In the 1920s, the Mandurama Reds were celebrated as ‘champions of the west’ (The Sun). They drew crowds from across theCentral West NSW, but ceased to exist during the 1950s. Today, Mandurama is a quiet stop on the Mid-Western Highway, itsschool and pub long closed, its rugby league triumphs half-remembered and largely unrecorded. The fabric of their history isthe stuff of Australian legend: a claim to an eleven-year undefeated streak, a suspicious fire, a future test cricketer, and abushranger’s numerous grandchildren—tall-tales in the truest sense.

This project will recover the hidden history of the Mandurama Reds and, through them, tell a wider story about community,memory, and change in rural Australia. Blending archival research, oral history, and community participation, it will explorehow a local team came to embody a place and time: This project will write a history of the football team, explore the playersand the small society around them, and consider how sporting myth and social reality created and destroyed the so-called‘Man-eaters’ (National Advocate). In doing so, it contributes to the growing field of vernacular historiography and brings adeeper, more local voice into the national story of rugby league.

Research will proceed through three interwoven methods. First, detailed archival work will be undertaken at Central WestLibraries (already supporting the project), the State Library of New South Wales, and national collections in Canberra. Second,around five oral history interviews will be recorded using a life-story approach, focused on former players, families, and thosewith community memory. Participants will be identified organically through local conversations; three have already agreed.Ethical protocols, including consent and data protection, will be followed, in line with best practice from the Oral HistorySociety (UK) and Oral History NSW.
Finally, community participation will be encouraged through the collection of written memories online, hosted via a projectwebsite and social media engagement. All material, with consent, will be donated to Central West Libraries to ensure long-term public access and local custodianship.

Samuel Guthrie is an author and historian whose previous work includes Our Stories, Our times: the British Red Cross in Northern Ireland and Echoes of the Field: an oral history of East Belfast GAA.