Origin Stories: Tracing the Development of Netball in Victoria during the Late Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Century

Abstract

Compared to other sports around the globe, netball has received relatively little attention from academic historians. The reasons for this omission are obvious, in that generally sport played by women has nearly always suffered in comparison to men’s sports in terms of exposure, acceptance, and financial support. Therefore, it is perhaps not surprising that the academy, throughout much of the twentieth century, has tended not to focus on studies of female sports. The purpose of this paper, then, is to explore the origin stories of netball in one particular state of Australia, namely Victoria. This task is constrained by the fact that there is only a relatively small number of published works on the history of netball in Australia, and a general lack of systematic or verified research regarding the diffusion of the sport to the antipodes. Critically, the paper is not based around a quest for a single point of origin. Rather, it calls for a better understanding and appreciation of the social context surrounding multiple origin stories, and how they may evolve, shift or be used in the light of new evidence, unexpected discoveries, or more informed interpretations. In short, the paper argues that the complexities of netball’s origin stories need to be further explored, understood, and embraced.