WHEN WAYNE MCLENNAN was growing up in the sleepy Australian mining town of Cessnock in the 1960’s, the most exciting event of the year was the arrival of the Agricultural Show and the most thrilling part of it was the boxing tent. Boxers would stand on a platform in front of a canvas mural, challenging the local men and boys to box, but also challenging their preconceptions about Aboriginals, who made up the majority of the tent boxers.
After many years of adventures overseas Wayne McLennan returned to Australia to find, to his delight, that a few boxing tents still existed. Using his own experience of boxing professionally, McLennan travelled the length of Queensland working with one of these boxing troupes as a driver, referee and roustabout; and in the process of finding out what makes a man fight for money, he ended up learning a lot about his countrymen
