History of sport in Australia facts for kids
The history of sport in Australia goes back to before European settlers arrived. Sport has always been a big part of Australian life, changing and growing over hundreds of years.
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Early Days of Sport (Before 1800s)
When the First Fleet arrived in Australia in 1788, they brought their favorite sports with them. These included horse racing, cricket, boxing, and even sports with animals like cockfighting. Even though the first settlers were busy just trying to survive, they still loved their sports. Important early figures like Lieutenant George Johnston and Captain Piper were involved in horse racing.
For Aboriginal people, sport was different. It wasn't separate from daily life like it was for the British. Hunting and tracking were both work and fun. Aboriginal sports included wrestling, spear-throwing, pretend fights, and different types of football using possum-skin balls. Many Aboriginal people who lived near the coast were also very good at swimming, fishing, and canoeing.
Sport Grows (1800s)
Organized sport really started in Australia around 1810 with the first athletics event. Soon after, cricket, horse racing, and sailing clubs began. At first, different social classes played sports differently. Working-class people often played on public holidays, while wealthier people played more regularly. Sydney was an early center for sport, with early forms of football played there by 1829.
In 1835, the British Parliament banned some "blood sports" (like cockfighting), which upset many working-class Australians. By the late 1830s, horse racing was popular across all social classes, and gambling became a part of it. The first horse race in Victoria happened in 1840. The Melbourne Cricket Club was founded in 1838. Sport helped bring different social groups together during these years.
Regular sports competitions started in New South Wales by 1850 with an early form of Rugby. Soon after, Queensland had Rugby, and Victoria had Victorian rules football. Victorian rules football (now called Australian rules football) got its official rules in 1859. Some of the Australian football clubs still playing today were started by 1858. The Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG), Australia's biggest sports stadium, opened in 1853.
The famous Melbourne Cup horse race was first run in 1861. A rugby union team started at the University of Sydney in 1864. Organized sport didn't really take off in South Australia, Tasmania, and Western Australia until the late 1860s and early 1870s. In Western Australia, Rugby Union was popular first, but then Australian Rules football became more favored.
The first Australian cricket team to tour another country was an all-Aboriginal team in 1868. They played 47 games in England, winning 14, drawing 19, and losing 14.
By 1870, sport was such a big part of Australian life that a writer named Anthony Trollope said Australians loved sports almost as much as they loved their homes.
Soccer started in Australia in the 1870s, with the first official team, the Wanderers, forming in Sydney in 1880. Newspapers began covering sports by 1876.
In 1877, Australia played England in the first-ever Test Cricket match. In 1882, The Ashes cricket series began after Australia beat England. Men's and women's field hockey teams were created by 1890. The Sheffield Shield cricket competition started in 1891 with New South Wales, Victoria, and South Australia. Other states joined much later.
Interstate matches in Australian rules football began in 1879 between Victoria and South Australia. These games were very important because they showed which state had the best players and league. A national carnival was held every five years. These interstate matches continued until 1999. In 1897, the Victorian Football League (VFL), which later became the AFL, was founded.
New Century, New Sports (1900s)
Basketball was first played in Adelaide in 1900. The first badminton competition in Australia also happened in 1900. In 1905, the first tennis Australasian Championships took place in Melbourne.
The first recorded ice hockey game in Australia was on July 17, 1906, in Melbourne. It was between a Victorian team and American sailors from a visiting warship. The game was a 1-1 tie. The first Australian ice hockey association, the Victorian Amateur Ice Hockey Association (VAIHA), was formed in 1908.
The first interstate ice hockey championship was held in 1909 between Victoria and New South Wales. Victoria won the series. A 16-year-old named John Edwin Goodall donated the Goodall Cup for this series. The Goodall Cup is the oldest ice hockey trophy outside of North America.
In 1907-1908, a New Zealand rugby team toured Australia. Because they made a profit, the New Zealand Rugby Union banned the players for life. This led to the creation of the New South Wales Rugby League in 1907. Many players joined the new rugby league competition in 1908 because they were unhappy with how the amateur Rugby Union treated them. The national team was nicknamed the Kangaroos.
The Australia national rugby union team played their first international game in 1903. They won a gold medal at the 1908 London Olympics.
The first recorded ice hockey game for women in Australia was on August 31, 1908, in Melbourne.
Sport Through the Wars (1910s - 1940s)
In 1910, the Great Britain rugby league team toured Australia and New Zealand and won the Ashes against Australia.
Australian women first competed at the Olympics in 1912. Surfing became popular in Australia by 1915, and the first surf-life saving competition was held that year.
Les Darcy started his boxing career in 1915. He became very popular. When he died young in the United States, 100,000 people attended his funeral in Sydney.
World War I greatly affected Australian sport. Many athletes joined the army. For example, only four clubs played in the 1916 VFL season. Some clubs even changed their colors to show their patriotism.
In 1922, a group in Australia looked into how physical education could help girls. They suggested which sports were good for girls based on how much fitness was needed. They thought swimming, rowing, cycling, and horseback riding were good for all girls if not too competitive. Some sports like tennis, netball, and hockey were okay for most, but football was seen as not suitable for girls.
The first interstate women's ice hockey championship was held in August 1922 between New South Wales and Victoria. New South Wales won.
In 1924, the Australian Rugby League Board of Control was formed to manage the national team (the Kangaroos). In 1928, the Kangaroos started using the national colors of green and gold.
In 1927, the tennis Australasian Championships became the Australian Championships. Netball Australia was founded in 1927.
In the 1930s, playing sport on Sunday was banned in most parts of Australia, except South Australia. Rugby league became more popular than rugby union in Queensland during this time.
The famous Bodyline cricket series between Australia and England happened in 1932–1933. The English team used a very aggressive bowling style to try and beat Australian batter Donald Bradman. This style was so intense that Australians thought about stopping the series.
The famous racehorse Phar Lap died in the United States after a successful racing career in Australia. Many people believed he was poisoned.
After World War II, Australian women's sports were in a good position. Their organizations had stayed strong and held competitions during the war. This helped them continue to grow after the war, unlike in some other parts of the world.
On Boxing Day in 1945, the first Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race began. Rani won the first race. In September 1949, Australian Canoeing was founded.
Golden Era and Growth (1950s - 1970s)
The Australian Davis Cup team had a very successful 1950s, winning the cup eight times.
In 1956, Melbourne hosted the 1956 Summer Olympics. The Melbourne Cricket Ground was the main stadium. Australia finished third in medals. At these games, Betty Cuthbert won three gold medals in running, and Murray Rose won three gold medals in swimming.
Between 1956 and 1966, the St. George Dragons rugby league team set a record by winning eleven straight championships.
Australia sent an ice hockey team to the 1960 Winter Olympics. By the 1960s, Australia was known worldwide as a country obsessed with sport. In 1962, Sports Illustrated magazine even called Australia the most sports-obsessed country.
In 1962, Rod Laver became only the second male tennis player to win the Grand Slam (winning all four major tournaments in one year). He did it again in 1969, making him the only player to do it twice. He won 200 singles titles in his career. The 1969 Australian Open was the first under that name.
In 1967, Australia hosted the second Netball World Championships in Perth. That same year, South Australia was the last state to allow sports to be played on Sunday.
Starting in the early 1970s, sponsorship became very important for Australian sport. Money from sponsors helped both amateur and professional sports.
During the 1970s, Australia faced tough competition in international sports from countries that had strong government support for sport. The Australian government at the time didn't want to get too involved in sports. In the 1974 elections, some Australian athletes appeared in political advertisements. That year, the Australian soccer team qualified for the 1974 FIFA World Cup, their first time ever. Harry Williams was the first Aboriginal player on the national soccer team.
In 1977, Australian rules football interstate matches started using "State of Origin" rules. This meant players played for the state where they were born, not where they lived. In 1979, the National Basketball League was created.
Modern Sport (1980s - 2010s)
In the 1980s, rugby league was most popular in Queensland and New South Wales, while Australian rules football was popular in the rest of the country. The Australian Institute of Sport was founded in 1981 to help athletes.
In 1980, the annual rugby league series between New South Wales and Queensland started using "State of Origin" rules for the final match. By 1982, all interstate matches used these rules, creating the yearly State of Origin series.
In 1983, the Australian yacht Australia II won the America's Cup yacht race. Millions of Australians watched on TV as they won, making it a huge moment of national pride.
During the 1980s, Australian soccer players began playing in professional leagues overseas. The government also created programs like Aussie Sports to encourage participation. The Australia women's national field hockey team became one of the best in the world in 1985.
In 1989, the Victorian Football League changed its name to the Australian Football League (AFL) to become a national league. This followed the South Melbourne Football Club moving to Sydney in 1982 and new teams like the West Coast Eagles joining in 1987.
In the 1990s, media rights, especially pay television, had a big impact on sports funding. Doping became a bigger concern, and an independent agency was set up in 1991 to handle drug testing.
Rugby League faced big problems in the 1990s, leading to the "Super League war." This was a fight over TV rights that split the sport into two different competitions. Eventually, the two sides came together to form the National Rugby League (NRL) in 1998.
In 1995, rugby union became professional in Australia. Australia won the 1991 Rugby World Cup and the 1999 Rugby World Cup. In 1998, the National Basketball League switched from a winter to a summer season.
In 2000, Sydney hosted the Summer Olympic Games. Australia finished fourth in medals. Cathy Freeman won the 400-meter final, becoming a symbol for Aboriginal sport. Ian Thorpe won three gold medals in swimming.
In 2000, Australia won the Rugby League World Cup for the sixth time in a row.
In 2002, the Australian government stepped in to help Soccer Australia because it had financial problems. The organization was restructured and renamed Football Federation Australia in 2005. A new national league, the A-League, started in 2004.
In 2003, Australia hosted the Rugby Union World Cup, but the Wallabies lost to England in the final.
The yacht Wild Oats XI set a record by winning the Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race four years in a row from 2005 to 2008.
In 2006, Melbourne hosted the 2006 Commonwealth Games. Later that year, the Australian soccer team competed in the 2006 FIFA World Cup, their first appearance in 32 years. In 2008, Australia hosted the 2008 Rugby League World Cup, but the Kangaroos lost to New Zealand in the final.
In 2009, the rugby league club Melbourne Storm was found to have broken salary cap rules. They were fined a lot of money and lost some of their past championships.
The AFL expanded in 2011 and 2012, adding teams like the Gold Coast Suns and Greater Western Sydney Giants. This meant the AFL had two clubs in all five major Australian cities.
In 2012, the Australian Rugby League Commission was formed, which helped solve the problems from the Super League war of the 1990s.
From 2008 to 2013, the Australian racehorse Black Caviar was undefeated in 25 races, a record not seen in over 100 years. She was named the top sprinter in the world for several years.
In 2014, the Socceroos competed in the 2014 FIFA World Cup. In 2015, Australia hosted and won the 2015 AFC Asian Cup in soccer. Australia also won the 2015 Cricket World Cup for the fifth time.
In 2018, the Gold Coast hosted the 2018 Commonwealth Games.
