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Larry Corowa

Australian rugby league footballer

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
People and ideasInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionJun 18, 2026
Entity authorityQ6490127
Source-derived summary

Larry John Corowa MBE (born 5 August 1957 in Murwillumbah, New South Wales) is an Indigenous Australian former professional rugby league footballer who played in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s. An Australian international and New South Wales representative winger, he played club football at the Balmain Tigers for six seasons between 1978 and 1983, with two games for the Gold Coast Seagulls in the 1991 New South Wales Rugby League Premiership. Playing on the wing, Corowa became one of Rugby League's most prolific try scorers of his era. He is one of a select few players to have scored more than a try a game in a season of football in Australia.

He was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 1980 New Year Honours for service to sport.

Early life

Born on 5 August 1957, Corowa grew up in Tweed Heads, New South Wales, before moving to Canberra as a teenager to live with his uncle. He played rugby league at junior level while living in Tweed Heads, but gave up the sport after moving to Canberra until he was persuaded into a tryout with the Group 8 Rugby League club Woden Valley Rams in 1976.

Playing career

After a successful season with the Rams, Corowa signed with the Queanbeyan Kangaroos in 1977. He came into prominence later that year after a five-try performance while representing Monaro in their 33–12 win against the Great Britain national team. Along with Queanbeyan team-mate Percy Knight, Corowa was signed by Sydney-based club Balmain ahead of the 1978 season.

Editorial summary

This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Larry Corowa” as australian rugby league footballer. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.

Editorial reviewA useful biographical orientation record, particularly for establishing names, roles and a first chronology. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1957, 1978, 1983, 1991—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1957-08-05. The account is most persuasive where Larry, Corowa and Australian can be independently traced.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The subject matters to the people & ideas register because the source frames it as australian rugby league footballer. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.

Evidence profile

The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 18, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q6490127. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1957, 1978, 1983 and 1991.

Critical limits

Public reputation and documentary evidence do not always develop together; absence from a summary is not evidence of historical absence. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
Verify next

Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Larry Corowa”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Larry Corowa primary sources, Larry Corowa archive and Larry research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Larry Corowa”?
  2. How has the subject’s reputation changed across later accounts?
  3. Which primary records establish identity, chronology and institutional ties?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Larry Corowa” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.