MALE COMPETITOR IN TOODYAY WHEELBARROW RACE
A small coloured photo of top half of a young man, wearing a white singlet, and reclining in a grey metal wheelbarrow. Legs of 2 men in trousers behind him, left man holding a camera. Feet in joggers in top of photo.
Probably the Wowser James wheelbarrow race.
In 1935, Toodyay blacksmith Ernest Wesley 'Wowser' James rose to the challenge that he couldn't push local barber Frank Costello in a wheelbarrow around an unsealed 6.4km course. The course started and ended at the Victoria Hotel in Stirling Terrace, Toodyay. The contest drew in other competitors. The craze took off and was a feature event at the Toodyay Agricultural Show later that year.
In the early 1980s teams of three raced around a shorter (4.4km) route to raise funds for local organisations and the events proved popular with locals.
(ref: Toodyay Herald article by Ieva Tomsons, September 2017, p.15)
