Aunty Faith Thomas: The trailblazer's unlikely journey to Ashes

The momentum built by women's cricket through the Australia-England rivalry of the 1930s understandably stalled in the immediate aftermath of World War Two, with the 1957-58 Ashes series the first in almost seven years.

But that campaign – after Australia won the notional trophy at home in 1948-49 and successfully defended it in the UK in 1951 – is notable for another significant first.

Renowned as the fastest bowler the women's game had seen, then 24-year-old Faith Coulthard (later Faith Thomas) made history as well as headlines when she became the first Indigenous woman selected for an Australia sporting team.

Thomas's journey to international cricket was as unlikely as it was unprecedented.

Born at Nepabunna on the traditional land of the Adnyamathanha people (600km north of Adelaide) – with her birth name Tinnipha – at age three months she was relocated to the Colebrook Children's Home at Quorn, almost 300km away.

"Mum did not abandon me," she told Test spin bowler turned author Ashley Mallett late in her life.

"There was no support for her at that time.

"A single woman, Mum had just given birth and her only way of earning a living was working in hotel kitchens."

It was during her childhood at Colebrook – an institution established to raise and educate children 'in a Christian environment' – that Thomas was introduced to a rudimentary form of cricket.

Scant resources meant stones and offcuts of wood substituted for balls and bats, while the future fast bowler's arm strength and aim were honed by the favoured kids' pastime or hurling rocks at the galahs that would settle in overhead tree branches along a dusty creek bed.

It was after she relocated to Adelaide to complete secondary schooling and then undertake nursing studies in the post-war years when she was introduced to competitive cricket as well as hockey, and quickly showed an aptitude for both sports.

Bowling off a run-up of a few paces, the young novice generated remarkable speed, claiming a hat-trick in her maiden season with club team Windsor and returning figures of 6-0 in a game against Adelaide Teachers College.

It was around that time Thomas came to the attention of ex-Australia men's Test captain – and grandfather of future skippers Ian and Greg Chappell – Vic Richardson, who advised her to lengthen her run up in order to place less stress on her body and potentially bowl even faster.

She earned a place in the South Australia team after just three senior games and, in the summer of 1955-56, captured the remarkable figures of 9-15 against a touring New Zealand team which put her on the radar of Australia's national selectors.

In early 1957, the same time Thomas offered her nursing services to help deliver food and medical services to isolated Indigenous communities in the Warburton-Rawlinson region of central WA, she was named in a squad of 32 from which Australia's women's team would be selected for the following summer's England visit.

Led by captain Mary Duggan, that England touring party of 1957-58 undertook a round of tours games in Goulburn and Bathurst before a lengthy stint in Brisbane prior to the first 'Test' in Sydney.

It was during one of those warm-up games against an Australia XI that Faith Thomas completed what she forever regarded as her favourite cricket moment.

Bowling at a velocity not previously encountered by England's batters despite her abbreviated run-up, Thomas knocked rival skipper Duggan's middle stump out of the ground and sent it cartwheeling towards the Australia XI wicketkeeper.

"All (Duggan) did was sit on the pitch and laugh her head off," Thomas recalled of that moment that was immortalised in a newspaper photograph that labelled flying stumps and bails as if a courtroom exhibit.

"She said, 'I've never seen that happen.' The wicketkeeper had caught the bail."

Thomas would have been unleashed against England in the opening 'Test' at Sydney University Oval if the city's forever fickle summer weather had not forced the game's abandonment without a ball bowled.

Rain also dogged the second international at Melbourne's Junction Oval with the opening day washed out, but when play got underway on day two Thomas became the 48th woman to play cricket for Australia and the first of Aboriginal heritage.

She would doubtless have proved a handful on the damp Junction Oval had her team taken first use, but instead they were sent into bat and rolled for 38 with Duggan claiming 7-6 from almost 15 overs of left-arm spin.

When it was Australia's turn to bowl later that day, star all-rounder Betty Wilson dominated so completely with 7-7 – including the first hat-trick in women's 'Tests' from her off-spin – that Thomas wasn't required to bowl.

Nor was she needed with the bat in Australia's second innings after Wilson (then aged 37) posted a remarkable century before becoming the first international player – male or female – to score a hundred and take 10 wickets in the same match.

Thomas finally took the ball in England's second innings, bowling six overs (0-11) as the visitors held on for a draw and she was overlooked for the starting line-up in the final two 'Tests' at Adelaide Oval and the WACA Ground in Perth.

Faith Thomas did not play for Australia again, despite being in contention for subsequent women's tours to NZ and England.

But the prospect of spending five weeks aboard a boat to reach the UK convinced her to call time on her international career, though she did wave goodbye to her teammates as they embarked on their sea journeys.

"I'm an old desert person," she later said, citing her reason for also avoiding the shorter but notoriously rough Tasman Sea crossing.

Thomas continued to play club cricket in Adelaide amid her nursing career, but eventually gave the game away in 1960 aged 27 and eight months pregnant, having requested opposition bowlers to not "hit me on the belly".

"I always say that I hold two records," she said prior to her passing in 2023 aged 90.

"I think I'm still the fastest woman bowler ever.

"And I think I also might have been the biggest flash in the pan ever."

The rivalry resumes with a blockbuster series in Australia from Jan 12 - Feb 2. Learn about the remarkable 90-year history at the Women's Ashes Hub