Author(s): Richard Travers

Tasmaniana Bargains

'Real Tennis in Hobart - The Pioneers' provides extensive source material about the introduction of real (or royal) tennis to Australia. Samuel Smith Travers came from England with his family in 1870 and built the tennis court in Davey St, Hobart in 1874. He published A Treatise on Tennis in 1875. Thomas Stone, also from England, was the first tennis professional. Accounts of these two people are followed by a list of about 1600 people who visited the court during the first decade of its existence. Lastly there are the shipboard diaries of three voyages from England to Australia; that of Louisa Travers (1870), Thomas Stone (1874) and Gertrude Stone (1876).