From when Australian Football was first played in 1858 until the middle of the 1886 season, umpires used their voices to control matches. During that period, the concept of stopping play by blowing a whistle had not been considered.
On 5th June 1886 Jack Trait, who lived in Geelong, shared the honour with Joe Shaw of becoming one of the first field
umpires ever to use a whistle. He had imported the device from England. The match, at the Brunswick Street Oval, was contested by Fitzroy and Carlton. On the same afternoon, Shaw officiated in a Melbourne-Essendon encounter at the MCG. Initially, the whistle was blown to signal that the ball had gone out of bounds. In those days, there were no boundary umpires.
Trait umpired 192 VFA matches from 1882 until 1894, as well as a number of intercolonial fixtures, and exhibition matches played outside Victoria. Prior to his umpiring career, he was a team-mate of Charles Brownlow at North Geelong Football Club, who played its home matches at the current East Geelong F.C. headquarters. He used his whistle in at least 154 matches.
Jim D’Helin was Geelong’s leading goalscorer in 1896, until a serious leg injury ended his playing days. He took up umpiring in the local competition, probably with the encouragement of Jack Trait, who presented him with the historic whistle. Jim then graduated to senior match level and officiated in 81 League matches from 1900 until 1905.
We could estimate that the whistle, made of ebony rather than metal, would have been used in close to 300 matches, at both local and senior level.
As well as clearly being the oldest whistle used in Australian Football, it may also be the earliest surviving sporting whistle in the world.
Article by Col Hutchinson, AFL Historian