Hockey (c. 1900 - )

The game of hockey was brought to Australia by British Naval officers stationed around the country in the late 1800s. By 1900, according to Hockey Australia, the game was being played in private girls’ schools. Being a non-contact team sport, it was considered ideal for women. The first women’s hockey association was formed in New South Wales in 1908. Two years later, women’s clubs from Tasmania, Victoria and South Australia were competing alongside clubs from New South Wales at an interstate tournament at Rushcutter’s Bay, and from this tournament came the establishment of the Australian Women’s Hockey Association in July 1910 - fifteen years before the Australian Hockey Association (AHA) was formed in 1925. State hockey associations for men had been formed in South Australia, 1903; Victoria and New South Wales, 1906; Western Australia, 1908; and Queensland, 1920s. This division in the administration of men’s and women’s hockey continued in subsequent years. The Australian Women’s Hockey Association affiliated with the All England Women’s Hockey Association, and joined the International Federation of Women’s Hockey (IFWH) in 1927.

The first All Australian women’s hockey team was selected in 1914 and played against England. Max Solling writes:

The dress and behaviour of women playing the game were strictly controlled. They were required to wear long skirts, starched blouses, ties, and stockings, and no player was to be seen on the street in her uniform unless covered by a long buttoned overcoat.

In 1930, three years after a crushing defeat by the English women’s team on home soil, the Australian women’s team embarked upon its first overseas tour, visiting England, South Africa, Rhodesia, Belgium, Germany, Holland and France. International competition continued when the IFWH organised the first World Women’s Hockey Tournament in 1933, though Australia did not participate until 1936. Australian hockey teams were entered in the Olympics for the first time at the 1956 Games in Melbourne. In recent years, Australian women’s hockey teams have enjoyed tremendous success at the Olympic level, winning gold at the Seoul Games in 1988; the Atlanta Games in 1996; and the Sydney Games in 2000.

The game of hockey continues to be popular today. Solling notes the dominance of Western Australia in competitive hockey post-war, particularly women’s hockey, with Western Australian women’s teams winning the national title thirty-eight times between 1946 and 1990. By the late 1990s, an estimated 200,000 women and girls were playing hockey across Australia.

Related Concepts

• The Hockeyroos

Related Corporate Bodies

• Adelaide Hockey Club (1981 - )

Related People

• Peris, Nova (1971 - )

  Nova Peris was a member of the gold medal winning Hockeyroos team in Atlanta.

Australian Women Exhibitions

• She's Game: Women Making Australian Sporting History, Australian Women's Archives Project, 2007, http://www.womenaustralia.info/exhib/sg/sport-home.html. [ Details... ]

Books

• Browne, Fred, The Game that Grows, Perth, 1960. [ Details... ]
• Hodges, Lena and Mollie Dive, A History of the New South Wales Women's Hockey Association 1908-1983, The Association, Sydney, 1984. [ Details... ]

Booklets

• South Australian Hockey Association, Seventy fifth anniversary souvenir 1903-1978, The Association, Adelaide, 1978. [ Details... ]

See also

• Trader 12 (Sarah), Trader 12 MySpace site, MySpace, 2007-07-18, http://profile.myspace.com
  /index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=96720217. [ Details... ]