Times of Old
Copyright© 2013 by Ernest Bywater
Foreword
Foreword
Many readers will not be familiar with Australia and some of our sports, so this foreword is to make sense of one small part of this story.
Australia is a relatively new country, and it’s often incorrectly placed when sorting out where countries stand on the world stage. European colonisation of Australia started in 1788, with more settlements from 1803 to 1859, and it has only existed as a country since 1 January 1901. It is the sixth largest country in the world, but its population is about twenty-three million, its population density is in 233rd place. The world thinks of Australia as being fully developed, but it’s still a developing country with much of it empty or populated by large farms with a low number of workers. The great majority of the population lives on the coastal fringe, with a huge rivalry between all of the states that’s best demonstrated by the large mix of the sports played. Which is why the most uniquely Australian sport of Australian Rules Football has become nationwide in only the last few decades, despite being first officially played in 1859, and being a demonstration sport in the 1956 Melbourne Olympics.