Lloyd Clive McDermott (1 November 1939 – 6 April 2019), also known as Mullenjaiwakka, was an Australian

barrister A barrister is a type of lawyer in common law jurisdiction (area), jurisdictions. Barristers mostly specialise in courtroom advocacy and litigation. Their tasks include arguing cases in courts and tribunals, drafting legal pleadings, jurisprud ...

and

rugby union Rugby union football, commonly known simply as rugby union in English-speaking countries and rugby 15/XV in non-English-speaking world, Anglophone Europe, or often just rugby, is a Contact sport#Terminology, close-contact team sport that orig ...

player. He was the first

Australian Aboriginal Aboriginal Australians are the various indigenous peoples of the Mainland Australia, Australian mainland and many of its islands, excluding the ethnically distinct people of the Torres Strait Islands. Humans first migrated to Australia (co ...

barrister and the second Aboriginal person to represent his country in rugby union, playing for the

Wallabies A wallaby () is a small or middle-sized macropod native to Australia and New Guinea, with introduced populations in New Zealand, Hawaii, the United Kingdom and other countries. They belong to the same taxonomic family as kangaroos and som ...

against the

New Zealand All Blacks The New Zealand national rugby union team, commonly known as the All Blacks, is the representative men's national team in the sport of rugby union for the nation of New Zealand, which is considered the country's national sport. Famed for th ...

in 1962. During South Africa's era of

apartheid Apartheid ( , especially South African English: , ; , ) was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. It was characterised by an ...

, McDermott made a principled decision to withdraw from the squad rather than play as an "

honorary white Honorary whites was a political term that was used by the apartheid regime of South Africa to grant some of the rights and privileges of whites to those who would otherwise have been treated as non-whites under the Population Registration Act ...

" on a subsequent South African tour.

Early life and education

Born on 1 November 1939 at

Eidsvold, Queensland Eidsvold () is a rural town and Suburbs and localities (Australia), locality in the North Burnett Region, Queensland, Australia. The town is the self-proclaimed ''Beef Capital of the Burnett'' and is a hub for the regional cattle industry. In th ...

, McDermott had links to the

Mununjali clan The Mununjali clan is one of nine distinct named clan estate groups of the Yugambeh people, an Aboriginal Australian nation whose traditional lands are the Beaudesert area in the Scenic Rim, Queensland, Australia. Name The ethnonym ''Mununj ...

and

Wakka Wakka Wakka Wakka, or Waka Waka, people are an Aboriginal Australian people of the state of Queensland. Name "''Wakka''" was assigned the meaning "no" by Western linguists who documented the Wakawaka language. Ethnonyms based on the duplication of t ...

people. The son of a farm labourer, Lloyd McDermott's academic and sporting prowess won him a scholarship to attend the

Anglican Church Grammar School The Anglican Church Grammar School (ACGS), formerly the Church of England Grammar School and commonly referred to as Churchie, is an independent, Anglican Church of Australia, Anglican, Day school, day and boarding school for boys, located in ...

in East Brisbane.

Rugby career

An outstanding schoolboy athlete, he went on to play as the

wing A wing is a type of fin that produces both Lift (force), lift and drag while moving through air. Wings are defined by two shape characteristics, an airfoil section and a planform (aeronautics), planform. Wing efficiency is expressed as lift-to-d ...

for the

Australia national rugby union team The Australia men's national rugby union team, nicknamed the Wallabies, is the representative men's national team in the sport of rugby union for Australia. The Wallabies first played at Sydney in 1899, winning their first Test match (rugby u ...

, commonly known as the Wallabies. Thus, he became the second

Indigenous Indigenous may refer to: *Indigenous peoples *Indigenous (ecology) In biogeography, a native species is indigenous to a given region or ecosystem if its presence in that region is the result of only local natural evolution (though often populari ...

player to represent Australia. April 2009 (34) Hearsay, The Journal of the Bar Association of Queensland Retrieved 4 March 2017. He played 10 rugby union matches for Queensland against Fiji, France and the

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

"All Blacks" while studying law at the

University of Queensland The University of Queensland is a Public university, public research university located primarily in Brisbane, the capital city of the Australian state of Queensland. Founded in 1909 by the Queensland parliament, UQ is one of the six sandstone ...

. He then played two Test matches for the Wallabies against the All Blacks in 1962. He refused to participate in a 1963 tour to South Africa, objecting to being classified by the host as an "honorary white" (the only basis on which he could compete against the all-white South African Springbok team under South Africa's

regime). He returned briefly to

rugby league Rugby league football, commonly known as rugby league in English-speaking countries and rugby 13/XIII in non-Anglophone Europe, is a contact sport, full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular Rugby league playin ...

, playing for the Wynnum Manly club in 1964. He was the second Aboriginal person to represent his country in rugby union, after Cec Ramalli.

Law

Lloyd Clive McDermott became Australia's first

barrister. After graduating in law, he worked in the Commonwealth Deputy Crown Solicitor's Office, and was then admitted as a barrister in

New South Wales New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a States and territories of Australia, state on the Eastern states of Australia, east coast of :Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria (state), Victoria to the south, and South ...

. He also completed degrees in

science Science is a systematic discipline that builds and organises knowledge in the form of testable hypotheses and predictions about the universe. Modern science is typically divided into twoor threemajor branches: the natural sciences, which stu ...

and

criminology Criminology (from Latin , 'accusation', and Ancient Greek , ''-logia'', from λόγος ''logos'', 'word, reason') is the interdisciplinary study of crime and deviant behaviour. Criminology is a multidisciplinary field in both the behaviou ...

from the

University of Sydney The University of Sydney (USYD) is a public university, public research university in Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in both Australia and Oceania. One of Australia's six sandstone universities, it was one of the ...

and the

University of New South Wales The University of New South Wales (UNSW) is a public research university based in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It was established in 1949. The university comprises seven faculties, through which it offers bachelor's, master's and docto ...

. In later years he practised part-time at the bar, mainly in crime and appellate work. Also a part-time member of the

Mental Health Mental health is often mistakenly equated with the absence of mental illness. However, mental health refers to a person's overall emotional, psychological, and social well-being. It influences how individuals think, feel, and behave, and how t ...

Tribunal of New South Wales, he was also a trustee of the New South Wales Bar Association Indigenous Lawyers' Trust.

Community service

Throughout his career, McDermott gave time and energy to promoting opportunities for Indigenous youth, male and female, as founder of the Lloyd McDermott Sports Foundation. In association with the Australian Sports Foundation, the Lloyd McDermott Rugby Development Team works with young people to achieve their dreams through development camps, educational scholarships and mentoring. The team holds camps, training sessions and competitions in association with the

National Centre of Indigenous Excellence The Indigenous Land and Sea Corporation (ILSC) is an Australian federal government statutory authority with national responsibilities to assist Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to acquire land and to manage assets to achieve cultura ...

(NCIE). He also served as an Ambassador for Indigenous Fund of the

Brisbane Boys College Brisbane Boys' College (BBC) is an independent, Presbyterian and Uniting Church, day and boarding school for boys, located in Toowong, a suburb of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.

Personal life

McDermott had a single daughter, Phillipa McDermott, and a love of Jazz, Motown, and R&B music.

Recognition and legacy

In 2009, at the Bar Association of Queensland Annual Conference, a highlight was the launch of the Mullenjaiwakka Trust for Indigenous Legal Students, named in honour of McDermott (Mullenjaiwakka). The Trust was established to assist Indigenous law students towards a career at the bar. In 2016, McDermott was a recipient of the

Queensland Greats Awards The Queensland Greats Awards recognise outstanding Queenslanders for their years of dedication and contribution to the development of the state and their role in strengthening and shaping the community in Queensland Queensland ( , common ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:McDermott, Lloyd 1939 births 2019 deaths People educated at Anglican Church Grammar School University of Queensland alumni 20th-century Australian lawyers Australia international rugby union players Rugby union wings Indigenous Australian rugby union players Rugby union and apartheid Queensland Greats Rugby union players from Queensland 21st-century Australian lawyers Australian barristers People from Wide Bay–Burnett University of Queensland Rugby Club players Australian rugby union players Queensland rugby union team players 20th-century Australian sportsmen