The boy from Birdum
Subtitle: the Bill Dempsey story
By: Bill Dempsey with Steve Hawke
Publisher: Magabala Books
Published: 2021
Place of publication: Broome, Western Australia
Language: eng
Number of pages: 237
ISBN-13: 9781925936049; 9781925936063
Copyright date: 2021
Subjects: Australian football players; Biography; Aboriginal Australians; Retta Dixon Children's Home
Description: Bill Dempsey is a humble achiever. He is known primarily as a champion footballer with West Perth and the Darwin Buffaloes. A premiership captain who played over 400 games in 20 seasons in Perth and the Northern Territory, and a member of the AFL's Indigenous Team of the Century, his record and his achievements compare with the very best. He is revered as a true legend at West Perth. Bill has led a remarkable life. Born in the shadow of Japanese bombing raids in 1942. Forcibly removed from his mother after the death of his father and baby sister, he was a stolen child who never lost contact with his family and found a second family amongst his fellow inmates at the Retta Dixon Home. Brought to Perth at the age of seventeen as a 'spare wheel' to his mate Jim Anderson, he stayed on to become a football champion and a trailblazer as an Aboriginal entrepreneur throughout the 80s. In The Boy from Birdum, Bill tells his story frankly, courageously, and with the charismatic flair of a natural-born yarn spinner.