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- GOOD
SPORTS!
- Australia's
women pioneers of the sporting
field
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- Organised
sporting events and clubs for women began
developing in Australia around the
mid-nineteenth century.
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- For
example, the first women's croquet club was
formed in Kapunda, South Australia in 1868 while
by 1892 a women's golf club was established in
Melbourne and another in Geelong a year later.
It was here in 1894 that the first Australian
women's golf championship was held and won by
Evelyn MacKenzie.
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- Following
the introduction of the Safety bicycle to
Australia in 1887, cycling became a popular
sport albeit somewhat daring for women who wore
the new "rational" dress or bloomers, and
women's bicycle clubs were established
nationwide. Dot Morrell won the world's first
women's bicycle race in Auburn, NSW in 1888
while Sarah Maddock was the first Australian
woman to achieve a long distance cycle ride from
Sydney to Bega in 1893 and was the first woman
to cycle from Sydney to Melbourne the following
year.
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- The
first recorded women's cricket matches in
Australia date back to the goldrush days - in
1855 in NSW and in Bendigo, Victoria in 1874. On
8 March 1886 a match at what later became the
SCG between the Siroccos and the Fernleas,
captained by sisters Nellie and Lily Gregory
included amongst the players Rosalie Deane, the
first Australian woman to be recorded in Wisden.
The first women's Test match was played in
Brisbane in December 1934 and Una Paisley was
the first Australian woman to score a Test
century in the 1948-9 series. Born at Nepabunna
Mission, South Australia in 1933, qualified
nurse Faith Thomas was the first and only
Aboriginal woman to play cricket for Australia
in a match against England in 1958.
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- Lawn
tennis had been popular since the late 1870's but women were prevented
from competing internationally until 1919 when Lily Addison became
the first Australian woman to play at Wimbledon. Daphne Ackhurst
was amongst one of the first teams to tour overseas in 1928 and
the same year the first Australian woman to reach the Wimbledon
semi-finals. In 1939 Malla Molesworth became Australia's first
female professional tennis coach while in 1963 Margaret Court
(née Smith) was the first Australian woman to win the Wimbledon
tennis single title.
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- Women
have had extraordinary success at both the
Olympic and the Empire (later Commonwealth)
Games. The first events for women (swimming)
were introduced at the 1912 Stockholm Olympics
while women's athletics were added at the 1928
Amsterdam Games. Clare Dennis was the first
Australian woman to compete in the Empire games
in 1934, winning gold in the 200 yards
breaststroke in London.
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- Some
first Australian women in the sporting
world...
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 - By
permission of the National Library of
Australia
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- FANNY
DURACK (1889-1956)
- With
Wilhelmina (Mina) Wylie, they were Australia's
first female Olympians competing in Stockholm in
1912. She was also Australia's first female
Olympic gold medallist after winning the 100
metres freestyle (Mina won silver).
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 - Centralian
Advocate/Photo: Carmel
Sears
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- DAWN
FRASER (b1937)
- Seen
here in Alice Springs for the 1990 opening of the Masters' Games,
she had been the first and only swimmer in the history of the
Olympic Games to have won an Olympic event (100 metres freestyle)
three times in succession (achieved in 1964).
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 - The
Age
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- LINDA
McGILL (b1945)
- The
first Australian woman to swim across the 35 kilometre English
Channel in 1965; she was also the first person to swim around
Hong Kong Island and across Port Phillip Bay, Victoria.
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 - Australian
Gallery of Sport and Olympic Museum at the
MCG
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- EDITH
ROBINSON
- The
first Australian woman to compete in Olympic
athletics in 1928; she is seen here training on
board en route to Amsterdam.
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 - By
permission of the National Library of
Australia
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- MARJORIE
JACKSON (b1931)
- Known
as the "Lithgow Flash", she was the first Australian woman athlete
to win an Olympic gold medal, achieved at Helsinki in 1952 resulting
in her being named ABC Sportsman (sic) of the Year.
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 - The
Age
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- CATHY
FREEMAN (b1973)
- The
first Aboriginal person to win an international track medal -
bronze in the 4 x 400 metres relay at the Auckland Commonwealth
Games in 1990, and the first to win gold at the 1994 Commonwealth
Games in Canada.
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 - The
Age
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- PAM
O' NEILL (b1946)
- The
Australian Jockey Club only permitted women to ride in all-women
races at picnic meetings until 19 May 1979 when Pam O'Neill became
the first woman to ride against men, riding three winners at a
meeting in Southport, Queensland.
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 - Courtesy
of Dianne Lucas-Luppi
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- DIANNE
LUCAS (b1954)
- Queensland's
and possibly Australia's first woman to be allowed to compete
against the men in the then totally male-dominated field of bull
riding, seen here at the Mt Garnet Rodeo in 1984. She began at
the age of 15 in WA but was only allowed to do exhibition rides,
as there were no women's competitions at the time.
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 - Courtesy
of Mrs Evonne Cawley
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- EVONNE
CAWLEY (née GOOLAGONG) (b1951)
- The
first Aboriginal woman to not only play at Wimbledon but also
to win this prestigious British tennis singles title in 1971.
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 - Courtesy
of Nova Peris-Kneebone
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- NOVA
PERIS (b1971)
- Playing
since she was eight years old, at 25 she became
the first Aboriginal person to win a gold medal
at the Olympic Games when she helped the
Australian women's hockey team to victory in
Atlanta, USA in 1996.
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