SPORT IN AUSTRALIA

SPORT IN AUSTRALIA    

IN THIS LESSON YOU WILL NEED TO: DESCRIBE CHARACTERISTICS OF AUSTRALIA – YOUNG NATION; SPARSELY POPULATED; COLONIAL INFLUENCE AND IMMIGRATION. EXPLAIN THE NATURE OF SPORT IN AUSTRALIA (SOCIAL AND CULTURAL REASONS FOR SPORT BEING HIGH STATUS NATIONAL PRE-OCCUPATION. ANALYSE THE GAME OF AUSTRALIAN RULES FOOTBALL (ORIGINS FACTORS WHICH SHAPED ITS DEVELOPMENT INCLUDING COMMERCIALISM AND IMPACT OF MEDIA.

FIND OUT………………..  RESEARCH AND DESCRIBE THE MAIN CHARACTERISTICS OF AUSTRALIA. NOTES SHOULD INCLUDE:  IT IS A YOUNG COUNTRY IN TERMS OF ITS CULTURE AND ITS POPULATION – NEARLY HALF THE POPULATION IS UNDER THE AGE OF 30. IT IS THE ONLY NATION THAT OCCUPIES A WHOLE CONTINENT. IT HAS A RELATIVELY SMALL POPULATION OF ABOUT 20 MILLION AND THERFORE A SPARSELY POPULATED COUNTRY. HOWEVER, 85% OF THE POPULATION LIVE IN ONLY 3.3% OF THE NATION’S LAND AREA.

 THE POPULATION IS LARGELY SETTLED AROUND EIGHT CITIES. A LARGE PERCENTAGE OF AUSTRALIA IS UNINHABITABLE AND THE BULK IS CENTRED IN THE SOTHERN AND EASTERN SEABOARDS. AUSTRALIA IS CONSIDERED URBAN

 THE ORIGINAL INHABITANTS OF AUSTRALIA, THE ABORIGINAL PEOPLE, ARE ONE OF THE OLDEST CIVILISATIONS IN THE WORLD.  ARRIVED IN THE ICE AGE WHEN AUSTRALIA WAS CONNECTED TO ASIA. AUSTRALIA AND ITS INHABITANTS WERE ISOLATED FOR THOUSANDS OF YEARS UNTIL DISCOVERY IN THE 18C.

 COLONIALISM – THE PROCESS WHEREBY ONE COUNTRY, THROUGH IMPLEMENTING ITS OWN STRUCTURES AND CULTURE, TAKES OVER A WEAKER COUNTRY.

 IN 1788, A BRITISH COLONY WAS ESTABLISHED IN AUSTRALIA, IT HAD BEEN CHARTED BY CAPTAIN COOK TEN YEARS EARLIER.  CONVICTED CRIMINALS, OFFICIALS, ESCORTOF ROYAL MARINES FOUNDED THE COLONY WHICH LATER BECAME NEW SOUTH WALES.  THE BRITISH GOVERNMENT CONSIDERED IT IMPORTANT FOR BRITISH INTERESTS TO ESTABLISH A TRADE AND SHIPPING BASE IN THE PACIFIC AND THEY BELIEVED CONVICTS WERE THE BEST MEANS OF GETTING THE COLONY STARTED. BY 1852, 160,000 CONVICTS AHD BEEN SENT TO AUSTRALIA.

 OTHER FREE SETTLERS LEFT BRITAIN TO START A NEW LIFE, WITH FREE CONVICT LABOUR AND THE RESOURCES INCLUDED ABUNDANCE OF LAND, WALES AND SEALS.  IT IS IMPORTANT TO REMEMBER THAT AUSTRALIA WAS NOT BUILT UPON CONVICT SETTLEMENT. FORTUNATE HUNTERS WITH A FRONTIER ETHOS SIMILAR TO AMERICAN PIONEERS LATER CAME TO FARM THE LAND AND DIG FOR GOLD. AMONG THESE MIGRANTS WAS AN ASPIRING MIDDLE-CLASS ELEMENT FROM ENGLAND WHO PLAYED SPORTS AND DID MUCH TO SHAPE THE CULTURE OF AUSTRALIA.

 NO PROBLEMS WITH THE ABORIGINES AS THEY WERE THINLY SPREAD OUT OVER THE COUNTRY. SHEEP FARMING BECAME THE MAIN INDUSTRY.  FREE SETTLEMENTS WERE ESTABLISHED FROM NEW SOUTH AUSTRALIA AND VICTORIA IN 1834. THE DICOVERY OF GOLD INCREASED SETTLEMENT.  COLONIES WERE LARGELY SEPARATE AND WERE SELF-GOVERNING. THEY DID NOT UNITE UNTIL 1901. COMMONWEALTH OF AUSTRALIA WAS ESTABLISHED, UNION OF NEW SOUTH WALES, VICTORIA, QUEENSLAND, SOUTH AUSTRALIA, TASMANIA AND WEST AUSTRALIA.

 MOST OF THE POPULATION LIVE ON THE LOW-LYING COASTAL PLAINS RUNNING ROUND THE SOUTH AND EAST COAST, AND ACCESSIBILITY OF THE BEACH AND SEA CONSEQUENTLY DOMINATE AUSTRALIAN CULTURE.  THE COLONIAL LINK OF THE PAST IS THE REASON WHY SPORTING RELATIONS BETWEEN THE UK AND AUSTRALIA ARE CLOSE TODAY. FOR MANY IN AUSTRALIA A SPORTING VICTORY OVER THE FORMER MOTHERLAND REMAINS IMPORTANT.

 BECAUSE AUSTRALIA HAS A DECENTRALISED SYSTEM OF GOVERNMENT THE PROVISION IN AUSTRALIA FOR SPORT EDUCATION, PHYSICAL EDUCATION AND OUTDOOR EDUCATION IN SCHOOL AND SPORT IN THE COMMUNITY IS DIFFERENT IN EACH STATE.  GREAT DISTANCE SEPARATES THE MAIN CITIES, THERFORE THIS PRESENTED PROBLEMS OF THE DEVELOPMENT OF SPORT IN THE 19C.

 THE NATURE OF SPORT IN AUSTRALIA (social and cultural reasons that contribute to high level sport)

 ALTHOUGH THERE ARE RECOMMENDATIONS OF HOW PHYSICAL EDUCATION SHOULD BE TAUGHT THERE IS NO NATIONAL CURRICULUM. THE OVERRIDING EMPHASIS IS ENJOYMENT AND MAXIMUM PARTICIPATION. – ACTIVE AUSTRALIA! THIS IS THE SLOGAN USED FOR THE SPORT FOR ALL POLICY.

 AUSTRALIAN SPORTS COMMISSION (ASC) – GOVERNMENT COMMITTEE WITH RESPONSIBILITY FOR SPORT. ITS PURPOSE IS TO ADMINISTER AND FUND SPORT NATIONALLY ON BEHALF OF THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT.

 SCHOOLS IN AUSTRALIA HAVE ALSO HAD TO ADAPT TO PRESSURES FROM OTHERV AGENCIES IN TERMS OF PHYSICAL EDUCATION. POOR PERFORMANCES BY THE AUSTRALIAN TEAM IN THE MONTREAL OLYMPICS OF 1976 LED TO A REVIEW OF SPORT AND PHYSICAL EDUCATION. TOO MUCH EMPHASIS WAS PLACED ON EDUCATIONAL VALUES AND NOT ENOUGH ON SPORTING TALENT. THIS PRODUCED AUSSIE SPORT WHICH IN TURN BECAME ACTIVE AUSTRALIA. THIS WAS TO ENCOURAGE MASS PARTICIPATION.

 AUSTRALIA, LIKE BRITAIN, WAS RELUCTANT TO FULLY EMBRACE FULLTIME PROFESSIONAL STATUS. SO THEREFORE, MANY OF THE SPORTSMAN PLAY ABROAD.

 THERE IS A STRONG LINK BETWEEN SPORT AND THE MEDIA AND THE VARIOUS MEDIA CORPORATIONS PLAY A MAJOR ROLE IN THE PROMOTION AND FUNDING OF AUSTRALIAN SPORTS.

 AUSTRALIAN INSTITUTEOF SPORT – AIS  POSSIBLY THE BEST CENTRE FOR ATHLETIC PREPARATION IN THE WORLD, TOGETHER WITH A NET WORK OF SPORTS ACADEMIES. THE AIS IS FUNDED 95% FROM FEDERAL FUNDS AND 5% FROM COMMERCIAL FUNDS.

 THE FORMATION OF THE AIS HAS BEEN THE MOST SIGNIFICANT DEVELOPMENT TOWARDS OLYMPIC SPORT. FAILURE AT THE OLYMPICS LED TO A NATIONAL OUTCRY AND SPURRED THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT TO FUND AND REORGANISE ELITE SPORT. THE GOVERNMENT TOOK A THOROUGH REVIEW OF THE SPORTING SET UP IN AUSTRALIA. BEFORE THIS IT WAS RUN LIKE SPORT IN BRITAIN.  THE CONCLUSION TO THIS REVIEW WAS THAT AUSTRALIA NEEDED TO DEVELOP AN ELITE ACADEMY SYSTEM WHERE THE BEST ATHLETES COULD TRAIN AND PREPARE WITHOUT WORRIES OF FUNDING.

 THE RESULT OF THIS WAS THE SETTING UP OF THE AIS, WHICH SHORTLY FOLLOWED BY THE CREATION OF THE ASC, AUSTRALIAN SPORTS COMMISSION, THE BODY RESPONSIBLE FOR COORDINATING THE GOVERNMENT’S SPORTS PROGRAMMES.

 SOCIALLY  SPORT HAS FOLLOWED SOCIETY IN DISTINCT SOCIAL GROUPS. FROM THE FORMATION OF THE COLONY THERE WAS SEVERE SOCIAL HIERARCHY DIFFERENTIATING COLONIAL FROM ABORIGINE, FREE SETTLER FROM CONVICT, AND THIS HAS GROWN INTO SOCIOCULTURAL FACTORS, AGE GEDER, RACE ETC. THAT AFFECT ACCESS TO SPORTS.  IN THE MAIN, WHITE ANGLO CELTS HAVE BEEN THE DOMINANT GROUP IN SPORT AND SOCIETY. MINORITY GROUPS HAVE AHD TO STRUGGLE EG. ABORIGINES.

 AUSTRALIA IS BLESSED WITH A YOUNG POPULATION  A WEALTH OF OPEN SPACE  ACCESSIBLE NATURAL RESOURCES SUCH AS THE BEACH AND SEA.  A FAVOURABLE CLIMATE WHICH ENCOURAGES SPORT AND RECREATION.  A NATION OBSESSEDWITH SPORT, WHICH PROVIDESMOST YOUNG AUSTRALIANS WITH THEIR MAIN SOURCE OF ROLE MODELS.

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THE CULTURAL FACTORS THAT INFLUENCE THE AUSTRALIAN NATIONAL DESIRE TO ACHIEVE SPORTS EXCELLENCE INCLUDE: SETTLEMENT AND COLONIALISM – HISTORICAL INFLUENCE OF THE MOTHERLAND BUSH CULTURE – OLD FRONTIER IMAGE OF INDIVIDUALITY AND RUGGEDNESS NEW IMAGE – DESIRE TO PROJECT NEW TECHNOLOGICAL IMAGE POLITICS – SUCESSIVE GOVERNMENTS RECOGNISE POSSIBILITIES AND INVEST ECONOMY – COUNTRY IS AFFLUENT ANDV WILL SPEND MONEY ON SPORT ENLIGHTENMENT – PEOPLE ARE EAGER TO PARTICIPATE; HEALTHY LIFESTYLE IS IMPORTANT GLOBAL PLAYER – NATION DESIRES TO MATCH POLICIES AND STANDARDSV WORLDWIDE UNITY AND NATIONALISM – SPORT HAS UNITED A SMALL POPULATION IN A LARGE LAND EGALITARIANISM – SPORT REFLECTS EQUALLY; SUPPORT THE LAND OF THE FAIR GO IMAGE AMBITION – DESIRE TO BE A WORLD SPORTS POWER; NATIONAL CONFIDENCE COMES FROM THE SPORT CLIMATE – HIGHLY FAVOURABLE FOR OUTDOOR SPORT; POSITIVE INFLUENCE ON LIFESTYLE TRENDS AND FASHION – POPULATION ENJOYS SPORT SUCCESS ASSOCIATION; SPORT IS FASHIONABLE.