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Basil Sellers AM, (born 1935), grew up in the Railway Colonies in India, where he was introduced to badminton, tennis and cricket. He migrated with his family to Australia in 1948 and was educated at King's College, Adelaide.
Basil Sellers has been chief executive and major shareholder of companies such as the Linter Group Ltd, the largest textile company in Australia, and Gestetner PLC, then a UK listed company (now part of Ricoh). He has also held a major investment in AFP, which had various investments, including Elders Ltd (now Fosters Brewery), broadcast media and mineral resources.
In February 2018, Basil was awarded an Honorary Doctorate by Bond University in recognition of his charitable work, sports development and corporate acumen.
In early December 2023 Basil was awarded SCG Life Membership status for philanthropy. Basil is 1 of only 45 people with this honour. [1]
In sport, Basil played senior basketball, representing South Australia when the team won the Australian Championship in 1958. During the 1980s, he was the owner of the Newcastle Basketball team and, from 1984–87, a Director of the New South Wales Cricket Association (now Cricket New South Wales). He is a life member of Cricket NSW.
His major charities include the McGrath Foundation, where he is a major donor, financing the salaries of breast care nurses in Australia, he is a First XI patron of the Steve Waugh Foundation and a generous supporter of the Pick Me UP wheelchair service for the Sir Roden & Lady Cutler Foundation. He is a Patron of The LBW Trust, which raises funds for the education of over 800 disadvantaged youth in developing, cricket-playing countries. The LBW Trust enjoys the support of redoubtable figures across politics, business, sports and public life.
His donations to sporting initiatives and scholarships include the Barassi Scholarship, supporting new talent for the Sydney Swans and he is a major contributor to the Club's football centre at the SCG. [2]
He also assists initiatives that identify and support emerging talent in country NSW cricket. Some of his past and current scholars include Phillip Hughes, Steven Smith, Usman Khawaja, Mitchell Starc. Josh Hazlewood, Patrick Cummins, Nic Maddinson, Ellyse Perry, Alyssa Healy and Erin Osborne. He is a Life Member of Cricket NSW.
The scholarship helps ease the financial burden of up-and-coming cricketers, whether it be assisting with the cost of petrol travelling to and from training, equipment or helping with study.
With his brother Rex Sellers, he funded the reconstruction of a Pavilion for sport for Pembroke School at Kensington Oval in South Australia.
Basil is one of the founders of the Bradman Museum in Bowral, New South Wales and a life member of the Bradman Foundation. He funded a respite centre in Moruya for elite athletes from the Australian Institute of Sport, Canberra, and similar centres in Tweed Heads. (see link below)
The Basil Sellers Art Prize was founded in 2004 by Basil in the Eurobodalla Shire. [3] In 2018, the biennial prize was opened to include artists from NSW and ACT with the major prize increasing to $20,000.
February 2019 was the official opening of the Basil Sellers Exhibition Centre (the Bas) in Moruya, its first purpose-built exhibition space. [4]
Basil provided a significant donation for the exhibition space and it was named after him for his contribution to the Arts in Eurobodalla.
Basil has been recognised as a keen art collector and patron. Collecting for over 35 years, his collection contains Post War Australian art and many of the European modernists, with a particular interest in the Fauves (1906/7). Basil has also funded the bi-annual art prize of $15,000 in the South East of New South Wales.
In 2007, Basil Sellers launched the Basil Sellers Art Prize which was initiated in 2008, in association with the Ian Potter Museum of Art, the University of Melbourne. The first prize of $100,000 is awarded to an Australian who produces a piece of art which incorporates an image of sport. Basil believes that art in the past has reflected society (wars, religion, ballet, horses, etc.) but in recent years has ignored the vast influence of sport. The award bridges the gulf which exists and connects art and sport and is bi-annual.
In 2009, Basil's philanthropic support also gave rise to the inaugural National Sports Museum Basil Sellers Creative Arts Fellowship. This important initiative provides contemporary art practitioners with a unique opportunity to engage with the material and culture of our national sporting heritage through the collections managed by the National Sports Museum at the MCG. This bi-annual fellowship will increase the range and type of educational and public programs, and stimulate debate about sport and art.
He has recently concluded the Basil Sellers Sports Sculpture Project of ten sculptures erected at the Sydney Cricket Ground. The sculptures are of four Cricket, two Rugby League, two Rugby Union and two Australian Football icons. He is currently the benefactor of a similar project for the Adelaide which consists of four Cricket and four Australian football icons of South Australia at the Adelaide Oval.
Basil's philanthropy extends to his birthplace, India. He funded the purchase of a property in Chennai for the education of young girls from the slums. With the additional features from the new property ANEW was able to graduate 1000 students per year and find them all full-time employment.
Basil is involved in the promotion and investment of winery. He is a major sponsor of the Len Evans Tutorial that aims to improve the quality of Australian wines by training and giving access to the world's best wines. The Tutorial is aimed at wine judges winemakers and sommeliers.
Basil is a Patron of the LBW Trust which provides education to disadvantaged students in low income cricket playing nations, and is also a Patron of the Chappell Foundation which seeks to help young homeless people in Australia.
Basil is married to Clare and has three children from his first marriage, Paul, Darrell and Libby, and has four grandchildren.
Basil's only sibling Rex Sellers, who was a Test cricketer for Australia lives in Adelaide with his wife Ann and has 3 children and 7 grandchildren.
Eurobodalla National Park is a non-contiguous national park in New South Wales, Australia, 268 km southwest of Sydney spanning from Moruya Heads to Tilba Tilba Lake, 12 km south of Narooma. The park forms part of the Ulladulla to Merimbula Important Bird Area, identified as such by BirdLife International because of its importance for swift parrots.
Moruya is a town located on the far south coast of New South Wales, Australia, situated on the Moruya River. The Princes Highway runs through the town that is about 305 km (190 mi) south of Sydney and 175 km (109 mi) from Canberra. At the 2021 census, Moruya had a population of 4,295. Its built-up area had a population of 2,762. The town relies predominantly on agriculture, aquaculture, and tourism. Moruya is administered by the Eurobodalla Shire Council and the shire chambers are located in the town.
William Joseph O'Reilly was an Australian cricketer, rated as one of the greatest bowlers in the history of the game. Following his retirement from playing, he became a well-respected cricket writer and broadcaster.
Batemans Bay is a town on the South Coast region of the state of New South Wales, Australia. Batemans Bay is administered by the Eurobodalla Shire council. The town is situated on the shores of an estuary formed where the Clyde River meets the southern Pacific Ocean.
Eurobodalla Shire is a local government area located in the South Coast region of New South Wales, Australia. The Shire is located in a largely mountainous coastal region and situated adjacent to the Tasman Sea, the Princes Highway and the Kings Highway.
The Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG) is a sports stadium in the Moore Park suburb of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It is used for Test, One Day International and Twenty20 cricket, as well as, Australian rules football and occasionally for rugby league, rugby union and association football. It is the home ground for the New South Wales Blues cricket team, the Sydney Sixers of the Big Bash League and the Sydney Swans of the Australian Football League. It is owned and operated by Venues NSW, an agency of the Government of New South Wales who also hold responsibility for Stadium Australia and the Sydney Football Stadium.
Wendy Sharpe is an Australian artist who lives and works in Sydney and Paris. She has held over 70 solo exhibitions nationally and internationally, been awarded many national awards and artist residencies for her work, and was an official Australian War Artist to East Timor in 1999–2000.
Mogo is a small heritage town in the South Coast region of the state of New South Wales, Australia. Mogo is administered by the Eurobodalla Shire council. The town is located on the Princes Highway, south of Batemans Bay and north of Moruya. At the 2016 census, Mogo had a population of 322.
Robert Lyall "Alfie" Hannaford, is an Australian realist artist notable for his drawings, paintings, portraits and sculptures. He is a great-great-great-grandson of Susannah Hannaford.
Reginald Hugh Durning Sellers is a former Test cricketer. He was the second Indian-born cricketer to have played a Test match for Australia.
Bodalla is a small town on the South Coast of New South Wales, Australia, and located in the local government area of Eurobodalla Shire. The town sits on the Princes Highway, and is connected by road to Moruya, Narooma, Nerrigundah, Eurobodalla and Potato Point.
Moruya Airport is an airport located 3.5 NM northeast of Moruya, New South Wales, Australia, at the mouth of the Moruya River. It is one of two airports with regular passenger flights in the state's South Coast region, but also caters to general aviation and tourism operators, as well as emergency services.
Desiderius Orban, was a renowned Hungarian painter, printmaker and teacher, who, after emigrating to Australia in 1939 when in his mid-50s, also made an illustrious career in that country.
The Basil Sellers Art Prize is a long-term project, with biennial awards. The exhibit tours by collaboration of the Ian Potter Museum of Art, the University of Melbourne, and NETS Victoria. It is aimed at changing Australian's perception and enjoyment of art and sport.
Basil Hadley was an English Australian printmaker and painter. His works are represented in National and State public galleries around Australia and in various private collections.
Terrance Kippax Plowright is an Australian artist, based in the Blue Mountains of New South Wales. His works include contemporary and figurative sculptures. He has designed and created large public sculptural water features and murals, substantial public cenotaphs, commemorative cast bronze sculptures, and a large body of religious and spiritual work that includes stained glass windows, altars, lecterns, baptismal fonts and mosaics.
Congo is a village in Eurobodalla Shire on the South Coast of New South Wales. Congo is located 315 km south of Sydney, and 10 km south of Moruya.
The Abernethy and Co Stonemason's Lathe is a heritage-listed former stonemason's lathe located at Moruya and District Historical Society, 85 Campbell Street, Moruya in the Eurobodalla Shire local government area of New South Wales, Australia. It was built during 1881 by J. Abernethy & Co, Aberdeen. The property is owned by the Office of Environment and Heritage, an agency of the Government of New South Wales. It was added to the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 2 April 1999.
Mona Hessing (1933–2001) was an Australian fibre artist and weaver. She was also known as Mona Johnston. Hessing has been described as having made a 'very significant contribution from the late 1960s into the 1980s to the development of weaving as monumental public sculpture'.
Dr Michael Joseph Holland is an Australian politician and former obstetrician in southern NSW. He is a member of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) and was elected at the 2022 Bega state by-election for the New South Wales Legislative Assembly.
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