Australia's fishing has been both an essential cultural pastime for women in pre-European Australia, and as a sport in recent times.[ when? ]
The historical context of women's roles fishing in pre-European cultural context saw extensive involvement [1] and also in more recent times the industry has had specific support from women's involvement [2] [3]
Women were competing in fishing derbies by 1936, with their participation rates being higher than men at some events. They continued to participate in the sport during the 1940s. More recently, Game Fishing Association of Australia has several competition classes that women can compete in against other women.
In a 1936 fishing derby, there were more male participants than female participants. [4] Women's fishing was being covered by Australian newspapers during the 1930s. [5] [6] The Adelaide Advertiser cited Cleopatra as a reason Australian women should fish, and discussed how one Australian woman has caught more fish than her husband. [6] In 1940, a study of 314 women in New Zealand and Australia was done. Most of the women in the study were middle class, conservative, Protestant and white. The study found that 183 participated in sport. The ninth most popular sport that these women participated in was fishing, with 3 having played the sport. The sport was tied with croquet, billiards, chess, fishing, field hockey, horse racing, squash, table tennis and shooting. [7] In 1952, there was a women only fishing derby in Sydney. [8]
The Game Fishing Association of Australia has women only categories for competitions in saltwater, freshwater, saltwater fly, freshwater fly, and land based saltwater. [9]
Recreational fishing, also called sport fishing or game fishing, is fishing for leisure, exercise or competition. It can be contrasted with commercial fishing, which is professional fishing for profit; or subsistence fishing, which is fishing for survival and livelihood.
Football in Australia refers to numerous codes which each have major shares of the mainstream sports market, media, broadcasting, professional athletes, financial performance and grassroots participation: Australian rules football, rugby league, rugby union and Association Football. There are four pre-eminent professional football competitions played in Australia: the Australian Football League, the National Rugby League, Super Rugby and the A-League (soccer). By most measures, including attendance, television audience and media presence across the most states, Australian football is the most popular nationally. However, in the states of New South Wales and Queensland, rugby football is overall the most watched and receives the most media coverage, especially the Rugby League State of Origin contested between the two states referred to as “Australian sport's greatest rivalry”. In recent times there has been an increase in popularity in Australian football and corresponding decrease in popularity of Rugby union in New South Wales and Queensland. Soccer, while extending its lead in participation rate particularly in the large cities and improving its performance at the FIFA World Cup, continues to attract the overall lowest attendance as well as media and public interest of the four codes.
Sport at the University of Adelaide is primarily organised by the Adelaide University Sports Association. Other bodies affiliated to the University of Adelaide providing sport include the various sports clubs forming part of the residential colleges and the Roseworthy Agricultural Campus Student Union Council.
Cinesound Productions Pty Ltd was an Australian feature film production company, established in June 1931, Cinesound developed out of a group of companies centred on Greater Union Theatres, that covered all facets of the film process, from production, to distribution and exhibition.
Women's Australian rules football, is the female-only form of Australian rules football, generally with some modification to the laws of the game.
Lacrosse in Australia is a minor sport, with a long and proud history dating back to 1876, with a small but dedicated community of participants and volunteers. The established centres for lacrosse are in the greater metropolitan areas of Melbourne, Adelaide, and Perth. In these cities there are organised weekend field lacrosse competitions for men and women at senior and junior levels, played over the winter months. In the off-season, there are informal box lacrosse and sofcrosse competitions, though the majority of players in Australia are mostly of the field lacrosse type. Some lacrosse is also played in Sydney, South East Queensland, Canberra, Ballarat and Bendigo, it is very much at the developmental level.
Australian rules football in New South Wales dates back to 1866 with organised competition being continuous since the 1880s. Today, in several regions, the sport is moderately popular, including Broken Hill near South Australia, and the Riverina and the South Coast near Victoria. However rugby league in New South Wales remains far more popular elsewhere, particularly in Sydney. The AFL NSW/ACT is the governing body of the sport across the state and the Australian Capital Territory.
A fishing tournament, or derby, is an organised competition among anglers. Fishing tournaments typically take place as a series of competitive events around or on a clearly defined body of water with specific rules applying to each event. They can take place on or along the edge of oceans, lakes, rivers, including ice covered bodies of water.
Jennifer (Jennie) Screen is an Australian basketball player. She has played for the Australian Institute of Sport, the Adelaide Fellas and the Adelaide Lightning in Australia's WNBL, and has spent time playing professionally for Parma in Italy. As a member of the Australia women's national basketball team, she has won a gold medal at the 2006 Commonwealth Games, a silver medal at the 2008 Summer Olympics and a bronze medal at the 2012 Summer Olympics.
InterVarsity Hockey refers to field hockey competitions in Australia between rival universities, dating back to 1908. The Men's and Women's competitions were organised and run separately until 1978, when they became a 'combined InterVarsity', before becoming part of the Australian University Games in 1993.
Women's soccer, also known as women's football, is a popular sport in Australia. The sport has a high level of participation in the country both recreational and professional. Football Australia is the national governing body of the sport in Australia, organising the A-League Women, the Australian women's national team, and the nine state governing bodies of the game, among other duties. Women's participation of modern soccer has been recorded since the early 1920s. It has since become one of Australia's most popular women's team sports.
While not being urged to avoid competition, women had few opportunities to compete in sport in Australia until the 1880s. After that date, new sporting facilities were being built around the country and many new sport clubs were created.
Women were involved with horse racing in Australia by the 1890s. Since then, they have owned horses, trained horses, gambled on horses and attended the races. Their participation in the sport was hampered because of a lack of facilities and participation rates were not as high as other sports.
Women's chess in Australia has been occurring since the 1930s and competitive chess tournaments in Australia were taking place on a state level by 1934.
Women's cue sports in Australia is a sporting topic that has received some Australian media coverage since the early 20th century. Coverage began with English billiards and today is more often about the sport of snooker and various pool games such as eight-ball.
In the 1880s in Victoria, there were school competitions for girls involving interschool competitions for rounders, an early form of baseball. The competitions were abandoned in the 1890s. Girls who played rounders/baseball during the 1880s and 1890s were required to wear long sleeved shirts and long skirts. These restricted a player's ability to move.
In 1940, a study of 314 women in New Zealand and Australia was done. Most of the women in the study were middle class, conservative, Protestant and white. The study found that 183 participated in sport. The twenty-fourth most popular sport that these women participated in was ice hockey, with one woman having played the sport. The sport was tied with baseball and bowls.
The 2017–18 W-League season was the tenth season of the W-League, the Australian national women's association football competition.