Returned & Services Le
ANZAC House, Torrens T
Victoria Drive, Adelaide S
Telephone: 08 8100 730
www.rslsa.org.au
Aboriginal digger remembered in Lands Cup
Mark Naley – 1987 Carlton premiership player and winner of the 1991 Magarey Medal –
grew up ‘knowing’ two things about his grandfather: he was a Gallipoli veteran and ‘an
Afghan migrant’.
The Gallipoli belief was true enough. Gordon Charles Naley served there with the 16th
Battalion AIF, later fighting on the Western Front, where he was wounded and taken
prisoner. But a family history investigation has now thoroughly disproved any ancestral
link with Afghanistan. Gordon Naley was, in fact, an Aboriginal digger.
He had been born at Eucla, WA, just west of the SA border in 1884 to a white station
manager and woman from the region’s Mirning people.
That indigenous connection is now being proclaimed with pride on the football field. The
Gordon Naley Medal has been established as the award for the best player in the
Aboriginal Lands Cup.
Maralinga and APY Lands will play off for the cup on Thursday July 9, in a curtain-raiser
to the Port Adelaide-Collingwood AFL clash at Adelaide Oval. The medal will be
awarded to the player who demonstrates ‘work ethic, courage, and leadership’.
The teams have been chosen on character and role-model qualities, as well as football
ability. During their time in Adelaide they will attend a range of educational, cultural and
social events to support personal development and education/employment pathways.
Gordon Charles Naley was the son of William Naley, the station manager of Mundrabilla Station
near Eucla WA, and an East Mirning woman whose name is not known. He was born at
Mundrabilla Station on January 20 1884, and adopted by the wife of one of the station owners.
Returned & Services League of Australia (SA Branch) Inc
ANZAC House, Torrens Training Depot, Victoria Drive, Adelaide South Australia 5000
Telephone 08 8100 7300 Email admin@rslsa.org.au www.rslsa.org.au
Gordon was working as a labourer when he enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force on September
17 1914, shortly after the outbreak of war. Posted to the 16th Battalion, he took part in the landing
at ANZAC Cove on April 25 1915 and fierce fighting on Pope’s Hill and at Quinn’s Post in the
following month. In late May 1915, he was evacuated with enteric fever
Following hospital treatment in Malta and in England, he re-joined his unit in August 1916, seeing
action at the Battle of Mouquet Farm and then the First Battle of Bullecourt in April 1917, where
he was wounded and taken prisoner. Gordon Naley was repatriated to England in January 1919.
Two weeks later, he married Cecile Karsh at the United Methodist Church, Fulham. He had met
Cecile when she was working as a nurse’s assistant during his recovery from enteric fever in
1915/16.
The couple sailed to Adelaide, where Gordon was discharged from military service on September
21 1919. Cecile and Gordon settled at Barmera and had six children. Gordon died at Myrtle Bank
War Veterans Hospital on August 28 1928 aged 44 from respiratory failure as a result of wartime
gas bombardment. He is buried at the AIF Cemetery, West Terrace, Adelaide.
Mark Naley played 236 games for South Adelaide in the SANFL (1980-1986 and 1991-1993),
winning the club’s best and fairest award in 1984. He played 65 games for Carlton (1987-1990),
and was a member of the club’s 1987 premiership team. Returning to Adelaide, he won the 1991
Magarey Medal and was inducted into the SA Football Hall of Fame in 2002. He twice achieved
All-Australian selection, in 1986 and 1987; in addition, he recorded 16 appearances for the SA
state side.
Today he is the owner of Mark Naley Building Services, a company that provides shop-fittings for
offices and commercial enterprises. He says he is “immensely proud” to have discovered his
indigenous heritage – and to have his grandfather’s name enshrined as a symbol of Aboriginal
sporting prowess.
Photo – Don McSweeney (SANFL) with the Gordon Naley Medal meets the two captains
at the ATSI War Memorial.