The very popular cricket
If the USA has baseball, Australia has cricket! Cricket is a collective batting sport played on a 135 x 150-meter grasspitch. The two opposing teams are made up of 11 players with complementary skills to fill the positions ofbatsman,bowler orwicket-keeper. All players are batsmen during the game. However, only a few players will be pitchers. The game is managed by twoumpires on the field. The cricketing event of the year is the Boxing Day Test Match, which takes place every year at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) from December 26 for 4 or 5 days, depending on the results. This match pits the Australian team against an international team, and is followed by the arrival of other international teams in other major Australian cities. A gentleman's sport, the players are dressed in white and take tea breaks during the day!
Footy, a real religion
Developed in Melbourne in 1858 to enable cricketers to maintain their physical condition during the Australian winter, Australian rules soccer(footy ) is mainly played in Victoria, South Australia and the Northern Territory. The regular season runs from March to August. September is dedicated to the AFL Grand Final (Australian Football League), which takes place at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG): a mythical 100,000-seat stadium. Footy is played on a pitch varying from 135 to 185 m in length and 110 to 155 m in width, and pits two teams of 18 players against each other over 4 quarters of 20 minutes. The match is played with an oval ball(footy), which the players can pass by foot or by hand. However, no player may run more than fifteen meters with the ball in hand. The goals are made up of four posts at each end of the pitch. But beware, this is a sport that can sometimes prove to be really violent, with many bumps, blows and even fights between players!
A great rugby nation
XV Rugby. Australia is one of rugby's great historical nations, and a historic rival to the terrible New Zealand All-Blacks. The Wallabies, with their famous golden yellow jerseys and green shorts, were world champions in 1991 and 1999 (beating France in the final at Cardiff's Millennium, 35-12) and World Cup finalists in 2003 and 2015. Australia has been chosen to host the World Cup in 2027; let's hope that the national team, full of young talent, can bounce back by then after its fiasco at the 2023 World Cup, where it failed to get past the group stages.
Rugby union. Although Rugby Union (XV rugby) is the most popular form of rugby in the world, Rugby League (XIII rugby) is undoubtedly the most popular in Australia. In 1895, a majority of popular clubs in the north of England decided to break away from the British Rugby Football Union to form what would become Rugby League. The main reasons given were the Rugby Football Union's refusal to compensate for lost Sunday working hours and to reimburse players' train fares. Several rules were gradually modified (touch, scrum, etc.) to make the game faster. In 1906, two third-row posts were abolished to create additional space. The first Australian rugby union club was founded in 1864, at Sydney University. The sport is most popular in Queensland and New South Wales, which play each other every year at the State of Origin at the end of May.
Rugby 7s (or Sevens). A variation of XV rugby, this is one of the highlights of the Commonwealth Games. It is also an Olympic discipline. Every four years, the 24 leading rugby nations come together to compete in the Rugby World Cup Sevens and win the Melrose Cup.
Many other traditional sports
Touch Football. Touch Football is a typically Australian sport, created in the 1950s but which only really took off in the 1980s. It is played with two teams of 6 and is similar to rugby league. The goal is to score more tries than the other team by stopping the progress of the opposing players by touching any part of the player's body or the ball with one hand. This sport is distinguished by the absence of violent physical contact.
Lawn bowling. Originating in England, this sport is very popular throughout the Commonwealth and parts of the United States. Similar to petanque, the game involves rolling slightly asymmetrical balls as close as possible to a small white ball. There are many variations of lawn bowling and it can be played both outdoors (grass or synthetic) and indoors.
Netball. Netball, a variant of basketball, is a women's team sport. Created in 1895 in English schoolyards to meet dress code requirements, it quickly became popular throughout the Commonwealth. Today, Australia has more than one million female members. A world championship has been held every four years since 1963 under the auspices of the International Federation of Netball (IFNA).
All in the water!
In Australia, swimming is a common culture. In schools, it is a discipline in its own right, and there are few Australian cities, even the smallest, without a swimming pool. Australia is a reference in the field of swimming. Indeed, if we can situate in London, in 1837, the birth of modern sport swimming and the organization of the first races by a sport association, it is in Sydney that the first modern swimming championships were organized in 1846, then in 1858 the first world swimming championships. Today, it is the Olympic discipline in which Australia usually shines, thanks to swimmers who have made history such as Ian Thorpe, Libby Trickett, Leisel Jones, Stephanie Rice, Eamon Sullivan, James Magnussen, Jessicah Schipper, and the sisters Cate and Bronte Campbell.
The cradle of surf life saving
The origins of lifesaving sport date back to 1902. At the time, swimming in the ocean during the day on Sydney's beaches was considered indecent and punishable by law. After several loud announcements, an English settler named William Gocher decided to defy the ban. A month later, after many ups and downs, the government amended the law and finally authorized bathing. The popularity of this new pastime and the inherent dangers of the sea led to the formation of small groups of volunteer lifeguards. This was the beginning of the inshore lifesaving clubs, where training was soon considered a sport. Today, the Australian Surf Life Saving Championships are held annually, usually on the Gold Coast (Queensland) or in Western Australia.
Legendary surf spots
In 1915, Hawaiian Duke Kahanamoku, Olympic freestyle champion, was invited by the New South Wales Swimming Association to a swimming competition in Sydney. On this occasion, he demonstrated surfing on Freshwater beach with a simple board made from a log. Until the early 1950s, surfing in Australia was limited to life-saving events. At that time, surfing consisted of heading straight for the beach on gigantic hollow boards.
It wasn't until 1956 that surfing, introduced by an American team at the Melbourne Games, became popular as a sport in its own right. In 1962, Midget Farrelly was the first to incorporate tricks. In 1964, he won the first official world surfing championships, followed by Nat Young in 1966. In the 1970s, after a few notable modifications to the board, the Ripcurl, Billabong and Quiksilver brands were born, today flagships of the international surfing industry.
In 1976, the year of the creation of a professional surfing competition circuit, Peter Townsend won the first world pro title in the history of surfing. He was the first of a long list of Australian world champions, including Wayne Bartholomew, Mark Richards, Tom Caroll, Mark Occhilupo, Joel Parkinson and Mick Fanning.
Today, surfing is part of everyday life for many Australians, who head out early in the morning to " check the waves ", and many tourists get into the water too. In Queensland, head for the Gold Coast spots (including Burleigh Heads and Surfers Paradise) and those north of Noosa. In New South Wales, Bondi Beach and Newcastle are the most famous spots, while Coffs Harbour, Jervis Bay and Byron Bay also offer great conditions for surfers. In Victoria, you can surf at Bells Beach and Torquay, all along the Great Ocean Road, on the beaches of Wilsons Promontory National Park or on the dangerous spots along the Port Campbell coast. In South Australia, the best-known spot for surfers is undoubtedly Cactus Beach. Finally, in Tasmania, Cremorne Point, near Hobart, or the West Coast, near Marrawah, also offer great waves.
Diving on the Great Barrier Reef
Diving in Australia is like diving in paradise... Lost in the middle of the ocean, in the heart of one of the richest areas in underwater life and not far from the famous Wallace Line, this island-continent represents in itself the program of a lifetime for a diver. 2,000 km of seabed, renowned underwater reserves, islands with varied reliefs, more or less accessible sites, a rich and colorful fauna, and, of course, the famous Great Barrier Reef which runs along the Queensland coast. So many promises of encounters rich in sensations, because what makes the reputation of Australia is also the famous Carcharodon carcharias or simply great white! The largest predator of the oceans, which has terrorized swimmers all over the world for generations, lives here at home. And if most of us hope never to meet him, any good diver who respects himself will be able to face him eye to eye, in the safety of a cage. Australia is the ultimate destination.
If you pass through the state of Queensland, you can dive on the Great Barrier Reef, the largest coral reef in the world. With more than 2,900 reefs and 900 islands, it is a paradise for marine life. No less than 400 species of coral grow there and host 1,500 species of fish and 4,000 species of mollusks.
Diving is very well organized in Australia and many clubs offer mainly cruises. This solution is particularly interesting to discover the Great Barrier Reef in good conditions. Smaller sites also offer day trips.
Nature and thrills on the program
All other imaginable sports activities are possible. While horseback riding, camel riding or cycling are available to all, thrill seekers will be served with sports such as skydiving(skydive), paragliding, bungee jumping, rafting, hang gliding... For those who would be on the island-continent in the heart of the Australian winter, between June and October, it is even possible to go skiing in the Snowy Mountains.
