Harry Walter Mosby (3 May 1945 – 17 November 1993), also known as Harry Moseby, is an Australian Paralympic athlete from the

Torres Strait The Torres Strait (), also known as Zenadh Kes, is a strait between Australia and the Melanesian island of New Guinea. It is wide at its narrowest extent. To the south is Cape York Peninsula, the northernmost extremity of the Australian mai ...

. At the 1976 Toronto Games, he won a silver medal in the Men's Discus 1C event and finished fourth in the Men's Javelin C1, fifth in the Men's Shot Put C1 and twelfth in the Men's Precision Javelin C1. Mosby was born on Yorke Island, or Masig, in the Torres Strait. He was the eldest son of Jack Johnson Mosby (10 June 1910 - 25 October 2001) and Mabel (Alau) Mosby (4 April 1929 - 26 October 1986). In the 1960s, along with many other Torres Strait Islander men, he travelled to Western Australia to work on building the inland railway between remote desert mines in the Pilbara region and ports on the coast. In 1966, aged 21, he lost both legs in a train accident in the

Pilbara The Pilbara () is a large, dry, thinly populated region in the north of Western Australia. It is known for its Aboriginal peoples; its ancient landscapes; the red earth; and its vast mineral deposits, in particular iron ore. It is also a glo ...

. During four years of rehabilitation and occupational therapy in Perth, Mosby was introduced to sport, and participated in various events at

Royal Perth Hospital Royal Perth Hospital (RPH) is a 450-bed adult and teaching hospital located on the northeastern edge of the central business district of Perth, Western Australia. History The hospital traces its history back to the first colonial hospital, whi ...

sports days from 1966 to 1969. He won the

Dartchery Dartchery (a combination of darts and archery which uses a dart board instead of a standard archery target) was contested at the Summer Paralympic Games from 1960 to 1980. Competitions were carried out in pairs: mixed pairs from 1960 to 1980, and ...

doubles champion in 1966 (with J. Pearson); 1967 (with D. Haddon); and 1969 (with T. Neville). Also in 1966, he was the archery champion in the St Nicholas round. Mosby also began playing

wheelchair basketball Wheelchair basketball is basketball played by people with varying physical disabilities that disqualify them from playing a non-disabled sport. These include spina bifida, birth defects, cerebral palsy, paralysis due to accident, amputations (of ...

in Perth. As a member of the Blue Jays team in the basketball grand final in 1973, he was awarded the JM Saunders trophy for fairest and best player. Less than a year before the 1976 Toronto Games in Toronto, Canada, Mosby began training for track and field events in Perth and was selected for the Australian team. He was one of 6 competitors and coaches from Western Australia in those Games: wheelchair basketballers

Frank Ponta Francis Ettore Ponta (8 November 1935 – 1 June 2011) was an Australian Paralympic competitor and coach. He competed in several sports including basketball, pentathlon, swimming and fencing. A paraplegic, he lost the use of both his legs aft ...

and Victor Salvemini and their coach and team escort, Les Mathews from Wheelchair Sports Western Australia, and

Doug Rupe Doug Rupe is an Australian Paralympic athletics silver medalist. He competed at the 1976 Toronto Games in three athletics events. He won a silver medal in the Men's High Jump A. References Paralympic athletes for Australia Athlete ...

and

Paul Gianni Paul Gianni is an Australian Paralympic athlete. He was a B-classified competitor at the 1976 Summer Paralympics The 1976 Summer Paralympics (french: Jeux paralympiques d'été de 1976), branded as Torontolympiad – 1976 Olympiad for the P ...

representing visually impaired athletes. Mosby’s teammate Frank Ponta recalled him as a “Thursday Islander” and a “big tall man” competing in Toronto against “Scandinavian guys who were even bigger than him”. Mosby remembered the winner, Finland’s Tauno Mannila, and expressed surprise that he’d placed second after only three months of training. After the Games, Mosby returned to the Torres Strait. He lived on

Thursday Island Thursday Island, colloquially known as TI, or in the Kawrareg dialect, Waiben or Waibene, is an island of the Torres Strait Islands, an archipelago of at least 274 small islands in the Torres Strait. TI is located approximately north of Cape ...

for the rest of his life, and was well known as a taxi driver. He was celebrated locally in 1993 as one of only three Thursday Islanders to win a medal in international sporting competition; the others were artistic gymnast

Kylie Shadbolt Kylie Shadbolt (born 8 November 1972) is an Australian artistic gymnast. Shadbolt competed at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona in the individual and team A team is a group of individuals (human or non-human) working together to achie ...

, whose parents ran the Grand Hotel, and Olympic basketballer

Danny Morseu Danny Morseu (born 1 January 1958) is an Australian basketball player who played on the Australian national basketball team in the 1980 Summer Olympics and 1984 Summer Olympics. International career Morseu played for the Australian team at th ...

References

External links

*Gary Osmond
Harry Walter Mosby
in Australian Dictionary of Biography, Canberra, The Dictionary, 2022. {{DEFAULTSORT:Moseby, Harry Paralympic athletes for Australia Paralympic silver medalists for Australia Athletes (track and field) at the 1976 Summer Paralympics Medalists at the 1976 Summer Paralympics 1945 births Indigenous Australian Paralympians Torres Strait Islanders Australian taxi drivers 1993 deaths Paralympic medalists in athletics (track and field) Australian male discus throwers Australian male javelin throwers Australian male shot putters Paralympic discus throwers Paralympic javelin throwers Paralympic shot putters Wheelchair discus throwers Wheelchair javelin throwers Wheelchair shot putters