Australian sport biography for kids

The history of sport in Australia dates back to the pre-colonial period of the country.

Pre-1800s

Sport arrived in Australia with the First Fleet in 1788.

Many of the officers and convicts were familiar and comfortable with the sporting traditions of that era – horseracing, cricket, boxing, pedestrianism and sports involving animals, such as cockfighting. Although physical survival was rather more important than recreation in the first decades of European settlement, many of the new settlers brought their love of sport with them.

Lieutenant George Johnston, the first European to set foot ashore at Sydney's Port Jackson, became a prominent breeder of racehorses; Captain Piper, who arrived in Sydney in 1792, was also involved in horseracing. Robert Knopwood, Tasmania's first chaplain, was part of the 'shooting and hunting set of the young Viscount Clermont' in England and lost none of his love of sport in the new colony.

Aboriginal sp