Cricketing great Doug Walters honoured with home-town statue

A NEW statue honouring Australian cricket great Doug Walters was unveiled outside the Dungog Visitor Information Centre on Saturday.

The delivery of the statue was a joint effort between Dungog Shire Council and the Doug Walters Foundation.

The unveiling was well-attended by locals, with a number of Walters’ ex-teammates in town to reflect on an incredible career and character.

Born in Dungog in 1945, Walters made his Australian Test debut in 1965 aged 19.

In the 1968-69 Test against the West Indies, he became the first player to score a double hundred and a century in the same Test.

A member of the Cricket Australia Hall of Fame and Sport Australia Hall of Fame, Walters was also awarded an MBE and a Centenary Medal throughout his career.

Despite all of this success, Walters is proof that “you can take the boy out of Dungog but you can’t take Dungog out of the boy”.

“Doug has never forgotten where he’s from, he brings back some friends once a year to have a few drinks and to show them where he grew up,” said Dungog Mayor Digby Rayward.

Dungog Regional Tourism Chair Cam Archer told NOTA, “Doug is a Dungog icon, this statue will give another reason for people to come visit our town.”

Mr Walters was characteristically humble in his response to the statue.

“I didn’t play cricket for a statue,” he said, “but it’s a lovely thought.”

The ceremony featured performances by country music singers Matt Scullion and Greg Hayes, as well as MC and magician Phil Cornwall, a nod to Walters’ infamous love for magic tricks and pranks.

By Joseph RICHARDS