A talk by Marc Rerceretnam
Where: Marrickville Library and Pavilion, Patyegarang Place, Marrickville Road, Marrickville
When: Saturday 26 April 2025, 10.15am for 10.30am start
In the 1860s, it was highly unusual for women to partake in a large public, competitive sporting event. However, Marc has uncovered a series of formal women-only cycle racing competitions that took place between July and November 1869.
These women challenged an oppressive patriarchy by taking part in such unorthodox events. For wealthy, upper-class women it was a defiant show of their own status, female identities and individualism.
Marc will talk about these races and look at the hostility from pro-establishment voices to activities like this, which deviated from social ‘norms’.
One woman racer, Maybanke Anderson (1845-1927), helped found the Womanhood Suffrage League of New South Wales two and a half decades later in 1891. (See our story ‘The three Golding sisters’.)
Marc Rerceretnam is a Sydney-based historian and research consultant. He has a PhD (Economic History) from Sydney University.
Marc has published extensively on Singaporean colonial history, including the role of religion within colonial society. He has also written about the history of cycling in Australia, particularly New South Wales.
He will publish a book on the 200-year history of cycling in Sydney titled Sydney’s Cycling Communities: Pioneers and Unsung Heroes of its Cycling Past 1830s–2020s in May/June 2025.
Marc received a 2019 Research Fellowship, issued by the National Library Board, Singapore. He was also a recipient of a History Grant from the Inner West Council in 2018 and again in 2024.
Marrickville Heritage Society 