Trugo is Melbourne’s own working-class sport.

The game was invented around 100 years ago in the Newport Railway Workshops. Railway workers took to hitting rubber buffer rings around their workshops.

Today, Trugo involves hitting a rubber ring between your legs and down a grassy pitch. Players score points by guiding the ring through goals that are five feet and nine inches wide—the same width as Victorian rail gauge (plus the rails).

Around 100 players across nine clubs compete in a light-hearted annual competition. Attracting enough new players remains an existential threat to what must be one of the world’s smallest sporting codes.

Despite the challenges, the sport’s continued existence is a beautiful piece of living cultural heritage. Trugo stands as a tribute to the working-class history of Melbourne’s inner and western suburbs.

Biography

Jesse Thompson is a photographer renowned for his intelligence, modesty and his self-authored artist bios. His work spans commercial and documentary photography and often centres around long-term projects informed by detailed research.

Instagram: @thompson__jesse

Website: jessethompsonphotographer.com