Women's field hockey in Australia
Women's field hockey in Australia began informally in New South Wales and Tasmania from as early as 1901, with the first team developed in Sydney in 1903.
Soon after, Women's field hockey began to be played in schools, universities and eventually developed state and national teams.
The Australia women's national field hockey team (nicknamed the Hockeyroos), established in 1914, has placed highly in many competitions.
The event was organised by the Victorian Women's Amateur Sports Council and held at the Melbourne Cricket Grounds.
A field hockey tournament featuring Australian, Kiwi and Fijian teams was played.
Women's sport organisations had largely remained intact and were holding competitions during the war period.
While the representation by gender would later be similar, space issues at the Australian Institute of Sport prevented some development when compared to the men's game.
[6] The governance of women's field hockey in Australia began in 1907, when a New South Wales association was created.
[2] Marie Montgomerie Hamilton who had led the New South Wales Hockey Association for over twenty years became the All-Australia chair from 1932 to 1934 and again from 1945 to 1954.
[8] In 1933, the New South Wales Amateur Women's Sport Council was created by Gwendolen Game.
It was medically appropriate for all girls to be able to participate in, so long as they were not done in an overly competitive manner, swimming, rowing, cycling and horseback riding.
[2] The first interstate tournament occurred the following year at a competition in Rushcutters Bay, New South Wales.
[2] State sides have historically been very competitive, making national team selection very difficult as the level of play is very high.
[2] Florinda Katharine Ogilvie led the All Australia Women's Hockey Association from 1926 and in 1930 she went with them when they undertook their first international tour.
[12] Australia played their first international match on foreign soil that year when they went to South Africa and Rhodesia to compete in an Empire tournament.
[2] Australia made their first appearance in a World Championship competition in 1936 in the tournament held in the United States.
[6] In 1967, the Australian women's national team completed a tour of ten countries in a period of four months, playing thirty-one games and only losing five.
[2] That same year, they competed in the 9th World Championship where they finished in the top four alongside national teams from South Africa, England and the Netherlands.
[14] During the late 1970s and early 1980s, Australia and New Zealand were both leading women's field hockey nations that were competitive with their European counterparts.
[14] The process for qualifying for the 1984 Summer Olympics depended on a team's performance at the 1983 World Cup.
[17] The Australians led in penalty scorners awarded in the tournament, with seventy-one, where they converted nine of them into goals.
On day twelve, Australia played in the Bronze Medal match and beat Germany by a score of three to one.
The sport was tied with billiards, chess, fishing, croquet, horse racing, squash, table tennis and shooting.
[25] Early field hockey uniforms in the 1900s and 1910s consisted of high-button shoes, ankle length skirts and long sleeved button up shirts.
