In the rural Australia of the post-war years where Margaret Court grew up in Albury, the day was structured around four meals: 'breakfast' in the morning, 'smoko' (the tea-and-biscuit morning break), 'dinner' at midday, and 'tea' in the evening — the main family meal, often a roast. On Sundays, after church, a roast lamb brought the family together. The cooking was simple, generous, inherited from British settlers but reinvented with lamb, golden syrup, and coconut from the Commonwealth. For an athlete, these meals became a matter of discipline and energy.

“Australia has long lived on the sheep’s back.” Lamb is THE national meat: roasted on Sundays, flame-grilled on weekdays. For Margaret Court, a pioneer of women’s physical training, it was also the protein source that fueled her efforts. It is served with fresh mint and potatoes, never far from a teapot.