Paralympic Pioneer Elevated To Sport Australia Hall Of Fame

“If a life is worth saving, it must be given the opportunity to be worth living”. (George Bedbrook)

Even in the early 1950s in Australia, when penicillin had transformed the treatment of many serious conditions, there was no specific treatment for people with spinal injuries. In most cases they quickly developed infections that eventually ended their lives. They, and their families, suffered greatly.

In 1954, George Bedbrook, an orthopaedic surgeon, was one of a small group of doctors at Royal Perth Hospital who argued that something more needed to be done for people with spinal injuries. The outcome was that spinal injury patients were transferred to two old, portable wards which previously housed patients with infectious diseases and Australia’s first Spinal Unit became a separate entity, at the Shenton Park Annex, Royal Perth Hospital. George Bedbrook was appointed its Director.

From this, a sport movement developed.

Bedbrook was keen to follow the proven initiatives of Ludwig Guttmann, the doctor who had introduced new strategies in the treatment of spinal injuries through the Stoke Mandeville Hospital in England. Bedbrook had visited Stoke Mandeville and witnessed the methods Guttman used to transform people with spinal injuries from ‘hopeless cases’ into ‘taxpayers’, who once again made a contribution to, and were part of, society.

One of Guttman’s methods was strength training and physical activity, so that patients could become physically self-reliant. Guttmann had found that physical activity through sport was more motivating than exercises alone. Patients at Shenton Park were introduced to weightlifting, table tennis, archery, athletics throwing events and wheelchair basketball.

According to Bedbrook: “Competitive and team sports provide a physical and psychological stimulus far more profitable than routine remedial exercises. Not only do these activities develop and strengthen the body musculature and promote spontaneous coordinated movements, but also of equal importance they recreate the sense of comradeship and normal human association and help to eliminate any self-consciousness suffered by patients in relation to their disabilities.”

Bedbrook gathered a talented and committed staff including John (Johnno) Johnston, a Scottish, ex-army fitness instructor, who worked as a physiotherapist and emerged as a crucial figure in the future decades of disability sport. Johnston created a pulley system for patients in bed and a small gymnasium where patients trained on a weights circuit and were encouraged to climb ropes to develop upper body strength. The ultimate achievement was climbing the rope to the top and signing your name on the ceiling.

The first sports day at the Royal Perth Hospital was held in 1954.

Basketball was the first sport to flourish. However, players had to play in normal ward chairs, which were inappropriate. To address the problem, Bedbrook organised a dozen new chairs to be specifically made for basketball. They had two large wheels in the front and a small, 10-inch wheel at the back. The chairs were lighter than the ward chairs and early basketballers attributed their developed upper bodies to the effort required to propel these chairs. While they were heavy in today’s terms, the chairs were mobile and easy to turn because of the smaller wheel at the rear.
Unfortunately, with mobility came instability. Good balance was necessary otherwise basketballers ended up on the bitumen court.

A highlight of the early years was the exhibition game against the Harlem Globetrotters in 1955. They were on an Australian tour, playing in Perth, and accepted an invitation to get into wheelchairs and play a game at Shenton Park.

In 1957 Guttmann visited the spinal unit at Shenton Park and, as the guest of honour at a specially arranged sports day, he challenged Bedbrook, his staff and the patients to send a team to the International Stoke Mandeville Games later in the year. To the delight of the athletes, Bedbrook accepted in front of the gathered crowd and Australia’s involvement in the nascent Paralympic movement began.

Unlike future Australian teams, there were no formalised selection procedures. The various spinal units were in their infancy, or yet to be created, and sporting competitions were isolated to hospitals – there were no regional, state or national championships. Bedbrook accepted the invitation as the Director of the Spinal Unit and he acted as key organiser and sole selector of the team.

Over coming years, Bedbrook continued to nurture the disability sport movement in Australia. He played a key role in organising the Australian team to the 1960 Rome Games, the first Paralympics, and was the team leader at the 1964 Paralympics in Tokyo.

Bedbrook convinced the Royal Perth Hospital to back his idea for the first Commonwealth Paraplegic Games, in Perth in 1962 in the lead-up to its able-bodied equivalent, the then Empire Games. The Games created national media attention and support for disability sport. Bedbrook was the secretary of the organising committee, which enabled him to ensure delivery of a unique event.

Bedbrook was central to the continuation of the Commonwealth Paraplegic Games every four years until 1974, after which it was replaced by the FESPIC Games, a regional Games for Asian and Pacific nations. He became a member of the International Stoke Mandeville Games Committee (the parent body for the Paralympics) in 1964 and was the first chair of its medical committee in 1967. He remained active – nationally and internationally – in the Paralympic movement until his retirement in the 1980s.

During his lifetime and since, George Bedbrook received many deserved awards and accolades. It is possible that the most lasting and the highest of those is the strength of the Paralympic Movement and the achievements of Paralympic athletes, in competition and in the Australian community.

One of Australia’s first Paralympians, Bill Mather-Brown, expressed what he felt was owed by athletes and patients to George Bedbrook:

And myself, in a quiet and humble way,
For I speak for so many men
Might wonder how long the world will wait
To see your likes again
On this we can only contemplate
The years will answer the plea
But our thanks go out to the likes of you
From indebted – the likes of me.

By: Tony Naar (Australian Paralympic History Project Facilitator), Paralympics Australia
Posted: 14 October 2022
Image: Sport Australia Hall of Fame