Sport is an important part of the culture of the Australian state of Queensland. Golf is the most played organised sport and touch football is the most played team sport. Netball is the most popular female sport, [1] while rugby league is the most watched sport. [2] Queensland also has two AFL teams, the Queensland Reds in Super Rugby, and two National Basketball League teams, the Brisbane Bullets, Cairns Taipans and Premier Gymnastics. The largest sporting event held in Queensland annually is the Gold Coast 600 motor race.[ citation needed ]
Australian Football has a long history in Queensland. The first foray made by the then VFL came in the form of the Brisbane Bears, who began playing Premiership matches in 1987. Despite some rocky times in the northern state, the game now appears to be entrenched within the Queensland, thanks to a hat-trick of AFL Premiership wins from 2001-2003. The introduction of the Gold Coast Suns in 2011 highlights the game's growth in Queensland.
Basketball is a popular sport in Queensland, and offers an alternative to outdoor sport during rainy weather. Since the National Basketball League's inception in 1979, at least one team has been based in Queensland. Queensland has two current NBL teams:
Cricket is popular in Queensland. Many domestic and international matches are held at the Gabba. The Queensland Bulls and the Brisbane Heat are based in Brisbane and represent Queensland in Australia's domestic cricket tournaments:
Rugby league is the most spectated sport in Queensland. [3] Queensland Rugby League has been in operation since 1908, creating strong roots in both city and regional communities. There are currently four teams in the National Rugby League competition, two of which have been part of the NRL since its inauguration in 1998:
The other major rugby league team is the Queensland Maroons who play New South Wales Blues in the fiercely contested three game State of Origin competition. The Maroons have recently won their third straight Origin series, as well as their eleventh from the past twelve.
The other major state based competition is the Queensland Cup.
Rugby Union is a major sport in Queensland with more than 55,000 registered players in 210 clubs and 235 schools across the state. [4] The first games were played in 1876, and Queensland has been represented by the Queensland Reds since 1882, who currently compete in the Super Rugby competition.
In 2011, the Reds won the Super Rugby Championship in front of more than 52,000 fans. [5] They repeated this feat in the 2021 Super Rugby AU Final.[ citation needed ]
Swimming is also a popular sport in Queensland, with a majority of Australian team members and international medalists hailing from the state. At the 2008 Summer Olympics, Queensland swimmers won all six of Australia's gold medals, all swimmers on Australia's three female (finals) relays teams were from Queensland, two of which won gold.
At the 2004 Summer Olympics, 2005 and 2007 World Long Course Swimming Championships, Australia won both the 4 × 100 m freestyle and medley relays. In five of these teams, three out of the four swimmers were from Queensland, and in the medley relay in 2007, all were from Queensland.
Triathlon has been a popular sport in Queensland since the early 1980s with the state three times hosting the ITU World Championships [6] in addition to: the Noosa Triathlon - the world's largest triathlon (also the country's longest-lasting event at the same venue), Mooloolaba Triathlon, Hervey Bay Triathlon and the Gold Coast Triathlon to name but a few.
Each year the Queensland Sport Awards are held. The major award is the Sport Star of the Year: [7]
The Queensland Cup, currently known as the Hostplus Cup for sponsorship reasons, is the highest-level regional rugby league football competition in Queensland, Australia. It is run by the Queensland Rugby League (QRL) and is contested by fifteen teams, thirteen of which are based in Queensland, with one based in New South Wales and one in Central Province, Papua New Guinea.
Sport is an important part of Australia that dates back to the early colonial period. Australian rules football, rugby league, rugby union, association football, cricket and tennis are among the earliest organised sports in Australia. Sport has shaped the Australian national identity through events such as the Melbourne Cup and the America's Cup. Australia also holds the record for the largest attendance at a Rugby Union match with almost 110,000 spectators watching the Wallabies play the All Blacks in 2000.
Cazalys Stadium is a sports stadium in Cairns, Queensland, Australia. It is situated in the suburb of Westcourt. The stadium is named after the social club which abuts the oval, Cazalys, which itself was named after Australian rules footballer Roy Cazaly.
Australian rules football in Queensland was the first official football code played in 1866. The Colony of Queensland was the second after Victoria to adopt Australian rules football, just days after the rules were widely published. For two decades it was the most popular football code, however a strong desire for representative football success saw Queenslanders favour British football variants for more than a century. As a result, Queensland is one of the two states to the east of the Australian cultural divide described as the Barassi Line. 120 years later in 1986 Queensland was the first state awarded a licence to have a club, the Brisbane Bears, in the national (AFL) competition, also its first privately owned club. However the Gold Coast based Bears had a detrimental effect until the 1993 redevelopment of the Brisbane Cricket Ground (Gabba). In contrast the Bears transformation into a Brisbane and traditional membership based club resulted in enormous growth, and a tripling of average AFL attendances by 1996.
Scotland is one of only six countries to have competed in every Commonwealth Games since the first Empire Games in 1930. The others are Australia, Canada, England, New Zealand and Wales. The Commonwealth Games is the only major multi-sport event in which Scottish athletes and teams compete as Scotland; otherwise Scotland participates in multi-sport events as part of a Great Britain team.
Sport is a significant aspect of the Brisbane lifestyle. Activities range from the occasional international event, annual competitions, competitive leagues and individual recreational pursuits.
Sport in New South Wales describes participation in and attendance at organised sports events in the state of New South Wales in Australia. Sport forms an integral part of the culture of the state.
St Laurence's College is an independent Catholic primary and secondary school for boys, located in South Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. Founded by the Congregation of Christian Brothers in 1915. the school is a member of Edmund Rice Education Australia. As of 2021, the college had an enrolment of over 1913 students from Year 5 to Year 12. St Laurence's is affiliated with the Associated Independent Colleges sporting association.
Sport on the Gold Coast has a rich history. As a popular tourist destination leisure sports like Golf, but most particularly sports associated with its famous beaches, have always been popular. A number of surf clubs line Gold Coasts beaches, who host a variety of swimming and athletic events collected into surf carnivals along with competitions evolved from methods of surf life saving.
The Barassi Line is an imaginary line in Australia which approximately divides areas where Australian rules football or rugby league is the most popular football code. The term was first used by historian Ian Turner in his 1978 Ron Barassi Memorial Lecture. Crowd figures, media coverage, and participation rates are heavily skewed in favour of the dominant code on both sides.
Sydney Uni Sport & Fitness (SUSF) is the University of Sydney's sporting body. SUSF currently manages and administers more than 40 sport and recreation clubs, also organising sporting and recreation events, and offering student and non-student members a comprehensive range of sporting facilities. SUSF also provides sport scholarships and other support to student-athletes.
The 2018 Commonwealth Games, officially known as the XXI Commonwealth Games and also known as Gold Coast 2018, was an international multi-sport event for members of the Commonwealth that was held on the Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia, between 4 and 15 April 2018. It was the fifth time Australia had hosted the Commonwealth Games and the first time a major multi-sport had an equal number of events for male and female athletes.
In its own right Jersey participates in the Commonwealth Games and in the bi-annual Island Games, which it last hosted in 2015. Jersey is a founder member of the Island Games Association and has participated in every Games since the first in 1985. Jersey first competed in 1958 in the British Empire and Commonwealth Games and has since participated in every staging of what became the Commonwealth Games. Youth sports participation includes the Commonwealth Youth Games and Jeux des Isles.
Richard Turner, a.k.a. "Tosser", was a rugby league manager.
Rugby league in Queensland is the most watched winter sport in the state and the second most participated football code after soccer. Rugby league was introduced in 1908 and within just a few years it surpassed rugby union there to become the most popular football code as players switched to play professionally in the Queensland Rugby League. In the 1920s, Queenslanders began leaving to play professionally in the New South Wales Rugby League which became a more popular competition. However Queensland maintained a strong rugby league culture, with the state continuing to perform well in interstate rugby league. The later advent of the State of Origin series ensured that players would return to represent their state.
Brendan John Burkett, OAM is an Australian swimmer who won five medals at four Paralympics and a silver medal at the 1994 Victoria Commonwealth Games.
The history of sport in Australia dates back to the pre-colonial period of the country.
Katja Dedekind is an Australian Paralympic vision-impaired swimmer and goalball player. She won a bronze medal at the 2016 Rio Paralympic Games and two bronze medals at the 2020 Tokyo Paralympic Games.
James Nash State High School is an independent coeducational public secondary school located in Gympie in the Wide Bay–Burnett region in Queensland, Australia. The school has a total enrolment of more than 1200 students each year, with an official count of 1220 students in 2017.
Brisbane 2032 is a successful bid for the 2032 Summer Olympics by the city of Brisbane and the Australian Olympic Committee. On 10 June 2021, the bid won IOC board approval and is expected to host the 2032 Summer Olympics. Brisbane officially received the rights to host the Olympics on 21 July 2021. Brisbane became the first host city to win the bid unopposed since 1984.