quasi-moto" style (body bent nearly in two with one hand stretched out in front and one behind).

We knew that the surf back home at Bondi was flat, so the boys finally took me there to learn to ride a surfboard from the instructions in the "Australian Surfer."

I put a jumper over my swim-suit. The sun had gone and a wind was blowing, but I wanted to have just one go at trying to ride.

I found it easy to kneel on the board as long as I kept my hands paddling. I tried and tried to stand up in one action, as the book said I should, but I can't even do that on land!

LEE CROSS, 19, author and publisher of the "Australian Surfer," is an expert on the surfboard, too.

After about 30 minutes I learnt to stand in a strictly nonfeminine fashion (one leg struggling up after the other).

In spite of the comments from Lee and his mates that the fin must have been stuck in the sand" just because I could stand up, I was sure that I'd be a surf-board rider one day. "DOWN THE MINE" ON SURFBOARDS (1961, September 20). The Australian Women's Weekly (1933 - 1982), p. 4 (Teenagers' Weekly). Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article47249167 

On November 20th, 1961 Big Wednesday premiered at Anzac House in Sydney. In 1961 a group of local surfers went to Hawaii as members of the then newly formed Narrabeen based South Pacific Surf Riders' Club. Their first 'rally', held on May 28th 1961, was judged by Scott Dillon, Bluey Mayes and Bob Evans, followed by another at Long Reef on August 6th. 

1961 Scott Dillon (pointing with pen), Bob Evans (wearing hat) judging the contest of the South Pacific Board Riders Club at Nth. Narrabeen. Bob Fell far left and Robbie Lane in the speedos on the right.  Photo by Ron Perrott - Sydney Living Museum

Surfboard team to race in Hawaii

By Kerry Yates

REPRESENTING AUSTRALIA for the first time at the International Surfing Championships in Hawaii, these boys are members of the 20-strong team. From left: Owen Pilon, David Jackman, Mick McMahon, Bob Evans, Ian Wallis, Ken Bate, Graeme Treloar, Jim Geddes, and Graham Henry.

Surfboard team to race in Hawaii

By Kerry Yates

This week 20 Australian surfboard riders, eight of them teenagers, will meet in Hawaii to form a team to compete in the International Surfing Championships at Makaha Beach in December and January.

IT will be the first time Australia has been represented by an or-ganised team at the cham-pionships, which bring competitors and spectators from all over the world every year.

All members of the team paid their own fares to realise this dream of most surfboard ex-perts.

Some used the savings of two or three years to travel by ship. Others took advantage of an air-line company's "fly now, pay later" plan.

Unlike most overseas travellers, the boys didn't take much luggage. Swimsuits, "ziptweeds" (long pants worn on surfboards), and a few casual clothes were all they thought they'd need - so that's all they took.

And, of course, their boards! Each of them took two boards -a special malibu-type, the light and easy-to-handle board used on most Australian beaches, and a big, solid "elephant-gun" board, used in heavy surf.

Bob Evans, of Narrabeen (one of Sydney's northern beaches), organised the team and arranged for it to compete in the championships.

The boys will contest junior and senior surfboard championships and body-surfing events.

The South Pacific Surf Riders' Club supplied the team with T-shirts in the Australian national colors-gold and green.

This newly formed club, which has a modern clubhouse at Narrabeen, hopes to sponsor an Australian team to Hawaii for the surfing titles each year.

The members of the Australian team are:

Bob Evans, at 32, is the oldest member of the team. He believes that some of the Sydney surf-riders will be a real challenge to the established champions from California.

David Jackman, 21, of Harbord, is a surfboard builder by trade and well known to Sydney board-riders as "Jacko," the boy who rode four big waves over the Queenscliff bombora earlier this year.

John Williams, 21, of Queenscliff, is another surfboard builder.

Owen Pilon, 18, of North Narrabeen, is a process worker in a city electrical firm and has saved for this trip since he started work several years ago.

Graham Henry, 20, of Harbord, is known as "Buz." He works hard at various jobs dur-ing the winter so that he can spend the whole of summer riding the waves.

Mike Hickey, 24, of Bilgola, gave up his job as an insurance clerk to become a member of the Australian team.

Jim Geddes, 17, of Narrabeen, sat for the last exam for his Leaving Certificate at his school, Waverley College, a few days before leaving Sydney for Hawaii.

Ian Wallis, 21, of Collaroy, is a city storeman and describes Hawaii as "the surfboard rider' paradise."

Bernard Farrelly, 16, of Narrabeen, is known as ''The Midget." A surfboard builder by trade, Bernard was the junior champion of Sydney's surfboard riders this year.

Bob Pike, 21, of Manly, is a woolclasser and says his main interest in going to Hawaii is to see if the waves are really as big as everyone says.

Mick McMahon, 25, of Harbord, is a butcher. Before leaving he said, "I’m keen to have a go at the big waves and look at the Hawaiian girls."

Graeme Treloar, of Manly, is a commercial traveller and Sydney's senior surf-board champion.

Gordon Simpson, 21, Harbord, is a former State surf champion.

Ron Grant, 22, of Wollongong, is the only non-Sydney member of the team and the only one who has previously competed in surf races over-seas - in California.

Ken Bate, 18, of Manly, works in a city stockbrokers and has been saving for this trip since he started work three years ago.

John Bill, 20, of Manly, gave up his job as an account-ant to join the team.

Ben Acton, 25, of Harbord, a member of the Police Force, got leave of absence to make the trip.

The other three members of the team are Reg Shortland, 19, Laurie Short, 18, and Roy Sloan, 18, all of Maroubra.  Surfboard team to race in Hawaii (1961, December 6). The Australian Women's Weekly (1933 - 1982), p. 4 (Teenagers' Weekly). Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article51392771 

Mr. Farrelly (kneeling in center) and some of those mentioned in the above:

THE AUSTRALIAN WOMEN'S WEEKLY Presents Teenagers WEEKLY

August 22, 1962 - Supplement to The Australian Women s Weekly - Not to be sold separately

AUSTRALIAN WINS INTERNATIONAL SURFBOARD CHAMPIONSHIP IN PERU -story page 3 Teenagers' (1962, August 22). The Australian Women's Weekly (1933 - 1982), , p. 1 (Teenagers Weekly). Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article41860039 

Our cover boys are some of the surfboard riders who competed at Narrabeen, one of Sydney's northern beaches, during the rally organised by the South Pacific Surf Riders Club last season. No title (1962, August 22). The Australian Women's Weekly (1933 - 1982), , p. 3 (Teenagers Weekly). Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article41860059 - Midget is in the middle in black

Robert: and he really got into the Hawaiian groove – he understood their culture, went back repeatedly – can you tell us a little about that, and the trophy he got that day as it’s a pretty special trophy.

Beverlie:  The trophy is of an Hawaiian warrior before his surfboard and it is the only trophy that was allowed in the house. It was a beautiful trophy. We gave it to the Australian National Maritime Museum, along with his World Trophy. 

He had a great love of Hawaiian folklore and culture and learnt all he could – he could navigate by the stars, just as early and even current south Pacific people do. Anywhere we went and he had to talk he’d get up and speak about Polynesian culture, Hawaiians, we often went to the Bishop Museum in Honolulu – he loved this culture and did all he could to increase his knowledge and understanding of the same. He didn’t have an ego, he was always happy to sit and listen to people talk rather than talk about himself, he very rarely did that. 

SURFBOARD WIN TO AUSTRALIAN

HONOLULU, Wednesday (A.A.P.-Reuter)

Australian surfer, Bernard Farrelly of Sydney' won the world surfboard riding title to-day.

He captured the championship from nine of the most experienced surfers in the world at the end of an exciting international tournament at the famed Makaha Beach in Hawaii.

Experts who watched the final said Farrelly won because the conditions suited him better than the other finalists, who were all from Hawaii or California.

The finalists had to wait two days until tournament officials decided the waves were good enough to make surfing possible.

Farrelly showed remarkable control in his series of rides, building up his points tally, based on the length of ride and form displayed in catching a wave. SURFBOARD WIN TO AUSTRALIAN (1963, January 3 - Thursday). The Canberra Times (ACT : 1926 - 1995), p. 20. Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article104254829 

10th Annual International Surfing Championships trophy ‘Senior Men first place’. Date: January 1963. Object number00054957; Medium timber, threads of seed beads. Dimensions Overall: 710 × 305 × 175 mm. Now part of the ANMM Collection – a Gift from Bev Farrelly and family in memory of Bernard 'Midget' Farrelly

The trophy, features a Hawaiian surfer standing in front of his board holding a spear. 'Midget' Farrelly's win in the tenth annual Hawaiian Makaha championship was the first time that the title was awarded to a non-indigenous surfer from outside Hawaii. It shocked the surfing world at the time when the surfing competition, held on the western side of Oahu, Hawaii from 1954 to 1971, and regarded as the unofficial world championship was won by Midget. The event had been dominated by Hawaiian surfers.

1962 Makaha International Mens Championship Photo: Ron Church

1964 Inaugural World Championships Winners Midget Farrelly and Phyllis O'Donnell with their trophies. Credit: R.L. Stewart

Robert: having that fame and being a professional surfer also meant an awful lot of travel, and after you married you travelled with him from time to time and sometimes with your three daughters as well as they grew up?

Beverlie: Yes, in 1970 we did some of that and then in 1980 he went into sailboarding and by then the girls were old enough to come with us and we would go to Hawaii twice a year; for sailboarding we’d go to Maui and then return to the North Shore around November through December for the surfing.  Priscilla would do a lot of ocean sailboarding with her dad.

Robert: After travelling so much I guess you wanted to find a place to call home – and I believe  Midget did some work with Gordon Smith?

Beverlie: it was 1966 when we were in San Diego for the third Worlds, which Nat won, and along with his work on the ABC shows. We called in to Hawaii on the way home for 4 nights and then came home for Christmas and I found out I was pregnant. He worked shaping boards, alongside his other work, and we had made enough money and decided we better find a house – we’d been renting prior to then. In 1967 we found the home we lived in here at Palm Beach and that’s the house I’m still in. This house has a heritage listing. 

Beverlie and Bernard, early days

Robert: Midget had been making surfboards from around the age 14 and had a little tin shed he made them in off Pittwater for a while?

Beverlie: Before we went to the 1966 Worlds he had a garage at the Gow-Gonsalves boatshed. So there were 3 garages with roll down doors, and he had one, so he could just pull the door down and go surfing when he wanted to. He loved being at the Gonsalves and with the Gows and all the rest of the families that would be there – the Verrills.

Robert: He also stared the Midget Farrelly Surfboard Company and got into making blanks as well as there was a person who had the monopoly on those? Blanks for those not aware of them are the core of the surfboard.

Beverlie: yes, and made out of polyurethane – in making surfboards you had to have the blanks. So we just started to do all the work and he made his own foam. He worked non-stop using all these different measurements. We bought this huge kettle and then would cook the foam, like you cook a cake, and then drum it off. He was a real perfectionist.

Robert: A little while ago you mentioned hang-gliding as one of the sports that he involved himself in, but he wasn’t just the average hang-glider and went out and bought one, did he?

Beverlie: No, he made them. He had all the sails down the road at Brookvale and would make the aluminium frames and wiring. Most afternoons he would get in the car and drive to Stanwell Park – it would be 9 and 9.30 and I’d be thinking; ‘where is he?, still alive?’

Robert: and he used to take your daughters up as well?

Beverlie: Yes, he did – I knew they were safe.

It’s a bird ... it’s a man!, The bulletin. Vol. 097 No. 4944 (15 Feb 1975) Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-1638125337

Robert: he knew what he was doing. He was also a man of high principles. During the 1960’s there was a philosophy among some surfers that you would surf better if you took drugs, and Midget was not of that school at all, and that caused him some problems.

Beverlie: No, no drugs. As a result of his belief, he was an outcast, he was a loner. 

Robert: we’ll circle back to where we began, with the paddle out for Midget in 2016. That was a very public event – you and your family also had a number of private events that meant a great deal to you?

Beverlie: Yes, we gathered as a family together and went with some of the ashes out to Jump Rock. I had 3 lots of ashes and we all, individually, scattered the ashes in the water there off Jump Rock at Palm Beach. So there were some scattered at the paddle out.

We then went to Hawaii, and to Makaha, and I walked out on top the reef. There’s a blowhole there where a lot of his Hawaiian and American surfer friends’ ashes are. 

I said ‘go be with your mates’ – as I threw the ashes the wind blew them back into me. My son-in-law said to Johanna, one of my daughters; ‘I hope when you scatter my ashes you don’t snort them as well’.

Every year we would go to Tavarua in Fiji, which is Cloudbreak, for surfing – a beautiful little hear-shaped island. So we wanted to place some of his ashes there s well.

The afternoon we got there the Fijian ladies were her and all had leis. They stood around in a circle and sang – and also had those papier-mâché balloons with candles in them. Right on sunset we let them go and I crept down to the water and put some ashes there too. 

So he is here at Palm Beach, he is there at Makaha and he is at his other favourite place, in Fiji.

Robert: I think that’s a lovely way to end – would you take any questions?

Audience member: where and when were you married? – one of the most important parts of the story to us girls.

Beverlie: in Mona Vale – I’m a Catholic but we were married in St. John’s at Mona Vale, the lovely little stone church there. We were married on the 12th of March 1966.

Top surfer married

SYDNEY, Sunday (AUP). - Australian surfing champion Bernard (Midget) Farrelly, and the girl he married yesterday in a quiet beach-side wedding, have left on a two-week honeymoon to Queensland. His bride was formerly Beverly Carter, 20, eldest daughter of Mr and Mrs John Carter, of Avalon. Top surfer married (1966, March 14 - Monday). The Canberra Times (ACT : 1926 - 1995), , p. 7. Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article105891533 

John (audience member): I’d like to ask when did Midget get his name of ‘Midget’ and why?

Beverlie: As I said earlier, when he was young, and he used to go down to Freshwater beach, the guys there, Bob Pike and Dave Jackman and those that went with him to Hawaii that first year they went, they were a little older. So they used to take him up the coast surfing, and of course he was that skinny and little that they would call him ‘Midget’. When he won Makaha, it stuck. Bob Evans, who made films, found it was very good for the surfing movies if they all had a nickname – so Midget, instead of Gidget. They all had one. 

Tina (another audience member): I’d just like to say that all the girls in the surf club were so lucky to have him as their Sweep, they just loved him – especially Ally.

Beverlie: Yes, he started off with girls crews – and knew how to treat them because he had 3 daughters. 

Audience member: are all your girls and your grandchildren into the water?

Beverlie: Yes, everyone surfs, all of them are water babies.

Beverlie Farrelly an Robert Mackinnon

Thank you Beverlie

• Bernard Farrelly - A Community Tribute - August 2016
• Bernard Farrelly - A Tribute in Pictures - August 2016
• Bernard 'Midget' Farrelly Paddle Out Tribute - September 2016
• Midget Farrelly Recognition Committee - July 2022
• Surfers Honoured in Oldest Room in Parliament: Midget Farrelly Lifetime Achievement Awards to Pam Burridge - Tom Carroll - October 2022
• Surfing's First World Championship At Manly In 1964: Midget Farrelly Tribute At Palm Beach Given Go-Ahead - February 2024
• Midget Farrelly Tribute takes shape - May 2024
• Avalon Camping Ground - Pittwater Fields of Dreams round 1
• Avalon Beach village Shops: Some History
• Avalon Beach RSL Sub Branch Celebrates 75 Years Of Members Looking After Each Other - John Lloyd Jones owned the land the shops were built on and also donated a section of this for the building to the Avalon Bach RSL Clubhouse
• St. John's Anglican Church Mona Vale- Celebrating Its 150th Year In 2021
• Carl Gow and Frank Gonsalves Boatshed, Palm Beach 

Always side by side - here on the sand at 2012 Sir Adrian Curlewis Twilight Carnival

Bernard and Beverlie Farrelly at Palm Beach SLSC 'Rio' fundraiser for the club on January 16th, 2016

Photo: Farrelly family albums

''‘The first title would be the 1963 Makaha International Surfing. I forget what it was called exactly, just call it Makaha International 1963. It was more or less the only international event that was considered a world title before the official world titles. After that, 1964 Australian and official World Champion. The following year Australian Champion '65. 1966, sixth place World Championship. I left out the '65 World Championships, didn't make it to the final there. '68 made it to equal first and then second on a count back. 1970 made it to second place. As you know, Australian Champion '64 and '65. A few unusual contest titles, the first Bobbie Brown Memorial contest at Sandshoes Beach around the Cronulla area and one that I thought was a little bit interesting, the small wave event in Peru in 1964, I believe. Also the Gunston 500 in 1970 at Durban, South Africa. A few other little small ones here and there but I think they're the main ones. 

I was born in 1944 at Paddington. My parents were English, originally from Ireland on my father's side, Australian with an American father on my mother's side. I have my earliest recollection of the surf, going back to the age of six. My uncle who was a Bondi lifesaver took me out on a surfboard when I was six years old at North Bondi. I didn't enjoy it the first time I went out; in fact I think I was terrified. I didn't go near a surfboard until six years later when I was 12. In the meantime, my parents had taken me to live in a few different countries. I spent a year in Wales, I spent a year in Canada and I spent a year in New Zealand. And while travelling to Canada and returning I saw surfing at Waikiki and became slightly fascinated..’’ - Bernard "Midget" Farrelly interviewed by Neil Bennetts, Recorded on Oct. 30, 1984 at Palm Beach, N.S.W. available in full online at:  http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-203494363

“I just feel so fortunate to have married my wife Beverlie and had three beautiful healthy girls, Priscilla, Johanna and Lucy, and lived a life in and around the ocean with them. For me it had always been about getting in the water, either on your own, or even better, with family and friends.” – Bernard Farrelly, July 2016

Photo: Farrelly family albums

• Inductee, Australian Surfing Hall of Fame, 1986. Inductee, Surfing Walk of Fame, Huntington Beach, 2007

Midget Farrelly at Palm Beach, 1964 – photo by by John Witzig, reproduced with permission of the National Portrait Gallery, Canberra. 

Midget surfing off Black Rock at Palm Beach in November 2015:

(A J Guesdon/PON photos)

Bernard Midget Farrelly Paddle Out Tribute at Palm Beach on September 11th, 2016. Pic; AJG/PON

!964 World Championships videos:

Extras

Midget with his Whale Beach SLSC Boat Crews at the February 2016, Sydney Northern Beaches Branch Competition at Palm Beach.

Midget's wife Beverlie Farrelly with Midget's boat and Whale Beach SLSC crew at Warriewood Surfboats carnival, December 2016

'Australian Wins International Championship in Peru' story on page 3. 

International surf champ By Kerry Yates

Photo: BOB PIKE riding one of the great Hawaiian waves during last summer's international championships. Photo: Below, holding the bronze seagull trophy he won in the Peruvian Championship while John Severson is presented with his cup for second place.

Wherever the surf is running best - anywhere on the coast between Surfers' Paradise, Queensland, and Torquay, Victoria - there you'll find Bob Pike. Enjoying the sun, sand, and salty spray, he's also training hard, for in a few months he plans to be off again to South America to defend his title of Surfboard Riding Champion of Peru.

BOB, now 22, won the championship last March in competition with the best from Hawaii, California, France, and Peru, and he made such a hit with the people of Lima that they asked him to come back next March - all expenses paid. An old boy of The King's School, Sydney, Bob's home is at Manly, just north of Sydney Heads.

The first Australian to win a surf championship overseas, he was a member of the 20 strong Australian team which competed in the International Surfing Championships at Makaha Beach, Hawaii, last summer. Because he injured a leg he had to drop out before the finals. Several members of the team qualified, but had to return home before the finals, delayed by lack of a suitable surf, were held.

Bob, however, got a lucky break soon after the Hawaiian championships were over. John Severson, a champion Californian rider who was visiting Hawaii for the surfing titles, offered Bob a trip to Peru.

The editor of the American magazine "The Surfer," John won all the board-riding events in last year's Peruvian championships and, before he left, the organisers asked him to arrange for Australian, Hawaiian, and Californian riders to compete in their 1962 championships. John chose Bob and a Sydney friend, Mike Hickey, of Bilgola (another northern Sydney beach), to represent Australia....

It was all a great surprise to Bob, "I didn't even know they surfed in Peru, but what a way to find out!" he said....

For winning the international exhibition board-riding event, Bob was awarded a bronze carving of two seagulls mounted on a marble base. The trophy weighs 36lb. and is valued at £150. Bob said that all the visiting surfers received "royal" treatment.

Servants employed by the Waikiki Surf Club took charge of their surfboards, rubbed them down with paraffin wax, carried them to the water's edge, and even waited to carry them back after Bob and the other boys had finishing riding....

After leaving school at 15, Bob did a two-year course at Sydney Technical College to become a qualified woolclasser. He worked in shearing sheds in N.S.W. and Queensland to save the £600 for the trip to Hawaii. During that time he visited every surf beach in the eastern States.

"Fairy Bower, about a mile off Manly Beach, is THE spot in Australia when the waves are on," he says. "The surf in Hawaii, however, is even better-just like I'd always imagined. But it is very different from ours.

"Waikiki Beach is similar to many Australian beaches-and not so good. But for the keen surfboard rider other Hawaiian beaches have the perfect waves. These beaches - Makaha, Sunset, Alamoana, and the Banzai Pipe-line - have the best surf in the world.

"'The waves, building up to heights of 15 to 25ft. and then dumping on the shore, are very exciting to ride. And the greatest thrill of all is the Banzai Pipeline. This is an area where the waves, often reaching 25ft., curl over at the top to form a 'pipe' before dumping on a rocky shelf of jagged coral.

"And this was the place that put me out of the Hawaiian championships. I lost my board going down the Pipeline, but got out of it with a few scratches and an injured leg. My board, however, was wrecked. All the front was bashed in and the fin was snapped off."International surf champ (1962, August 22). The Australian Women's Weekly (1933 - 1982), , p. 3 (Teenagers Weekly). Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article41860055 

8 Disqualified
AUSTRALIAN SURFERS' ENTRIES REJECTED

HONOLULU, Sunday (A.A.P.). -Eight Australian surfers have been disqualified from the international surfing championship at Makaha Beach.

The surfers allegedly submitted their entries after the December 14 deadline.

They are Scott Dillon, Bob Pike, Keith Southion, Mick Dooley, Ian Wallace, Barry Andreas, Terry Adams and Jack Mayes. All had travelled from Sydney and showed up today to compete in the championships.

The Australians were upset at the judge's decision.

"Our group travelled 6,000 miles and spent about 20.000 dollars to come to Hawaii," Dillon said.

"Now they tell us we can't take part because of a minor technicality."

The chairman of the meeting, Wally Froiseth, said if an exception was made for Australians, the same would have to be done for others.

Waves

All three Australians who competed in preliminaries yesterday in the senior men's division. Kevin Platt, Rex Blanks and Barry Kelly, were eliminated.

Defending champion Bernard (Midget) Farrelly,, Queensland champion Dave Hines and Tasmanian champion Barry McGuigan, are Automatically seeded in the semi-finals.

Waves of between 20 and 30 ft., whipped up by midocean winds, are expected for ttiore preliminaries tomorrow.

Stowaways

In Sydney, Australia's two Stowaway surfboard riders, in Bob McTavish, 19, and David Chidgey, 17, ran from reporters and photographers at Kingsford Smith Airport Yesterday when they returned from Hawai. The youths pushed their way through a large crowd outside the Customs Hall and ran to separate cars.

McTavish was met by a friend who whisked him away in a station wagon to avoid cameramen. Chidgey was met by his parents and a private investigator, Mr. S. Robson, and he also escaped being photographed and interviewed by running to his parents' car.

Criticised

The youths made news this week when they were arrested in Honolulu and were charged with having illegally entered the United States. They stowed away in the liner Orsova, arrived in Hawaii on December and avoided detection until this week.

The F.B.I, yesterday decided that charges against the youths would be dropped if they returned to Australia.

The deputy chairman of P. and O.-Orient in Australia, Mr. J. D. Bates, criticised the youths' action yesterday.

"They have caused this company and the United States authorities much trouble and expense," Mr. Bales said.

"A fine of 20,000 dollars was imposed on the Orsova, and the company was forced to repatriate them by air at a cost of over £400," he said.

The company is seeking legal advice on the possibility of taking legal action against the youths. 8 Disqualilfied AUSTRALIAN SURFERS' ENTRIES REJECTED (1963, December 23). The Canberra Times (ACT : 1926 - 1995), p. 28. Retrieved, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article104283198 

Scotty Dillon with Bernard ''Midget'' Farrelly at the 1964 Worlds re-enactment in Noosa. Photo courtesy Ron Turton

Australian Geographical Society & Australian National Publicity Association & Australian National Travel Association. CHAMPION OF THE SURF, Walkabout .Vol. 30 No. 1 (1 January 1964). Retrieved  from http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-755900191 

Ex-Shopkeeper Going To Gaol

SYDNEY, Monday. Another Sydney shopkeeper announced today lie would go to gaol for a shopping hours offence.

The shopkeeper, John Charles Burgess, of Dee Why, when lined £3 for selling groceries after hours, told the Chief Industrial Magistrate, Mr, Horsington, he had sold his business and wanted to go to gaol. However, he was given seven daps to pay.

He said he would pay his wife's similar fine. She was given seven days to pay.

Former champion boxer Jimmy Carruthers and his wife, Myra, were each fined £2 for after-hours trading at Avalon Beach. Carruthers was not available for comment on whether he would go to gaol or pay the fine.

Manly shopkeeper Mr. John Fisher was released from Long Bay gaol today, having served four days' imprisonment in preference to paying a fine for trading after hours.

The official Journal of the Retail Traders' Association of New South Wales today supports the refusal of the Government to change existing trading hours and lists of restricted goods, and attacks the Opposition for its stand against them.

The Minister for Labour and Industry, Mr. Maloney, today promised he would examine the effect of a West Australian Government decision on relaxed trading hours for 2-man shops.

He gave the promise to a deputation from the N.S.W. Grocers and Storekeepers' Association.

The president of the association, Mr. B. Laughlin, said that apart from its support of relaxed trading restrictions for these shops, the association agreed that existing trading hours were entirely satisfactory. Ex-Shopkeeper Going To Gaol (1964, April 14). The Canberra Times (ACT : 1926 - 1995), p. 9. Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article104278530 

Australian Geographical Society & Australian National Publicity Association & Australian National Travel Association. (1934). Further and further into the wave, Walkabout. Vol. 33 No. 12 (1 December 1967) Retrieved  from http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-755498663