Horseman Neale Lavis has unveiled a memorial at Bodalla before a group of about 40 friends dedicated to his Olympic gold medal achievement.
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Lavis represented Australia at the 1964 Olympics in Tokyo. In 1965 he moved to Braidwood and he has successfully bred and trained race horses.
He had grown up in the Bodalla area, honing his riding skills in the bush, doing stock work on horseback, playing polocrosse and competing in shows.
In 1957, Lavis rode his horse Bennelong to win the first three-day eventing competition ever held in Australia.
Eventing became his passion and his search for the right horses led him to the Cooma district, where he found Mirrabooka, a strong and intelligent brown gelding.
From 1957 to 1959, Lavis and Mirrabooka trained and competed, and in 1959 were selected for the Australian Olympic Team to compete in Rome.
The team of riders and horses sailed together to London in a cargo ship, where the horses exercised on the deck during the six-week journey.
In England prior to the Rome Olympic Games, Lavis and Mirrabooka had great success. They won several show-jumping events, were fourth at the Badminton Horse Trials and six weeks before the Games won the international Great Auckland Combined Training Event.
A week later, tragedy struck when Mirrabooka became lame. With only five weeks to the Olympics, Lavis had to train on his reserve horse, Adeli.
As the Olympics approached, the difficult choice of which horse to ride had to be made. Mirrabooka’s preparation had been interrupted, but Lavis chose him because of his gameness, courage and because he “would not give in”.
In the cross-country event they were 27th to start of 78 competitors and the first to jump a clear round. This placed the team in a wonderful position despite the dangerous track.
The team was doing well when Bill Roycroft and his horse fell on the cross-country course. He finished, but was injured and had to be hospitalised.
Australia had a chance of winning gold, but three riders needed to complete the entire event and Brian Crago’s horse, Sabre, was not fit to compete in the show-jumping phase.
Against doctor’s orders, Roycroft discharged himself from hospital and he and Lavis completed the show jumping round with no faults.
The Australian team won the gold medal.
As well as winning gold as a team, individuals also won their competitions.
Laurie Morgan, riding Salad Days, won individual gold, with Lavis and Mirrabooka winning silver.
This was only the second Olympic Games where Australia had an equestrian team competing and it set a precedent for future Australian representation.
Australian riders had conquered the world and proven to generations to come that anything was possible.
