In 1922, A Women's Hockey Explosion Took Place In Australia

There are no glaciers in Australia, but in 1904, the nation erected their first indoor ice skating facility, the Adelaide Glaciarium. It was followed shortly by the Melbourne Glaciarium in 1906, and the Sydney Glaciarium in 1907.

Henry Newman Reid was responsible for opening the Glaciariums and is considered the founder of ice hockey in Australia. His only daughter, Mireylees Reid would later play ice hockey in New South Wales.

Ice hockey as we know it in North America however, was never played at the Adelaide Glaciarium, although an exhibition of field hockey on ice was played at the venue. Conversely, when the Melbourne Glaciarium was built two years later, it was built specifically as an arena for ice hockey. Hockey at the time was beginning to evolve in Australia, moving from the use of a ball and field hockey sticks, to a puck and hockey stick.

Women first played hockey at the Melbourne Glaciarium in 1908 when a visiting American fleet arrived in Australia. It wasn't however, until the 1920s that women's hockey really took off in Australia.

Before ice hockey could fully develop in Australia, it had another threat to vanquish. That threat was the popularity of dancing. In 1920, Melbourne Glaciarium didn't put in their ice surface due to the demand for larger venues to serve as dance halls. But the game still found a way to stake claim to a place in Australia's sporting landscape, and soon, regular competition was occurring in Melbourne and women's hockey was quickly incorporated into the Victorian Ice Hockey Association.

From the turn of the century forward, men and women began bringing the game back from trips to Canada and the United States. Among the prominent individuals to do such was Lena Uksila. Uksila was born in Michigan in the USA. She was first hired by the New York Hippodrome to perform a skating exhibition alongside William Chase in a benefit put on by the St. Nicholas Rink. The St. Nicholas Rink, under the guidance of Canadian Kathleen Howard was the first organized group hosting women's hockey at the time in New York, and a pivotal group for the development of women's hockey in America. Uksila performed in New York on many occasions, including alongside Robert Jackson, the first captain of Australia's Victoria ice hockey team, at the Ice Palace in Manhattan in 1917. It was a link between North American hockey and Australia that wouldn't be broken, as Uksila would soon make her way to Australia, including in 1923 when Lena and her brother Charles were contracted for 14 weeks to perform skating in Australia, which also saw Charles begin coaching ice hockey in the country.

Charles Uksila played professionally in North America in the Pacific Coast Hockey Association, a league run by Frank and Lester Patrick. He played with the Vancouver Millionaires and the Portland Rosebuds, including competing for the Rosebuds in 1916 in the Stanley Cup final against the Montreal Canadiens. Born in Michigan, Charles Uksila is believed to be one of the first American born players to play for the Stanley Cup. In game five of that series, Uksila scored the winning goal against George Vezina for Portland in a 6-5 decision over Montreal. Also on the Rosebuds that season was Tommy Dunderdale, the first Australian born player to compete for the Stanley Cup. Dunderdale was later inducted to the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1974, and is also credited with scoring the first penalty shot in hockey history. Charles Uksila later refereed in the NHL, and was one of the founders of the famed Ice Capades.

Back in Australia during the 1920s, top women's hockey players of the era included Victoria's first captain Keira Gower, Madge Kendall (nee Morris), and goaltender Annie Ford. Kendall was the long serving captain of Victoria's team, while Ford was the captain of New South Wales. Elsie Rea of New South Wales was one of the top goal scorers at the time.

National ice hockey competition in Australia among women was first recorded in 1922,  when domestically, teams were playing for the Gower Cup for the first time between teams from Sydney and New South Wales. The Gower Cup was donated by Henry Gower and presented by Kathleen Goodall, the wife of Australia's first hockey association president John Goodall.

Annie Ford recorded multiple shutouts in that season playing for New South Wales. In the opening game of their series at the Melbourne Glaciarium, Sydney defeated Melbourne 3-0. Sydney's team had four members who were described by The Muswellbrook Chronicle as "fancy figure skaters." As The Sydney Mail wrote at the time, "They have shown a sporting spirit in engaging in the matches in Melbourne as some of the fancy figure exponents refrain from playing hockey fearing it might spoil the more artistic department of their sport."

Competition for the Gower Cup continued over the next several seasons. In August of 1924, The Argus, an Australian paper declared that women's hockey had become a regular event. "These games are annual fixtures. Three tests are played and the team winning the majority of them receives, in the women's competition, custody for one year of the Gower Cup," The Argus wrote on August 4, 1924.

During a 1925 game, Sydney's The Sun newspaper reported a "clamorous crowd" chanting "Come on, Vic" supporting the Victoria side from Melbourne.

"Long-drawn-out and shrill, the shout went round the Glaciarium last night for the encouragement of the six determined little figures who bore the letter V. in gold on their black uniforms," The Sun wrote, who also noted a fan had brought a motor horn and another a large drum to the game.

In the 1926 final, Madge Kendall scored the overtime winner for the Gower Cup as reported by The Argus, "Mrs Kendall, by her deft stick work, piloted the puck to a possible scoring position, and with a beautiful shot sent into the New South Wales goal, thus securing the championship for Victoria."

The majority of the women involved in ice hockey in the era were also prominent swimmers, tennis players, rowers, speed skaters, and fancy skaters.

When the 1930s commenced, teams had officially adopted nicknames such as the Kookaberas and the Bohemians. Much like the North American game however, there was little mention of women's ice hockey during World War II.

Following the war in 1949, women's ice hockey returned to Sydney after only being played in Melbourne for the previous 23 years. That game featured the Eastern Cats and the Western Witches, where as the The Australian Women's Weekly wrote, "Most of the players are in their teens and hold high skating awards. Match created so much interest it seems likely women's ice hockey will become a permanent affair."

The next season, Mireylees Reid, whose father founded Australia's first three Glaciariums recalled her early involvement in hockey in Australia during an interview on March 9, 1950 with The Sydney Morning Herald.

"I grew up skating," Reid said. "I was carried over the ice before I could walk, and put on it as soon as I could." She did however note, that by 1950, figure skating had become the primary on ice focus of women in Australia, while ice hockey was primarily being played by men.

Women's hockey, however, continued to be played in Australia throughout the century, and in many ways as time progressed, the challenges that plagued women in North American hockey mimicked those in Australia. While girls in Canada like Heather Kramble and Justine Blainey fought legal battles to play hockey on boys' teams in the 1980s as none existed for them in any all-girls organization, 11-year-old Laura Cooper fought the same fight in Melbourne, Australia.

Cooper was said to be the only girl playing hockey in Melbourne in 1984. Banned for five years from playing hockey, that year she finally won her spot to play on a boys' team that intended to travel to Canada for a tour.

"Victoria's only female ice hockey player has been selected to play in an otherwise all-male team which will tour Canada..." a Melbourne based newspaper read. "[F]or Laura Cooper, 11, the selection is the climax of a long battle which began when she was banned from playing her favourite sport for five years."

Cooper wanted to join her two older brothers who played ice hockey but "was told girls weren't allowed to play." She persevered and proved she belonged.

"When I first began playing," Cooper said at the time, "The opposition team members used to wink at me but they soon found out I was as tough as the boys."

Cooper played for the Footscray Pirates, one of many teams that had popped up in the 1980s, which also included all-girls' teams like the Sanyo Mumma Bears from Canberra and the Sydney Royals.

It seemed like a slow crawl compared to the explosion in popularity of women's hockey experienced 60 years prior in Australia, but progress continued. At meeting in 1982 and 1984 between Canada's Pauline Doucet and Australia's Lynne O'Meara at the World's Fair as representatives discussing sport, another building block was put in place. Doucet visited Australia and helped teach the sport and organize opportunities for Australian women.

"I plan to have an Australian representative team drawn mainly from Canberra but supported by other states playing in a few major tournaments around Toronto," Doucet told The Canberra Times on September 12, 1986. Doucet saw the state of ice hockey in Australia and hoped to see it develop.

"It's very different to Canada," she said. "You can't compare the two. Ice hockey to Australia is what cricket is to Canada, even though there is maybe more ice hockey here than cricket in Canada. There are keen players here especially among the boys but with the women's team it's really 'pioneer day'."

In 1987, although an Australian team did not attend, according to Fran Rider, a leader in the development of women's hockey in Canada and globally,  a delegate from Australia was in attendance at the 1987 unofficial women's World Hockey Tournament, the precursor to official IIHF sanctioned world play. The invite was open for the ACT team from Canberra to play in Toronto that year. The following year in 1988, Canberra hosted the inaugural Australian women's ice hockey championship.

In 2006, the Australian Women's Ice Hockey League was founded with the Adelaide Assassins, Melbourne Dragons, Sydney Sirens, and Brisbane Goannas playing annually for the Joan McKowen Memorial Trophy. In 2018, a fifth team joined known as the Perth Inferno. Today, the Melbourne Ice, Perth Inferno, Sydney Sirens, Brisbane Lightning, and Adelaide Rush remain members of the league.

Internationally, the nation founded their first IIHF sanctioned U-18 team in 2012, competing for the first time at the U-18 IIHF World Championships in 2016. Ranked 31st in the IIHF World rankings, Australia will host the 2025 Division IIA and Division IIB World Championships at the senior level.

While hockey is considered a game dominated by North American and European nations, the history of women's hockey in Australia is more than a century old, and one that cannot be overlooked in the global development of the game.

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