Cultural institutions

Australian culture, particularly in urban areas, has benefited from state subsidies for the arts, enabling sophisticated cultural facilities to be developed. Most capital cities have acquired new art galleries and museums—or have expanded existing ones—and built performing arts centres, of which the Sydney Opera House is the best-known. The Australia Council, which presides over the funding of the arts, has played a vital role in cultivating Australian talent in literature and the visual and performing arts. It and equivalent agencies of the state governments help support opera and dance companies, some of which have enjoyed success abroad. The government-funded Australian Broadcasting Corporation is also an important patron of the arts, particularly of music. It supports the principal symphony orchestra in each state and gives strong encouragement to composers. In Sydney many new facilities were also built (and established ones refurbished) during the 1990s to prepare for the 2000 Summer Olympics.

Australia enjoys a wealth of excellent libraries and museums. The Australia Museum (founded 1827), the country’s first, is renowned for its exhibits of natural history and cultural artifacts. Sydney is home to the Museum of Contemporary Art and the Australian National Maritime Museum (opened 1991). The Melbourne Museum, which opened in 2000, is the largest in the Southern Hemisphere and houses a diverse range of cultural and scientific exhibits. The National Museum of Australia in Canberra (opened 2001) maintains an extensive collection of exhibits exploring the history of the land and peoples of the country. The National Gallery, the National Portrait Gallery, the National Library, and the National Archives are also based in Canberra. The Outback is celebrated at the Australian Stockman’s Hall of Fame, located in western Queensland.

Sports and recreation

Sports play an integral role in the lives of many Australians, and the temperate climate of the most populated areas has always encouraged outdoor activities. Organized sports—including tennis, swimming, golf, basketball, and horse racing—flourish throughout the country.


The major summer sport is cricket. Introduced by a British ship’s crew, cricket arrived in Australia in 1803. Play among cricket clubs began in the mid-1820s and has flourished ever since, but the decade following World War II is remembered as among the greatest times in the history of Australian cricket. It saw the birth of the sporting legend of Don Bradman, still considered by many to be the greatest batsman in cricketing history. In 1948 Bradman captained the famous Australian Test team that earned the sobriquet “the Invincibles” when it won every match during its eight-month tour of England while contesting the Ashes, the biennial Test (international) match series between the national teams of England and Australia that was first staged in 1877. The remarkable accomplishment of the 1948 Australian side remains a hallmark of national sporting pride. Bradman’s legacy has been carried on by a long list of great Australian cricketers, including Keith Miller, Dennis Lillee, Allan Border, Steve and Mark Waugh, Shane Warne, Adam Gilchrist, Glenn McGrath, and Ricky Ponting. The national team captured World Cup titles in 1987, 1999, 2003, 2007, and 2015.


In the mid-1950s modern surfing hit Australia and quickly developed as one of the country’s most popular sports. Californian surfer-lifeguards arrived on Australia’s coast, bringing with them innovative fibreglass surfboards (products of World War II-era technological advances), on which they demonstrated incredible maneuvering abilities that prompted a great demand for the new boards among Australian surfers. By the 1960s a new youth surfing culture was booming in Australia. The speed, danger, and freedom associated with surfboard riding led many young Australians to adopt the stereotypical surfer lifestyle: they bleached their hair, adopted the “surfie” jargon that had originated in the United States, and traveled up and down the coast, chasing waves rather than committing to work or other responsibilities. This surfing culture also involved the development of surf music and a new dance move called the stomp.

The sudden popularity of surfing, particularly along the east coast, paved the way for competitive surfing, and Australia went on to produce more world champions in this sport than any other country. The first World Surfboard Championships, held on Sydney’s Northern Beaches in 1964, attracted a crowd of approximately 60,000 people. The event crowned the first official world champion surfer, Australian teenager Bernard (“Midget”) Farrelly, who became a surfing icon and the epitome of the surfing culture.

Australian rules football and rugby

Head and shoulders above all other sports in popularity is football, played in various forms. Australian rules football is approached with near-religious fervour. Originating in Melbourne in 1858 and somewhat resembling Gaelic football, Australian rules football was confined largely to the southern states of Victoria, South Australia, Western Australia, and Tasmania until 1990, when it became a truly national game with the formation of the Australian Football League. The sport has produced some of Australia’s most legendary athletes, including Roy Cazaly, Jack Dyer, and Leigh Matthews. Rugby, both union and league varieties, also enjoys wide popularity in Australia. The national team, known as the Wallabies, won the Rugby Union World Cup in 1991 and 1999 and has featured such greats as David Campese and John Eales.

Tennis and golf

Australia boasts a particularly rich tennis tradition. Melbourne hosts the annual Australian Open, one of professional tennis’s major world championships. Australian players in the 1960s and ’70s dominated the international tennis scene, many winning Grand Slam titles; among them are Rod Laver, Ken Rosewall, John Newcombe, Margaret Court, and Evonne Goolagong Cawley, whose Aboriginal descent made her accomplishments still more noteworthy. In professional golf Australian Greg Norman was one of the world’s top players in the 1980s and ’90s, winning two British Open titles (1986, 1993). Another major sport is horse racing; the most prestigious event of the year is the Melbourne Cup, held on the first Tuesday of each November and televised worldwide.


Australia has competed in every modern Summer Olympics, winning its first two medals in 1896, five years before it even existed as a country. It first participated in the Winter Games in 1936. The Melbourne 1956 Olympic Games were the first Olympics held in the Southern Hemisphere. The relatively recent invention of the television had made it possible to watch live sporting events, and the broadcasting of the Melbourne Games projected Australian athletes into the international sporting spotlight, which helped Australia forge its national identity. Australia finished third in the Games’ overall medal table, and Australians celebrated and idolized new sporting icons, such as sprinter Betty Cuthbert and swimmers Murray Rose and Dawn Fraser. The 2000 Games, held in Sydney, featured memorable performances by Aboriginal runner Cathy Freeman and by swimmer Ian Thorpe.

Media and publishing

Newspaper readership in Australia is high, with daily and weekly newspapers enjoying wide circulation. Particularly influential are the daily newspapers The Australian, The Daily Telegraph, and The Sydney Morning Herald (all published in New South Wales); the Herald Sun and The Age (Victoria); The Advertiser (South Australia); and The West Australian (West Australia). Newspaper ownership is highly concentrated, with only a handful of media groups controlling the vast majority of the country’s newspapers. Australia also has a lively publishing scene, though most publishing houses, apart from the university presses, are foreign owned.

The Australian Broadcasting Authority is responsible for regulating television and radio. There are two primary public broadcasters, both of which are funded by but independent from the national government: the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, which operates an extensive television and radio network; and the Special Broadcasting Service, which provides radio and television broadcasts to Australia’s various ethnic communities and offers sophisticated international coverage. There are also dozens of commercial radio and television broadcasters. Australia’s media is served by the Australian Associated Press news agency. The Australian press is free from most forms of government censorship.

John David Rickard The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
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