The Australian Women's Register

The first All Australian women’s hockey team was selected in 1914 and played against England. Max Solling writes:

The dress and behaviour of women playing the game were strictly controlled. They were required to wear long skirts, starched blouses, ties, and stockings, and no player was to be seen on the street in her uniform unless covered by a long buttoned overcoat.

In 1930, three years after a crushing defeat by the English women’s team on home soil, the Australian women’s team embarked upon its first overseas tour, visiting England, South Africa, Rhodesia, Belgium, Germany, Holland and France. International competition continued when the IFWH organised the first World Women’s Hockey Tournament in 1933, though Australia did not participate until 1936. Australian hockey teams were entered in the Olympics for the first time at the 1956 Games in Melbourne. In recent years, Australian women’s hockey teams have enjoyed tremendous success at the Olympic level, winning gold at the Seoul Games in 1988; the Atlanta Games in 1996; and the Sydney Games in 2000.

The game of hockey continues to be popular today. Solling notes the dominance of Western Australia in competitive hockey post-war, particularly women’s hockey, with Western Australian women’s teams winning the national title thirty-eight times between 1946 and 1990. By the late 1990s, an estimated 200,000 women and girls were playing hockey across Australia.