The Stawell Gift, one of Australia’s more peculiar sporting traditions, is held each year during Easter at Central Park in the small town of Stawell in western Victoria. Though the ground shares its name with the green hub in the middle of Manhattan, it is not often confused with it.
New York’s version has been made famous by literature, film and television. There are the scenes from Ghostbusters. References in The Catcher in the Rye. Countless glimpses in Seinfeld, or Sex and the City. Stawell’s alternative does not enjoy the same status within international culture. But for a moment over the Easter weekend it did at least enjoy the world athletics spotlight.
