Evonne Goolagong

Evonne Goolagong Cawley AC MBE (b. 1951), Wiradjuri tennis champion, was the number one women's tennis player in the world in 1971 and 1976. Born in the Riverina district, she grew up in Barellan where she learned to hit a tennis ball against a wall with a piece of wood from a fruit crate. Her mother, Linda, made her first tennis dress from an old bed sheet. When she was thirteen she left her family to live with tennis coach Vic Edwards and his family in Sydney. In 1971, the year she turned professional, she became the second-youngest person to win Wimbledon when she defeated Margaret Court in the women’s singles at the age of nineteen. Named Australian of the Year in 1972, in 1974, 1975 and 1976 she won every Australian mainland state title and the Australian singles title. After three more Wimbledon finals in the 1970s, in response to which English journalists gave her the title 'Sunshine Supergirl', in 1980 she defeated Chris Evert and became the first mother to win a Wimbledon singles championship since 1914. Goolagong Cawley and her family lived in Florida until 1991, when they moved to Noosa and she renewed her ties with her Wiradjuri people. Since then she has become increasingly involved in Aboriginal affairs, encouraging young Aboriginal sportspeople and promoting Indigenous education through the Evonne Goolagong Foundation and the Goolagong National Development Camps. In 2018 she was appointed as a Companion of the Order of Australia. Yorta Yorta/Gunaikurnai playwright Andrea James staged a play about Goolagong Cawley’s life, Sunshine Super Girl, in 2020 and 2021.

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2011