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McGowan, Lee (2019) Women’s association football (soccer) in Brisbane, Queensland 1921- 1933: new perspectives on early competition. Sport in History, 39(2), pp. 187-206.

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Notice: Please note that this document may not be the Version of Record (i.e. published version) of the work. Author manuscript versions (as Sub- mitted for peer review or as Accepted for publication after peer review) can be identified by an absence of publisher branding and/or typeset appear- ance. If there is any doubt, please refer to the published source. https://doi.org/10.1080/17460263.2019.1602075 Women’s association football (soccer) in Brisbane, Queensland 1921–1933: new perspectives on early competition

Lee McGowan Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia [email protected] https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1255-453X

Dr Lee McGowan is a researcher at the Queensland University of Technology. He’s written fiction and non-fiction for a range of publications. Besides women’s football (soccer), his research focuses on generative narratives and community engagement. He’s currently mapping the history of the football novel in Football in Fiction, an academic text for

Routledge (2020) and in a social history of women’s football in Australia for NewSouth

Books (2019).

This work was supported by funding from a Queensland University of Technology

Engagement Innovation Grant in partnership with the not-for-profit organisation Football

Queensland.

Women’s association football (soccer) in Brisbane, Queensland 1921–1933: new perspectives on early competition

In September 1921, two representative women’s teams played association football (soccer)

on the Brisbane Cricket Ground in Queensland, Australia. The crowd size, approximately

10,000, was not commensurate with those attending matches featuring Dick, Kerr Ladies in

England during the same period, but it was nonetheless a significant crowd at a match now

widely acknowledged as Australia’s first public game of women’s association football. New

evidence suggests it may have been the first between representative female association

football sides, with players selected from local teams.

Contemporary accounts note the match as a single event. Regular organised competition

did not occur until the early 1970s, but led to the formation of a national association in 1974.

An overview of current literature and new archival research highlights the emergence of a

strong culture around woman’s association football that begins before the Brisbane Cricket

Ground match. The evidence presents a possible imbalance between what occurred and what

has been recorded, and suggests a much more prolonged, if somewhat fragmented,

engagement with association football between 1921 and 1933 in southern Queensland. The

emergence of competition in Brisbane in the 1920s foregrounds the city’s—and, with it,

Queensland’s—contribution to the history and development of Australian women’s football.

Keywords: women’s football; women’s soccer; association football; football history; Brisbane.

Women’s association football (soccer) in Brisbane, Queensland 1921–1933 2 Introduction On 24 September 1921, two women’s teams played association football (soccer) on the

Brisbane Cricket Ground in Woolloongabba, the Brisbane suburb that now lends the grounds the colloquial title of ‘the Gabba’, The Queensland Football Association (QFA), the game’s local and state authority, held the lease on the venue and used the playing field for men’s association football. The women’s match was scheduled at 2:30pm, sandwiched between two matches featuring men’s teams. Amy Rochelle, a leading Australian theatre performer, took the kick-off from the centre spot and promptly left the field.1

In a recently discovered series of photographic images, the contrast between

Rochelle’s patterned dress and the players’ ‘less feminine’ sporting attire is striking.2 The cricket pitch is visible. The crowd size, approximately 10,000, was not commensurate with those attendances at games featuring Dick, Kerr Ladies in England during the same period, but it was nonetheless a significant crowd at a match acknowledged as Australia’s first public game of women’s association football.3 The teams—North Brisbane (the Reds) and South

Brisbane (the Blues)—were made up of players selected from a handful of teams that were, by then, competing regularly in association football matches on pitches at Bardon Park and

Toowong sports ground, Brisbane.4 The informal competition, made up of at least four clubs, appears to be Australia’s first women’s association football competition. The game took place at the Brisbane Cricket Ground in the city’s suburb of Woolloongabba, now better known as the ’Gabba, is Australia’s first between two representative sides of female association footballers. This paper will offer the first detailed discussion on women’s football’s development in and around Brisbane and southern Queensland, including the cities of Toowoomba and Ipswich, during the 1920s and early 1930s.

[image 1]

Women’s association football (soccer) in Brisbane, Queensland 1921–1933 3 Figure 1. Women playing Association Football at the Brisbane Cricket Ground, 24

September 1921.5

[image 2]

Figure 2. The best players in Brisbane? Team members from the North Brisbane (Reds) and

South Brisbane (Blues), Australia’s first representative women’s association football teams.

Use of the term ‘football’ in this paper, unless otherwise stated, refers to the association game, or soccer. Throughout Australian archival records, the terms ‘soccer’,

‘football’, ‘British Association football’ and ‘association football’ are used interchangeably to refer to the game more commonly known, globally and simply, as football. The terms are often used together by related sports organisations and writers in the 1920s. The Queensland

Ladies Soccer Football Association (QLSFA), which formed in 1921, is one example. Today, the term ‘football’ remains contested in the Australian context. In keeping with international expectation, its ownership is claimed by football, or soccer’s, national governing body

Football Federation Australia (FFA). The FFA’s counterparts in the three other sporting codes and organisational bodies, which also claim ownership of the term ‘football’, describe association football as ‘soccer’.6 The term ‘soccer’ remains a stubborn differentiation for those Australians outside of the association football community, while those within the community, insistent on using the term ‘football’ to describe their preferred code, believe their code is the only ‘true football’. Their determination was underlined by the sport’s national governing body, the Australian Soccer Association in 2005, when it changed its name to Football Federation Australia.7

The development of Australian women’s association football during this period was far from isolated or impulsive. As Katherine Haines notes, at least 16 individual women’s

‘football’ initiatives commenced in 1921 across the Australasian region: six were related to

Australian rules football; two to rugby league; one to rugby union; two were noted as being

Women’s association football (soccer) in Brisbane, Queensland 1921–1933 4 rugby but not of which code; and the remainder related to ‘soccer’, including the organisations formed in Brisbane and Toowoomba (discussed below).8 Women had been competing in Australian rules football matches in Western Australia in 1915.9 All four codes identified as women’s ‘football’ in Australia, especially rugby league and Australian rules football, experienced a peak in 1921.10 A week before the Gabba match in Brisbane, on 17

September 1921, two women’s rugby league teams played in Sydney before as many as

30,000 people.11 Peter Burke’s examination of the origins of early Australian rules football played by women in Western Australia offers useful context of women’s participation in the

Australian code,12 but it is Rob Hess who offers substantial insight and commentary on the remarkable growth in interest and participation across the codes and the deeper, wider social forces associated with women and modernity following World War One.13 Daryl Adair and

Wray Vamplew are among those who provide informed perspective on the development of

Australian women’s sport. Although not the focus here, their work and that of Jean Williams

(with Robb Hess), Katherine Haines and others should be consulted for the broader

Australian cross-code context.14

While this paper has predominantly been developed through new archival evidence, a small number of key texts that have examined various historical and contemporaneous aspects of the Australian association football context have been taken as a starting point.

They include: Jean Williams’ work on the history of women’s football in Australia, England and elsewhere;15 a single chapter on women’s football in Roy Hay and Bill Murray’s A

History of Football in Australia: A Game of Two Halves;16 Elaine Watson’s account of the origins and early years of the Australian Women’s Soccer Association (AWSA);17 and the article by Greg Downes, Ian Syson and Roy Hay; Jean Williams’ substantive work on the game in Australia in 2007; and perspectives developed earlier by Marion Stell.18

Women’s association football (soccer) in Brisbane, Queensland 1921–1933 5 This paper contextualises the 1921 Gabba match and examines events leading up to it, including the formation of the Queensland Ladies Soccer Football Association (QLSFA), and considers the formation of the representative sides that played on the day, as well as the teams competing in and around Brisbane at the time. It unpacks what is known of the post- ban 1922 season and provides new detail on regular weekly matches that took place in

Brisbane across the latter half of 1926 and the possible, though unrecorded, development of the game in the local city of Ipswich, Queensland in 1933. While the history of the women’s game in southern Queensland echoes Williams’ arguments on ‘archaic football governance’,19 the paper will demonstrate how the pioneers involved in women’s organisations, clubs and players in Brisbane sought to encourage autonomy for their teams and establish a place for female participation in the sport. The researcher acknowledges his work in this field as an advocate and supporter, and is keenly aware that his own unconscious bias may affect the delivery of, and insight delivered through, this research.

Women’s football in Australia pre-1921 Women who played—and play—football in Brisbane have been challenged by—and have overcome and continue to face—the same challenges and active opposition to their participation as their contemporaries in England.20 In the main, as listed above, academic researchers have developed what is known of Australian women’s football.21 Local participants such as Elaine Watson,22 and historians such as Peter Eedy,23 have developed a deeper understanding of Brisbane women’s recreational and competitive football endeavours.

However, significant gaps remain in collective local knowledge. The lack of coverage of matches and teams, competitive or otherwise, in those first decades of the 20th century is indicative of the issues informing and influencing understanding of the history of women’s football. Discussion attributing rationale for the women’s game’s diminishment in Brisbane would run parallel to those outlined in papers focusing on the sport’s development

Women’s association football (soccer) in Brisbane, Queensland 1921–1933 6 elsewhere.24 This paper leans on the sustained and substantial argument regarding the diminishment, marginalisation and subordination of women’s participation in sport in, among others, A Contemporary History of Women’s Sport, Part One: Sporting Women, 1850–

1960,25 and the oral history of Australian women’s football offered by Greg Downes.26 It seeks to highlight elements of the narrative overshadowed by a single notable celebrated event in Brisbane women’s football history and to uncover related activity not accounted for in current historical perspectives.

That relatively well-known match at the Gabba is now one of Australian football’s most important historical fixtures. Yet, while it was the first public match, it was not the first

Australian game of football featuring female teams. A call-out in an 1876 edition of the

Presbyterian Ladies College magazine indicates early interest in Melbourne, Victoria.27 In

1903, a delegation of female employees convinced the Secretary of the Clyde Engineering

Sports Club to support their team. Mr Lennox apparently took some convincing, fearing the implied dangers of the sport to its volunteers.28 While the team’s formation and match clothing—repurposed cycling attire—were reported in local newspapers, the resulting matches or training sessions were not.29 Another team’s emergence is highlighted in the press five years later in Candelo, New South Wales.30 These examples appear to echo the game’s growth in Europe and follow migratory patterns of working-class people from the United

Kingdom, which occurred around mining and other related heavy industry. Women’s teams are also known to have played in 1916 in West Wallsend, New South Wales,31 possibly reflecting workforce changes and increasing sports participation informing the game’s development in England and France during the same period. Reporting of the endeavours of

British women’s teams—including the Dick, Kerr Ladies, which regularly attracted crowds of 30,000–40,00032—in the Australian press,33 sparked nation-wide interest, including in

Brisbane, which had its first prominent team in early July 1921.34

Women’s association football (soccer) in Brisbane, Queensland 1921–1933 7 We know now that, alongside substantive participation in other football codes, women played a significant amount of association football during the 1920s in Australia.35

There are many indicators of interest in association football in the newspapers of the era that have been digitised for Trove, the national newspaper archive. Where possible, and where the newspapers have not yet been digitised or are not as readily available, this research includes examination of non-digitised local library resources. An example of the latter has provided detailed information on the teams formed in the city of Toowoomba in Queensland

(approximately 130 kilometres south west of Brisbane) in late June 1921.

The teams, Cities and Rovers, are noted in academic articles,36 and trade football histories,37 but recently discovered features in local non-digitised newspapers offer valuable and previously unrecorded detail. While anecdotal evidence of an earlier match held between the city’s South Girls School and Harlaxton in 1917 in Toowoomba has also just emerged,38 the detail uncovered on the Cities and Rovers teams is compelling. The teams formed at a single meeting, as has previously been documented. That it occurred after the players submitted their names on paper at the meeting has not. Further details include: the venue

(Hillcock’s Rooms); the meeting attendance numbers (27 women plus official representatives of the British Football Association and the Referees Association); a description of the practice session that took place at the local showgrounds that afternoon, which followed a lecture using blackboard illustrations; a description of playing attire or ‘costumes’ (Cities wore green jerseys, navy bloomers and blue caps, while Rovers wore cream jerseys, blue bloomers and white caps); gate receipts from the first public match were directed to a local charity; listed participants, some of whom may have been related, including, D. Holden, and

A. Holden for Rovers and E. Pearce, N. Pearce and a second E. Pearce, and G. Rawlings and

D. Rawlings for Cities; and that the women wanted to play secretly, away from the public eye.39

Women’s association football (soccer) in Brisbane, Queensland 1921–1933 8 Significantly, these reports note a number of consequent practice matches and additional fixtures and clubs: Cawdor (a club in Toowoomba) played Toowoomba Ladies;

Toowoomba Ladies accepted an invitation to play a match in Brisbane;40 and news of teams forming in Emu Vale, a town in the same region, appeared.41 While not conclusive, and presenting a fragmented narrative the existence of Emu Vale teams, Toowoomba Cities and

Toowoomba Rovers, Toowoomba Ladies and Cawdor, accompanying match reports and practice match descriptions suggest ‘healthy competition’ and the establishment of a rich association football culture in Queensland’s south west.42

In 1921, the population of Toowoomba was 20,702.43 Brisbane, a substantially larger city, had a population of around 213,000.44 Ipswich, a town 45 kilometres west of Brisbane, had an estimated population of around 23,000.45 The details noted above and those uncovered on the game in Brisbane enable informed estimations of similar activities occurring in those cities, even where they are not as clearly detailed. In an effort to contribute to existing narratives, the next section of the paper will consider the game’s development in Brisbane in the 1920s.

Brisbane Ladies Soccer Football Association, 1921. While initial interest in forming a team was highlighted at a Queensland Football Association

(QFA) meeting in June 1921, news of clubs forming in Toowoomba and clubs and an

Association forming in Sydney offer indications of gathering momentum.46 Brisbane’s first side, the Latrobe Ladies Soccer Football Club, was established by R. Powell, a man, on 5

July 1921 in Upper Paddington, a northern suburb now known as Bardon.47 Powell organised training sessions and actively encouraged women to play. Two more teams, South Brisbane and Brisbane Ladies, grew out of the formation of the Queensland Ladies Soccer Football

Association (QLSFA) at their inaugural meeting on 8 July 1921.48

Women’s association football (soccer) in Brisbane, Queensland 1921–1933 9 One hundred enthusiastic women attended the meeting in the Brisbane Gymnasium, making it Australia’s largest women’s football association at that time. At the same meeting,

William Betts, the Brisbane Gymnasium’s ‘physical culture instructor’, volunteered to provide appropriate training and advice on health and well-being. He would later paint footballs with aluminium to brighten the ball and facilitate evening training sessions.49

Powell chaired the QLSFA meeting, where he offered the Latrobe model as a guide for decisions on team formation and uniforms, including wearing socks instead of stockings, which was regarded as controversial among the attendees.50

In an example of ‘weak’ reasoning behind governing body-influenced decision- making, the QFA-led committee determined that it was too late in the season (the men’s structured competition ran March to October) for women’s teams to form a competition.

They would miss out, but could participate in recreational matches. Regular training soon began in earnest. Driven by V.A. McGregor-Lowndes, a local woman and fierce supporter of women’s sport,51 the next meeting and first executive meeting of the QLFSA, which was held on 22 July 1921, determined the uniforms of Brisbane Ladies and sought to arrange a match with Toowoomba Ladies.52 This fixture, arranged for 13 August, was then moved to 10

September. From there, without a ball being kicked, the fixture became a source of controversy and a catalyst for organisational change.

At their inauguration on 8 July 1921, and under the guidance of QFA members, the

QLSFA elected to pursue affiliation to the QFA. That did not occur until 26 August. Terrified of poor quality and sure of the humiliation it would cause the sport and its governing body, other members of the QFA executive—including the Chair, J.W. Kendal—refused to consider the QLSFA’s affiliation and denied the women opportunities to play their public match. When they did vote to accept the affiliation of the QLSFA, Kendal resigned in protest.53 He would not have been the first man to obdurately place an obstacle in the way of

Women’s association football (soccer) in Brisbane, Queensland 1921–1933 10 the women’s game’s development, but at that time he was Brisbane’s most powerful man in football. Unperturbed, the women, who had been training regularly, continued to lobby for high-profile match time. They successfully negotiated to play a curtain-raiser for an

Australian rules football interstate match to be held at the Brisbane Showgrounds on 10

September 1921.54 The match organisers, fully aware of growing public interest, offered the

QLSFA £50 to play the match.55 The QFA executive then changed its position and Kendal was ‘persuaded’ to return to his post (under threat of the resignation of six other board members).56 The Gabba match on 24 September 1921 was then agreed as the fixture for the women’s teams’ debut.

Kendal’s views, which amounted to football not being a game for women, and his accompanying antagonistic behaviour are indicative of attitudes toward and the treatment of women playing association football in Australia.57 They are indicative of Australian attitudes to each of the football codes.58 It could be argued the QLSFA’s wish to affiliate to the QFA offered Kendal a ‘free header’—an easy opportunity to protest in a significant way without any cost to himself or his reputation. Indeed, the action saw him gain ground with his own supporters. It may have been easier for the women to remain independent, but public matches raised revenue. Through the ‘generosity’ of the QFA,59 the Gabba fixture earned the QLFSA

£90. In addition to the revenue, the women simply wanted deserved recognition and the opportunity to play. The QFA’s exercise of its ability to control resources illustrates

Williams’ assertion on the abidance of ‘deeply conservative’, ‘historical continuities’ behind what appear on the surface to be ‘narratives of progress’.60

A 1921 article entitled ‘Girls will be Boys’ accompanied by a photograph of the

Plymouth team in England announced there would be as many as six teams playing in

Brisbane and its surrounding suburbs.61 Another in a New South Wales newspaper, The

Leader noted three teams formed, three forming, and as many as 200 players involved.62

Women’s association football (soccer) in Brisbane, Queensland 1921–1933 11 Reports on the QLFSA meeting note teams to be formed at the Otter Ladies’ Swimming Club and local Basket Ball Clubs,63 named Coorparoo and Ithaca.64 On 3 September 1921, a team named Celtics, Brisbane City (initially Brisbane), Brisbane Ladies (initially South Brisbane), and Latrobe Ladies played two competitive matches at Bowman Park.65 It is clear from the report, which notes the women having become ‘hardened’ or at least accustomed to playing in shorts for example, that there had been games and a significant amount of training prior to these fixtures. The report also notes Brisbane Gymnasium offered relative privacy and that women would have preferred their matches were played in secret. The attention of male spectators, the sensationalised media attention and general attitudes towards their participation would all have been contributing factors.

The Gabba Following an additional practice match at Toowong Sports Ground, Brisbane, on 17

September that Powell refereed,66 the teams were selected for the 24 September exhibition match. It is clear the Brisbane women’s football community were taking the fixture very seriously. Sixteen-year-old Jean Campbell of Brisbane City would captain North Brisbane

(the Reds) and Brisbane Ladies’ Miss G. ‘Fatty’ Wenlock, a former member of the English

Women’s Battalion Soccer XI, would captain South Brisbane (the Blues).67 The teams included players from the first three Brisbane clubs: City, Ladies and Latrobe. The match was scheduled to play after the meeting of two local second grade men’s teams and before the highly anticipated Home (ex-patriots from the United Kingdom) versus Queensland (those born in the state) scheduled at the top of the bill. With a well-taken goal by H. Breeze in the first half and a second-half penalty converted by, player of the match Jean Campbell, the

Reds won the fixture by two goals to nil. The match, two 30-minute halves, was refereed by

C.W. Searle, whose wife would later become the first QLSFA president. The two captains were also the teams’ form players and enjoyed excellent games. Whenever the fast and skilful

Women’s association football (soccer) in Brisbane, Queensland 1921–1933 12 Campbell won the ball, the crowd cheered her name. The action is reported at length and privileged in most reports over the men’s games either side.68 The Queensland Times animatedly (and patronisingly) reports with some surprise ‘the skilful treatment of the game by these young ladies’ and notes ‘the girls showed remarkable stamina’, and ‘evidence of keen training’.69

Local historians have argued the estimated attendance figure of 10,000 is a reflection of the Home versus Queensland match that followed the women’s game.70 Three weeks later in Ipswich on 15 October 1921,71 two teams made up of most of the same players, as indicated by team sheets published in local newspapers, played again. Unlike the match in Brisbane, it received top billing. The final result was a draw (2–2), but the match drew a crowd estimated to be around 3,000. Considering the levels of interest in other countries, the novelty of women’s football in Australia, the comparative populations of the cities (Brisbane 213,000, Ipswich

23,000), it is possible that there was enough genuine interest to attract 10,000 people this level of attention on its own. The initial plan was to have a representative Brisbane women’s team play a representative Ipswich team. The size of the crowd at the Gabba and rising expectations of a relatively large crowd at the 15 October fixture were widely reported. While the Ipswich women’s participation in football was burgeoning, it may have been nerves that saw the withdrawal of their team to be replaced with the North and South Brisbane teams. Another match between the Brisbane representative sides is reported at a sports carnival hosted in

Davies Park, West End on 14 November 1921 for the purposes of benefitting local charities.

South Brisbane won the match by two goals to one in an exhibition of skill, speed and tenacity.72 From what is known of the game’s development up to this point, and the women involved, it can be assumed that the football and its organisation for the latter games would have been treated with the same level of preparation and seriousness as the first. These games

Women’s association football (soccer) in Brisbane, Queensland 1921–1933 13 highlight continuing interest and a will to play games publicly, particularly where the outcomes benefitted the local community.

Examination of the period leading up to and after the Gabba match demonstrates the game’s burgeoning popularity, the growing number of local clubs being formed, and the numbers of players involved suggests women played a great deal more football in 1921 in

Brisbane, Toowoomba, Ipswich and other parts of Australia than has been represented to date. It is clear that training and, potentially, match fixtures have gone unrecorded and are therefore lost from historical documentation.

1922 The English Football Association (EFA) banned women from playing on EFA-affiliated pitches on 5 December 1921. The New South Wales Rugby League (NSWRL) organisation banned women from playing rugby league a few months earlier. The reasons given for the ban at the time were related to the ‘private’ nature of its sponsorship and fear that women’s participation would open the way for a rival league.73 In England, questions raised were concerned with the appropriation of revenue and preposterous medical arguments about the game’s unsuitability for female players.74 Those advocates in the Australian press made positive arguments for women’s participation, but only where they positioned rugby league or Australian rules football as far more dangerous games.75 In early 1922, the British

Association Interstate Conference in Melbourne forbade women from playing football on

Association-affiliated grounds.76 A fragmented state-based structure and lack of cohesive organisational communication of their agenda meant the ban was not directly or effectively put in place at a national, state or local level. However, where it was accompanied by newspaper arguments excluding women from Australian football codes, its implementation and intent have a marked effect in Brisbane and elsewhere.

Women’s association football (soccer) in Brisbane, Queensland 1921–1933 14 Determined to continue their successes of the previous year, the QLFSA met in the

Brisbane Gymnasium for their second annual general meeting on 22 February 1922. The committee announced substantial member numbers (approximately six teams) and healthy finances.77 They noted an enthusiasm to build on the first season and declared matches to be played in the one forthcoming.78 A newspaper report in April 1922 highlighted the return of

Brisbane City and Brisbane Ladies for their second season, reiterated confidence that more teams would return, and highlighted clubs forming in Ipswich too.79 A recently discovered team photo of the 1922 Brisbane City Ladies Football Club reflects a return to the game by a large proportion of the players who participated in 1921.

[image 3]

Figure 3. The 1922 Brisbane City Ladies Football Club.80

The first trial matches took place in June. A player interviewed by the press would not relinquish details on the venue, teams or kick-off times.81 Reports published on 19 June 1922 noted the first match of the season taking place on 17 June and that several weeks of training, prior to and after trials for the match, were undertaken in preparation.82 The match itself was a very one-sided affair between Brisbane City and Brisbane Ladies. Led by the inimitable

Jean Campbell (captain), with V. Molloy up front, City won by 12 goals to nil. Molloy scored seven goals, although the reporter does note the seventh was scored from an offside position.83

The outcomes of the rest of the 1922 season are not well recorded. The lack of evidence has been taken as signalling an end to women’s football,84 although it is more likely interest in the game follows the ‘fragmentary and discontinuous’ cyclical nature of that of participation in women’s Australia rules football around the same time.85 We see reportage and participation in the game fade by the end of 1922 and pick up again in Brisbane in

1926/1927 and then in Sydney and Newcastle in mid 1928.

Women’s association football (soccer) in Brisbane, Queensland 1921–1933 15 Outside of this pattern, it is important to note that when women’s football was discussed in Brisbane newspapers around this time, the players were described as being ‘shy of the public’. There was little fanfare—certainly no repeat of the publicity leading up to the

Gabba game. While it appears as if the football had stopped, it may be simply that the footballers were keeping their matches out of public view. Members of the press were invited to the match on 17 June and were asked not to report on the outcome until after the game:

“Indeed, it was the intention of the players to forego the game if there was likely to be anything in the nature of inordinate public curiosity or ridicule”.86 This is an understandable response and certainly not an unusual one. In 1921, as already noted, the women in

Toowoomba declared their resolve to maintain a level of secrecy around their participation.

The Brisbane teams, training in the Brisbane Gymnasium, preferred the venue for the privacy it offered.87 The 1921 matches were, at times, presented in the Australian press with some disdain and no small amount of objectification, with players and matches described in patronising or sensationalist tones. Kendal’s resignation and stance are presented as positives in a piece discussing the formation of the Newcastle Ladies Soccer Association.88 In another, the writer notes that he would rather a woman carried a violin case than a football under her arm,89 and, in possibly the worst example, The Evening Telegraph in Charters Towers printed a misogynistic parody of a football reportage that involves hair pin attacks and players pulling each other’s hair during the match. It is immediately followed by a racist caricature also passed off as humour.90 Even Right Half, an enthusiastic supporter of the women’s game, highlights admiration for English newspaper descriptions of a French footballer as ‘a living breathing Venus De Medici’ and ‘the prettiest little thing’.91 The first press of 1922

(4 February) is a rather skewed debate on whether it is acceptable for women to play football.92 Other reports present the arguments of the patriarchal football establishment, dressing their poorly-conceived, obstructive and self-interested perspectives in protectionist

Women’s association football (soccer) in Brisbane, Queensland 1921–1933 16 rhetoric, suggesting the women could still be saved from themselves as well as those predatory commercial organisations that might exploit them.93

While it appears the QLFSA may have continued,94 there does not seem to be any football reported in 1923. This reportage had been replaced with articles emphasising the comparative merits of hockey for Australian women.95 Women were also being encouraged to play netball (known as women’s basketball until 1970) and the lesser-known Australian team sport, vigoro. With exception of attire, these sports had very little in common. In all three, a sports skirt—and with it, suggestions of what would have been seen as more acceptable representations of ‘femininity’—were required elements of the uniform. Not coincidently, recruitment figures of hockey and netball—sports that are still immensely popular in Brisbane today—increased exponentially between 1923 and 1929.

The season of ’26 and the next 33 years In the latter half of 1926, newspaper reports highlight regular weekly matches of women’s football. Between them, Brisbane’s Daily Mail and Telegraph carry 14 articles. Dating from

July until late September, they report on matches and make open calls for players.96 Earlier reports note practice matches featuring the newly formed Brisbane Ladies City Soccer

Football team and a ‘scratch’ team.97 By the end of July, the QLSFA had been (re)formed.

Local newspapers carried celebratory recruiting images featuring a number of players and highlighted the women playing in football boots, wearing shorts and jerseys and caps.98 The organisation also maintained an office in C.F. Bell Building on Edward Street in Brisbane’s central business district. Through July, City Ladies continued to play scratch opposition— opposition that featured a number of recurring players, including Joyce Brady, S. Betts, Betty

Aldridge and E. Varney among others.99 By early September a decision was clearly made to dissolve City Ladies and form two new teams. The Brisbane-based Kangaroos and Wallabies women’s soccer teams continued to play against each other on a weekly basis. Matches took

Women’s association football (soccer) in Brisbane, Queensland 1921–1933 17 place at Kedron and Bowman Parks. A September 1926 article notes the players had every intention the matches would continue ‘through the summer months.’100 With Brisbane summers running from November to and through February, it is possible, and highly likely, women were playing football in early 1927.

Evidence exists of regular matches between a number of teams in the years between

1928 and 1933. These teams include Kurri North End, Weston, Abermain, and Speers Point in and around Newcastle, New South Wales.101 Other women’s teams,—Zig-Zags, State

Mine, Blue Birds and Vale of Cywydd—also formed and played matches in the same period.102 The names of the latter indicate their establishment may have followed patterns of formation of work teams in England between 1917 and 1921. While unpacking the detail of the development of football played by women in New South Wales is beyond the scope of this study, it is noted here as an area for further research.

From the weekly nature of ‘ladies’ soccer’ meetings being advertised in local newspapers in 1933 in Ipswich, it would appear women’s teams were or had begun playing regularly. A women’s team were formed in Booval, Ipswich and announced its weekly meetings beginning March 1933.103 Another team, Swifts Ladies Soccer Club, formed in

Bundamba, Ipswich, announced its own regular meetings through April.104 Prior to these advertisements, a number of calls were made for the development of an intercity soccer competition. One argument made by the all-male committee of the West Moreton British

Football Association was that the women’s games would provide excellent curtain raisers for the men’s competition. Proven in the initial matches in the 1920s, the potential of these matches to draw relatively large crowds and raise revenue for the clubs was an attractive prospect. The article also notes interest in Brisbane and implies that women were already playing in Booval near Ipswich at the time.105

With exception of the period between 1923 and 1926, evidence uncovered to date

Women’s association football (soccer) in Brisbane, Queensland 1921–1933 18 suggests women played more association football more often between 1921 and 1933 than had previously been assumed or understood. In addition, there is evidence that suggests it may not all have been recorded or reported on and their determination to keep their activities out of the press reflects an important aspect of the strength in the Brisbane women’s football community.

Conclusion Archival research indicates substantial and growing interest in Australian women’s football in Brisbane and in other parts of southern Queensland in the period 1921–1933. While the incidences reported are not sufficient evidence of sustained competition, they allude to establishment and growth, or at least the maintenance of significant women’s football communities. Themes common to both Australia and the UK emerge, particularly in terms of the resistance, prejudice women faced and in the challenges in finding venues to play and train. There is some frustration in the lack detail of the history and evident legacy of women’s football in Australia, but with much to learn and more evidence to uncover, this focus on one city allows insight, highlights previously forgotten, or sadly all too often dismissed, and begins to record a specific period and an incredibly important part of women’s football history.

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1 A noted local celebrity with the Town Topics Theatre Company, Rochelle was presented with gifts for her part in the match. Right Half, ‘Belles on the Ball’, The Week, Brisbane, September 30, 1921, 20. 2 Lee McGowan, ‘With the Ball at her Feet’. This local women’s football history project was developed with funding from Brisbane City Council, between 2016 and 2018. https://www.withtheballatherfeet.com.au (accessed August 20, 2018). 3 Gail Newsham, In a League of Their Own! The Dick, Kerr Ladies 1917–1965 (London: Paragon 2014), 35. 4 Bowman Park was opened in 1916 in Upper Paddington (renamed Bardon in 1925), Brisbane. The park is the current home of Bardon Latrobe FC. It was regularly used as the base for several men’s clubs, women’s teams and the junior association. ‘Bowman Park’, The Telegraph, Brisbane, September 25, 1916, 6. https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/176716262 (accessed May 21, 2018).

Women’s association football (soccer) in Brisbane, Queensland 1921–1933 19

5 All images for this article are the property of Football Queensland (FQ). FQ granted permission for their use and publication in 2017. Additional images in the series can be found at with https://www.withtheballatherfeet.com.au/1920s.html (accessed March 22, 2018). 6 Participants and supporters of rugby union, governed by Rugby Australia, describe their sport as rugby; however, in the Australian vernacular it is also referred to as ‘football’. Long considered the national sport in Australia, rugby league clubs, fans and those involved in the game also describe their sport as football. It is governed by the National Rugby League (NRL), which initiated its inaugural, four-team, Holden Women’s Premiership season in 2018. The local code, Australian rules football, football by Australian rules, or Aussie rules is described simply as ‘football’ too. Governed by the Australian Football League (AFL), Australian rules is arguably most popular in the southern states: Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania. Its AFLW the code’s women’s competition will enjoy its third season in 2019. 7 ‘Soccer’s Australian name change’, The Age, December 17, 2004. https://www.theage.com.au/sport/soccer/soccers-australian-name-change-20041217-gdz7i2.html (accessed November 19, 2018). 8 Katherine Haines, ‘The 1921 Peak and Turning Point in Women’s Football History: An Australasian, Cross-Code Perspective’, The International Journal of the History of Sport 33, no. 8 (2016), 829, doi: 10.1080/09523367.2016.1216982. 9 Peter Burke, ‘Patriot Games: Women’s Football During the First World War in Australia’, Football Studies 8, no. 2 (2005): 5–19, doi: 10.1080/09523367.2011.552414; 10 Haines, The 1921 Peak and Turning Point in Women’s Football History, 829. 11 Ibid. 12 Burke, Patriot Games, 9. 13 Rob Hess, ‘Missing in Action? New Perspectives on the Origins and Diffusion of Women’s Football in Australia During the Great War’, The International Journal of the History of Sport 31, no. 18 (2014): 2326–44, doi: 10.1080/09523367.2014.992113; Rob Hess, ‘“Playing With “Patriotic Fire”: Women and Football in the Antipodes During the Great War’, The International Journal of the History of Sport 28, no. 10 (2011): 1388–408; Rob Hess, ‘Women’s Australian Football’, in Sport in Victoria: A History, ed. David Nadel and Graeme Ryan (Melbourne: Ryan Publishing, 2015): 267–9; and Rob Hess, ‘“For the Love of Sensation”: Case Studies in the Early Development of Women’s Football in Victoria, 1921– 1981’, Football Studies 8, no. 2 (2005): 21. 14 See: Daryl Adair and Wray Vamplew, Sport in Australian History (Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1997); Daryl Adair, ‘Australian Sport History: From the Founding Years to Today’, Sport in History 29, no. 3 (2009): 405–436, doi: 10.1080/17460260903043351; Jean Williams and Rob Hess, ‘Women, Football and History: International Perspectives’, The International Journal of the History of Sport 32, no. 18 (2015): 2115–2122, doi: 10.1080/09523367.2015.1172877; and Haines, The 1921 Peak and Turning Point in Women’s Football History, 828–846. 15 Including: Jean Williams, ‘Waltzing the Matildas’, in A Beautiful Game: International Perspectives on Women’s Football (Oxford: Berg, 2007), 157–176; Jean Williams, A Game for Rough Girls: A History of Women’s Football in Britain, (New York: Routledge, 2003), 25–44; Jean Williams, ‘Standing on Honeyball’s Shoulders: A History of Independent Women’s Football Clubs in England’, in Football and the Boundaries of History: Critical Studies in Soccer, ed. Brenda Elsey and Stanislao G. Pugliese (New York: Palgrave MacMillan, New York 2017), 29, doi: 10.1057/978-1-349-95006-5_12. 16 Roy Hay and Bill Murray, A History of Football in Australia: A Game of Two Halves (Melbourne: Hardie Grant, 2014), 609–652. 17 Elaine Watson, Australian Women’s Soccer: The First Twenty Years (Brisbane: Australian Women’s Soccer Association, 1994). Much of the content this self-published work was reused in a second text developed, along with more localised material, by Elaine Watson and a team of contributors, titled Women’s Soccer in Queensland: In a League of Its Own, Celebrating the 20th State Championship, 1997 (Brisbane: Women’s Soccer Queensland). 18 Greg Downes, Ian Syson and Roy Hay, ‘“Not merely an isolated game”: Woman’s Association Football in Australia’, The International Journal of the History of Sport 32, no. 18 (2015), 2150–2170; Jean Williams, ‘Waltzing the Matildas,157–176; Marion Stell, Half the Race: A History of Australian Women

Women’s association football (soccer) in Brisbane, Queensland 1921–1933 20

in Sport (North Ryde: Angus & Robertson, 1991); and Downes doctoral thesis, An oral history of the women’s football in Australia (Victoria University, Melbourne, 2015). 19 Jean Williams, Standing on Honeyball’s Shoulders, 29. 20 Jean Williams, A Game for Rough Girls, 25–44. 21 See also: Jean Williams, A Contemporary History of Women’s Sport, Part One: Sporting Women, 1850– 1960, London: Routledge (2014), Jean Williams, Globalising Women’s Football: Europe, Migration and Professionalisation (Peter Lang: London, 2013), A Beautiful Game, A Game for Rough Girls, and Standing on Honeyball’s Shoulders; See also, Stell, Half the Race; Jayne Caudwell, Gender, feminism and football studies, Soccer & Society, 12 no. 3, (2011), 330–344, doi: 10.1080/14660970.2011.568099; and Barbara Cox and Richard Pringle, ‘Gaining a Foothold in Football: A Genealogical Analysis of the Emergence of the Female Footballer in New Zealand’, International Review for the Sociology of Sport, 47, no. 2, (2012), 217–234. 22 Watson, Australian Women’s Soccer; Watson, Women’s Soccer in Queensland. 23 Peter Eedy is an established local authority on the history of sport in Brisbane. His expertise runs across the initiation of multiple codes and a number of key population, socio-economic and geographical aspects. Information provided in personal correspondence, March 16, 2018. 24 See, for example: Jean Williams, A Contemporary History of Women’s Sport, Part One: Sporting Women, 1850–1960 (London: Routledge 2014); Williams, Globalising Women’s Football: Europe, Migration and Professionalisation (Peter Lang: London, 2013); Williams, A Beautiful Game; Williams, A Game for Rough Girls; and Williams, Standing on Honeyball’s Shoulders; see also, Stell, Half the Race; Jayne Caudwell, ‘Gender, feminism and football studies’, Soccer & Society 12, no. 3 (2011), 330– 344, doi: 10.1080/14660970.2011.568099; Lee McGowan and Greg Downes, ‘The challenges remain: A “new” view of old perspectives on the history of women’s football in Australia’, Social Alternatives 37, no. 2 (2018), 64; and Barbara Cox and Richard Pringle, ‘Gaining a Foothold in Football: A Genealogical Analysis of the Emergence of the Female Footballer in New Zealand’, International Review for the Sociology of Sport 47, no. 2 (2012), 217–234. 25 Williams, A Contemporary History of Women’s Sport, Part One. 26 Downes, An Oral History of the Women’s Football in Australia. 27 Ray Crawford, ‘Sport for young ladies: The Victorian Independent Schools, 1875–1925’, Sporting Traditions 1, no. 1 (1984), as cited in Williams, Waltzing the Matildas, 163. 28 Cumberland Argus and Fruitgrowers Advocate, Parramatta, NSW, May 30, 1903, 5. 29 Paul Nicholls, ‘Mothering the Matildas: the trailblazers who kick-started Australian women’s football’, The Roar, September 13, 2018. https://www.theroar.com.au/soccer/longform/mothering-the-matildas- the-trailblazers-who-kickstarted-australian-womens-football-660328 (accessed September 14, 2018) 30 Downes, Syson and Hay, Not Merely an Isolated Game, 2166. 31 Ibid. 32 Newsham, In a League of Their Own, 37. 33 See The Hobart Mercury, June 25, 1921, 5. 34 Right Half, ‘Soccer Football. Paddington Girls Form a Club’, The Telegraph, Brisbane, July 7, 1921, 4. The report notes the formation of the Latrobe Ladies team occurred around July 5, 1921. 35 Sydney Ladies Soccer Association formed at a meeting held at the Sydney Sports Ground on 30 June, 1921. Newspaper reports in July also note teams forming in Balgownie and Woonona (near Wollongong), Mayfield, Boolaroo, St George and West Wallsend in the Newcastle district. Nicholls, Mothering the Matildas; and, Nicholls, personal correspondence, October 18, 2018. 36 Downes, Syson and Hay, Not Merely an Isolated Game, 2152. 37 Hay and Murray, A History of Football in Australia, 616. 38 Nicholls, personal correspondence, September 28, 2018. 39 ‘Lady Footballers: Enthusiastic meeting’, Darling Downs Gazette, July 7, 1921, 6. 40 Forward, ‘Soccer’, Darling Downs Gazette, July 23, 1921, 9. Women’s association football (soccer) in Brisbane, Queensland 1921–1933 21

41 From our correspondent, ‘Swan Creek’, Warwick Daily News, July 19, 1921, 4. 42 Right Half, ‘Soccer Football, Ladies want to play Toowoomba’, The Week, Brisbane, July 22, 1921, 21; ‘Ladies at Soccer’, The Telegraph, Brisbane, July 18, 1921, 9; and see notes ‘36’ and ‘37’. These articles discuss Toowoomba teams practising twice a week and preparing to play Cawdors, a local men’s club with ambitions to establish a women’s team. 43 ‘Toowoomba’s Population’, Warwick Daily News, October 22, 1921, 5. 44 ‘A Growing City, Brisbane’s progress’, The Daily Mail, Brisbane, July 19, 1922, 9. 45 Historical tables, demography, 1823 to 2008 (Q150 release), Queensland Government website: http://www.qgso.qld.gov.au/products/tables/historical-tables- demography/index.php?region=brisbane (accessed 20 February, 2019) 46 Right Half, ‘Soccer Football: The Death of Edwin Aldred; Keen interest in Women’s Clubs’, The Telegraph, Brisbane, June 30, 1921, 6; Right Half, ‘Soccer Football: Formation of Women’s Clubs’, The Week, Brisbane, July 1, 1921, 18. 47 The Bardon Latrobe Club are situated on the very same grounds today. 48 A similar group formed in Newcastle a little later in July, Soccer Ladies, Newcastle Association, Division of Opinion, The Newcastle Sun, July 22, 1921, 2. 49 ‘Lady Footballers, Queensland Association formed’, Daily Standard, Brisbane, July 9, 1921, 5. 50 Right Half, ‘Girl Footballers, Enthusiasm in Brisbane, Soccer Association formed’, The Telegraph, Brisbane, July 9, 1921, 15. 51 ‘Sporting Editor’s Spotlight’, Truth, Brisbane, February 23, 1941, 7. V. McGregor Lowndes was a patron of the QLSFA for three years between 1921 until 1923. This article celebrates her 25-year sporting legacy. 52 Right Half, Ladies want to play Toowoomba, 21. 53 Right Half, ‘Soccer Football, Will Kendal Come Back?’, The Telegraph, Brisbane, August 4, 1921, 21. 54 ‘Football: Australian Game’, Daily Standard, August 19, 1921, 21; ‘Women and Football, Trouble in Queensland’, Evening News, August 19, 1921, 2. 55 Prolific sports writer Right Half underlines an enthusiastic support and advocacy for the women’s game as a running theme across numerous articles, including an article that carries a disdain for the QFA and notes the Referees Association’s support for the women’s game. Right Half, ‘Soccer Football, Holding Aloof from the Girls’, The Week, Brisbane, September 2, 1921, 20. 56 Right Half, ‘Soccer Football, Ladies Association and Affiliation, Six QFA Executives Members Resign’, The Week, Brisbane, August 26, 1921, 21. 57 For further discussion on the treatment of women footballers in Australia, see: Williams, Waltzing the Matildas, 157–176; Hay and Murray, A History of Football in Australia, 616–652; Downes, An Oral History of Women’s Football in Australia, 83–144; and Downes, Syson and Hay, Not Merely an Isolated Game, 2153; McGowan and Downes, The Challenges Remain, 62–74. 58 See, for example: Haines, The 1921 Peak and Turning Point in Women’s Football History, 828–846; Williams, Waltzing the Matildas, 157–176; Hess, Missing in Action?, 2326–44; and Hess, Playing With Patriotic Fire, 1388–408. 59 Feldy, A. R., ‘Soccer: Ladies make their debut. Record Crowd at the ’Gabba’, The Daily Standard, Brisbane, September 26, 1921, 8. 60 Williams, Standing on Honeyball’s Shoulders, 229. 61 Right Half, ‘Ladies want to play football’, The Telegraph, Brisbane, July 14, 1921, 5. 62 Women at Football, The Leader, Orange, NSW, July 20, 1921, 1. 63 Women’s basketball changed its name to netball in Australia in 1970. These clubs would have been netball clubs. Women’s football has only just recently overtaken netball as Australia’s number one participation sport. Australian Sports Commission, AusPlay: Participation data for the sport sector: Summary of key national findings, October 2015 to September data, December 21, 2016, 14.

Women’s association football (soccer) in Brisbane, Queensland 1921–1933 22

64 ‘Lady Footballers. Queensland Association formed’, Daily Standard, Brisbane, July 9, 1921, 5. 65 Right Half, The Telegraph, Brisbane, September 8, 1921, 6. 66 ‘“Go It Jean!”, Girls bust at Soccer, Excitement at Bowman Park’, The Telegraph, Brisbane, September 5, 1921, 13. 67 Rover, ‘Football, Soccer, ladies at the ’Gabba’, Daily Mail, Brisbane, September 24, 1921, 14. 68 Right Half, ‘Belles on the Ball, Cheered by Huge Crowd’, The Week, Brisbane, September 30, 1921, 20; Feldy, A. R., Soccer: Ladies Make their Debut. Record Crowd at the ’Gabba, 8; Celtic, ‘Soccer Notes’, Queensland Times, Ipswich, September 29, 1921, 6. 69 Right Half, Belles on the Ball, 20. 70 Eedy, personal correspondence, June 5, 8 and 11, 2018. 71 Celtic, ‘Saturday’s Pastimes, ladies at Soccer’, Queensland Times, Ipswich, October 17, 1921, 4. 72 ‘Ladies’ Sports. Carnival at Davies Park’, Brisbane Courier, November 14, 1921, 4. 73 NSWRL’s first women’s rugby league match was promoted by a commercial entity not previously approved by the organisation. This promotion signalled the possibility of a rival men’s league starting and so the women’s game suffered. For further detail, see Haines, The 1921 Peak and Turning Point in Women’s Football History, 837. 74 See Williams, A Game for Rough Girls; and Newsham, In a League of Their Own! 75 Right Half, ‘Soccer Football. Formation of a Women’s Clubs’, The Week, Brisbane, July 1, 1921, 18; Right Half, ‘Soccer Football, Paddington Girls Form a Club’, The Telegraph, Brisbane, 7, 1921, 4. 76 ‘Following the decision of the English F.C., Conference unanimously decided not to recognise ladies’ football in any shape or form and to forbid the use of any association or club grounds for such matches’, British Association Interstate Conference, The Daily News, Perth, February 13, 1922, 2. 77 A balance of £64, as noted in, Downes, Syson and Hay, Not Merely an Isolated Game, 2153. 78 ‘Ladies Football Association’, Brisbane Courier, February 15, 1922, 4. 79 Right Half, ‘Soccer Football, Girls ‘Scared of Public Opinion’, The Telegraph, Brisbane, Thursday 13 April, 1922, 4. 80 The image was discovered January 11, 2018, in the Queensland Football History Project archives. It is displayed, with permission of Football Queensland. 81 ‘Women Footballers: Shy, but will play again’, The Telegraph, Brisbane, June 1, 1922, 3. 82 ‘Feminine Footballers, Opening of Season’, The Telegraph, Brisbane, June 19, 1922, 6. 83 ‘A Ladies Match’, Brisbane Courier, June 19, 1922, 8. 84 Haines, The 1921 Peak and Turning Point in Women’s Football History, 836. 85 Hess, Missing in Action, 2328. 86 Women Footballers: Shy, but will play again, 3. 87 See notes ‘39’, ‘61’ and ‘82’. 88 ‘Soccer Ladies, Newcastle Association: Division of Opinion’, The Newcastle Sun, July 22, 1921, 2. 89 Rover, ‘Soccer Notes’, The Daily Mail, Brisbane, July 13, 1921, 3. 90 ‘Ladies Football’, The Evening Telegraph, Charters Towers, June 24, 1921, 3. 91 Right Half, ‘Soccer Football. Formation of women clubs’, The Week, Brisbane, July 1, 1922, 18. 92 ‘Should Girls play football?’, Daily Standard, Brisbane, February 4, 1922, 6. 93 These issues and concerns are addressed in more detail in Downes, Syson and Hay, Not merely an isolated game, 2153. The authors highlight drawing heavily on material discussed in, Hay and Murray, A History of Football in Australia, 626–629. 94 Sporting Editor’s Spotlight, Truth, 7.

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95 The Net, ‘Hockey, its merits discussed’, The Telegraph, Brisbane, March 24, 1924, 6. One organisation in NSW went as far as organising a woman’s hockey team versus a men’s soccer team event. ‘Hockey. Gordonvale Ladies Rep. Team V. Soccer Team (Gents.)’, The Cairns Post, August 15, 1928, 8. 96 ‘Women’s Soccer’, The Telegraph, Brisbane, July 14, 1926, 2; ‘Women’s Soccer’, The Telegraph, Brisbane, July 23, 1926, 12; ‘Women’s Soccer’, The Telegraph, Brisbane, August 6, 1926, 15; ‘Women’s Soccer in Brisbane’, The Telegraph, Brisbane, August 13, 1926, 15; ‘Women’s Soccer in Brisbane’, The Telegraph, Brisbane, September 8, 1926, 14; ‘Women’s Soccer in Brisbane’, The Daily Mail, Brisbane, September 22, 1926, 20. 97 ‘Ladies’ Soccer Football’, The Telegraph, Brisbane, June 23, 1926, 14, notes a match on June 19, 1926; ‘Ladies’ Soccer’, The Daily Mail, Brisbane, June 30, 1926, 8, notes match on June 26, 1926; ‘Women’s Soccer’, The Telegraph, Brisbane, July 2, 1926, 10, notes a match on July 3, 1926. ‘Women’s Soccer’, The Telegraph, Brisbane, July 27, 1926, 3. 98 ‘Women’s Soccer’, The Telegraph, Brisbane, July 23, 1926, 12. 99 ‘Women’s Soccer, Association Formed’, The Telegraph, Brisbane, July 27, 1926, 3. 100 ‘Women’s Soccer in Brisbane’, The Daily Mail, Brisbane, September 29, 1926, 15. 101 ‘Women’s Soccer Match’, The Newcastle Sun, November 1, 1928, 11; ‘Ladies’ Soccer Match’, The Cessnock Eagle and South Maitland Recorder, NSW, November 2, 1928, 10; ‘Football, Soccer Code, Northern Ladies Teams for Sydney’, The Newcastle Morning Herald and Miners’ Advocate, November 6, 1929, 5; ‘Ladies’ soccer match’, The Newcastle Morning Herald and Miners’ Advocate, November 16, 1929, 10; see also Hay and Murray, A History of Football in Australia, 618. 102 ‘Ladies’ Soccer’, The Lithgow Mercury, July 29, 1931, 6. 103 Advertising, Queensland Times, March 31, 1933, 2. 104 Advertising, Queensland Times, April 5, 1933, 2. 105 ‘Brisbane Soccer. Why not Inter-City Games?’, The Telegraph, Brisbane, March 21, 1933, 3.

Women’s association football (soccer) in Brisbane, Queensland 1921–1933 24