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Boxer fights from grave for prize purses

By Mark Oberhardt

12 March 2003 - Relatives of an Aboriginal boxer of the 1940s and ‘50s are suing the State Government for $18 million in “stolen wages”.

They claim Elley Bennett, who won 40 fights by knockout, earned a fortune as a boxer but died a pauper after his money was apparently dissipated by a government agency supposedly protecting him.

In the Supreme Court in Brisbane yesterday, Bennett’s descendants filed a writ against the Queensland Public Trustee and State Government claiming more than $18 million.

The figure was reached on an assessment of the £12,000 they say Bennett earned - at current monetary value - plus interest for up to 55 years.

The Courier-Mail first highlighted the mystery of Bennett’s missing money in 1991.

His cousin John Dalungdalee Jones spent years putting together an 83-page claim on behalf of the beneficiaries of Bennett’s estate but said the court action had far wider ramifications for thousands of other Queensland Aborigines.

Mr Jones said the Bennett case would be a landmark case for others wanting inheritances for work done by their relatives.

He claimed millions of dollars was owed to the descendants of Aborigines whose pay was put into the Aborigines Welfare Fund.

“We are going to deliver a knock-out blow to the Government because they have no defence to the claim,” he said.

Mr Jones said Premier Peter Beattie had said he had put aside $50 million of public money to pay Aborigines with legitimate claims.

However, he said only $2000 to $4000 would be paid per person.

“We are not after public money,” Mr Jones said.

“We are after what is rightfully ours from money earned by our relatives and put into trust.”

Bennett’s money apparently disappeared into the Aborigines Welfare Fund which was the subject of a year-long state government inquiry a decade ago.

Aboriginal Affairs Minister Judy Spence said individuals had a right to bring their cases before the courts, but said it was the government’s role to defend the taxpayer’s dollar.

Ms Spence said there was little benefit in her commenting specifically on this case.

Born in Cherbourg, in the South Burnett region, Bennett was among the biggest money-earners in boxing for eight years until he retired at 31 in 1954.

He had 59 professional bouts, including 40 knockout wins.

He was Australian bantamweight champion and then featherweight champion between 1948 and 1954.

He was at one stage also the No. 1 contender for the world bantamweight title.

One of his few defeats was at the hands of Jimmy Carruthers who later won a world title.

A colour ban stopped Bennett from going to South Africa to fight Vic Toweel, from whom Carruthers won the world title.

Newspaper clippings at the time quoted his trainer Snowy Hill and state government ministers assuring the public Bennett would be financially secure when he retired.

However, Bennett spent years without a job and was a regular before Brisbane Magistrate’s Courts on a series of street offences such as vagrancy and drunkenness.

He died of pneumonia in 1981, aged 55, and was buried in a Bundaberg cemetery.

Most of the money earned by Queensland Aborigines from 1884, including Bennett’s winnings, was paid into the state Aborigines Welfare Fund.

There are no records to show if Bennett received any of his prizemoney after he retired.

Source:Courier Mail

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