Women's swimming in Australia

The times and facilities allocated to women at existing swimming clubs were inferior to those of their male counterparts.

[4] In 1867, two international women swimmers visited Australia: Alice Moon and Elphinstone Dick.

[5] On 12 March 1904 a 12-year-old schoolgirl, J Hill, won the 50 yards event at what was described as the first carnival of the Australian Swimming Championships, held in Sydney at Rushcutters Bay.

[7] In the same year a swim carnival exclusively for women was held at the Booroodabin Baths in Brisbane.

During this period, women in Australia wore swim suits that covered themselves from knee to the neck.

These notably included Annette Kellerman and Beatrice Kerr, who was billed as "Australia's Champion Lady Swimmer and Diver"[6][10] and inspired others to follow their example.

[12] During this period, some popular swimming locations, like Yeppon's beach, had sheds for women to change in.

The local waterhole was used for swimming and cooling down during the warm summers, but was more often a place for men and women to congregate and socialise.

At the meet she won the 100m in a time of 1 minute and 25 seconds, just beating fellow Australian Mina Wylie.

These restrictions included reduced times in which to swim, changing areas and lack of comparable facilities that men had.

The government complied in some cases and some pools began to ease restrictions on female usage of the facilities.

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.

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.

[22] For more than 100 years, swimming has provided Australian women the chance to make their mark on the international and national stage, with not many other sports allowing females to compete in.

[27] At the 1956 Summer Olympics, an Australian woman won a medal in every women's swimming event held during the games.

[24] At the 2012 London Olympic Games, despite only winning ten medals in the pool, the Australian women's team performed at a high level.