For over 60 years Jimmy Sharman’s boxing troupe toured 150 towns in Queensland, NSW and Victoria.
Story Stephen McGrath
"One man from the country is worth 2 from the city.” That’s what boxing tent owner Jimmy Sharman would often say while spruiking up a ladder beside a wooden platform, where up to a dozen of his fighters would await challengers. For 60 years of the 20th century, Sharman’s boxers were a feature of nearly every agricultural show right across NSW, Queensland and Victoria.
Starting at Ardlethan, NSW, in 1911, and touring more than 150 locations until 1972 at Shepparton, Vic, Jimmy Sharman would ask showgoers, “Who’ll take a glove?” With wrestlers and boxers in all the different weight divisions, locals could challenge Sharman’s fighters to “a round or 2 for a pound or 2”, either winning a small fortune or, more likely, learning the hard way about the science of bruising. Long after the tent had left, people would remember the specific beat of the drum: boom de boom de boom, boom de boom de boom.
This story excerpt is from Issue #159
Outback Magazine: February/March 2025
