SPORT IN AUSTRALIA

Sport is an important part of the culture in Australia, with a long history in the country dating
back to the pre-colonial period. Early sports that were played included cricket, horse racing,
Australian rules football and rugby. Sport evolved with Australian national identity through
events like Phar Lap, the Bodyline series and the America's Cup races.

There are a number of professional sport leagues in Australia, including the Australian
Football League (Australian rules football), National Rugby League (rugby league), Super
Rugby (rugby union), the A league and W-League (soccer), ANZ Championship (Netball),
the National Basketball League, the Women's National Basketball League and the Australian
Baseball League. Attendance for some of these leagues over the course of a single season
tops one million spectators in leagues like the NRL, AFL and A-league.

The media plays an important part in Australia's sporting landscape. Many sporting events
are televised or are covered by the radio. The government has anti-siphoning laws to protect
free-to-air stations. Beyond televising live events, there are many sport television shows,
sport talk shows on the radio, magazines dedicated to sport and extensive newspaper
coverage. Australian sport has also been the subject of Australian made films such as The
Club, Australian Rules, The Final Winter and Footy Legends.

As a nation, Australia has competed in many international events including the Olympics and
Paralympics, and the Commonwealth Games. The country has a large number of national
teams in sports such as cricket, rugby union, rugby league, basketball, hockey, netball,
soccer, softball, water polo and wheelchair rugby. Sport is played by different populations in
Australia including women, people with disabilities and Australia's indigenous people.

History of sport in Australia

Pre-colonisation

Australian aboriginals had their own sports that existed prior to European colonisation of the
continent. Most of these sports involved hunting and re-inforced skills necessary for survival.
One such sport was boomerang throwing. Amongst the pre-colonisation sports was a ball
game called Marngrook. Some of these sports disappeared from Australia's sporting culture
as missionaries and other Europeans discouraged Aboriginals from playing indigenous sports.

1800s

Sport came to Australia in 1810 when the first athletics tournament was held, soon after
cricket, horse racing & sailing clubs and competitions started. Australia's lower classes would
play sports on public holidays, with the upper classes playing more regularly on Saturdays.
Sydney was the early hub of sport in the colony. Early forms of football would be played
there by 1829. Early sport in Australia was played along class lines. In 1835, the British
Parliament banned blood sports except fox hunting in a law that was implemented in
Australia; this was not taken well in the country as it was seen as an attack on the working
classes. By the late 1830s, horse racing was established in New South Wales and other parts
of the country, and enjoyed support across class lines. Gambling was part of sport from the
time horse racing became an established sport in the colony. Horse racing was also happening
in Melbourne at Batman's Hill in 1838, with the first race meeting in Victoria taking place in
1840. Cricket was also underway with the Melbourne Cricket Club founded in 1838. Sport
was being used during the 1830s, 1840s and 1850s as a form of social integration across
classes.

Regular sport competitions were organised in New South Wales by 1850, with organised
competition being played in Queensland and Victoria not long. Australian rules football was
codified in 1858. Australian football clubs still around in the current Australian Football
League were founded by 1858. The Melbourne Cricket Ground Australia's largest sporting
arena opened in 1853.

The Melbourne Cup was first run in 1861. A rugby union team was established at the
University of Sydney in 1864. Regular sport did not begin to be played in South Australia,
Tasmania and Western Australia until the late 1860s and early 1870s.

The first Australian cricket team to go on tour internationally did so in 1868. The Australian
side was an all Aboriginal one and toured England where they played 47 games, where they
won 14 games, drew 19 and lost 14.

Australia's adoption of sport as a national was pastime was so comprehensive that the
Anthony Trollope remarked in his book, Australia, published in 1870, "The English passion
for the amusements which are technically called 'sports', is not a national necessity with the
Americans, whereas with the Australians it is almost as much so as home."

Soccer was being played in Australia by the 1870s, with the first team formally being
organised in Sydney in 1880 that was named the Wanderers. Sport was receiving coverage in
Australian newspapers by 1876 when a sculling race in England was reported on in the
Sydney Morning Herald.

In 1877 Australia played in the first Test Cricket match against England. In 1882, The Ashes
were started following the victory of the Australia national cricket team over England. Field
hockey teams for men and women were established by 1890. The Sheffield Shield cricket
competition was first held in 1891 with New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia
participating in the inaugural competition. The remaining states would not participate until
much later, with Queeensland first participating in 1926/1927, Western Australia in
1947/1948 and Tasmania in 1982/1983.

In 1879 Interstate matches in Australian rules football began with a match between
representative teams from then colonies Victoria and South Australia. Interstate matches in
Australian rules football were very important in Australian culture, with lack of a national
competition for most of the 20th century the matches were given great importance as it gave
the opportunity to show which state produced the best players, and as most players played in
their states state league it gave the opportunity to show which league the was the best. Every
5 year's a national carnival was played with winners playing off in a final. Interstate matches
ran from 1879 to 1999. In 1897 the Victorian Football League, which later became the AFL
the Australian Football League, was founded after breaking away from the Victorian Football
Association.