‘A Question of Propriety?’: Women's Competitive Swimming in Melbourne, 1893–1900

The inauguration of the Victorian Amateur Swimming Association in 1893 as the supreme governing body for the sport in the colony of Victoria served to reinforce the notion of competitive swimming as a male enterprise, with women playing a passive and supporting role. However, by 1900 Melbourne women were staging their own successful competitive swimming carnivals, with significant public support. Through an examination of the press coverage of the period, this article explores the transition of female swimmers in Melbourne from spectators to sportswomen, and identifies a number of influences that contributed to the public acceptance of this particular activity. Factors such as the popularity of the sport with the female gentry, the passive support of females at male competitions, the inauguration of swimming instruction in state schools, and the exclusion of males from the initial women-only carnivals, were strongly emphasized in press coverage, and it was these features that were significant in developing the sport during the late nineteenth century in Melbourne.

Notes

[1] McDonald, The First 100, 5.

[2] Stell, Half the Race, 22.

[3] McDonald, The First 100, 2–3.

[4] Phillips, Swimming Australia, 17

[5] Raszeja, A Decent and Proper Exertion, 58.

[6] McCrone, ‘Play Up! Play Up!’ 104.

[7] Ibid.

[8] Ibid.

[9] Raszeja, A Decent and Proper Exertion, 16.

[10] Hargreaves, ‘Victorian Familism’, 142.

[11] Hargreaves, Sporting Females, 43.

[12] Raszeja, A Decent and Proper Exertion, 16.

[13] Ibid., 20.

[14] Ibid., 19–20.

[15] Ibid., 18.

[16] Hargreaves, ‘Victorian Familism’, 141.

[17] Stell, Half the Race, 6.

[18] Raszeja, A Decent and Proper Exertion, 5

[19] ‘Minetta’, ‘Lady's Letter’, Melbourne Punch, 20 January 1896, 71.

[20] Ibid.

[21] ‘Unda’, ‘Swimming’, Australasian, 31 October 1896, 850.

[22] ‘Minetta’, ‘Lady's Letter’, Melbourne Punch, 10 December 1896, 479.

[23] Ibid.

[24] Ibid.

[25] ‘Minetta', ‘Lady's Letter', Melbourne Punch, 24 December 1896, 519.

[26] ‘Cycling Notes’, Melbourne Punch, 5 December 1896, 464.

[27] Kinsey, ‘Australian Women Cyclists’, 81.

[28] Ibid., 81.

[29] Ibid., 84. The ‘New Woman’, or the ‘New Girl’ as she was sometimes referred to, was the symbolic figurehead of women's emancipation and a popular topic of public debate in the final years of the nineteenth century. At her most radical, she ‘challenged the most basic social institutions and beliefs, including marriage’ and ‘forced the re-conceptualisation of society's view of womanhood’. See Parratt, ‘Athletic “Womanhood’”, 142.

[30] McCrone, Playing the Game, 281.

[31] Hargreaves, ‘Victorian Familism’, 132.

[32] McCrone, Playing the Game, 60.

[33] Ibid., 163.

[34] Hess, ‘Case Studies in Australian Rules Football’, 115.

[35] Indian, ‘Leisure in City and Suburb’, 260.

[36] Ibid., 258.

[37] Ibid., 259.

[38] Hess, ‘Case Studies in Australian Rules Football’, 110.

[39] ‘Melbourne Swimming Club’, St Kilda Advertiser, 1 February 1896, 6.

[40] Hess, ‘Case Studies in the Development of Australian Rules Football’, 116.

[41] Ibid., 114.

[42] Raszeja, A Decent and Proper Exertion, 19–20.

[43] Ibid., 52–53.

[44] Hess, ‘Case Studies in the Development of Australian Rules Football’, 113.

[45] Raszeja, A Decent and Proper Exertion, 52.

[46] Hess, ‘Case Studies in the Development of Australian Rules Football’, 114.

[47] King, ‘The Sexual Politics of Sport’, 69.

[48] Ibid., 79.

[49] ‘Social’, Melbourne Punch, 7 February 1895, 93.

[50] ‘The Brighton Swimming Club’, Age, 25 February 1895, 3.

[51] See ‘Unda’, ‘Swimming’, Australasian, 11 January 1896, 67.

[52] ‘Swimming’, Argus, 25 January 1896, 4.

[53] Doyle, cited in Hess, ‘Ladies are Specially Invited’, 120.

[54] McCrone, Playing the Game, 281.

[55] ‘Swimming’, Sportsman, 30 January 1894, 6.

[56] ‘The Brighton Swimming Club’, Age, 25 February 1895, 3.

[57] ‘Unda’, ‘Swimming’, Australasian, 2 March 1895, 403.

[58] Ibid., 403. The statement regarding the presence of women's swimming clubs in Sydney in this period is interesting, as according to multiple historians, the first Sydney ladies' club was not established until 1902. It is possible these clubs are not considered official from the perspective that they were not affiliated with a state association, while the inaugural Sydney club in 1902 was granted conditional affiliation. See Raszeja, A Decent and Proper Exertion, 59, or Phillips, Swimming Australia, 17.

[59] ‘Brighton Swimming Club’, Brighton Leader, 18 January 1896, 2.

[60] Hargreaves, Sporting Females, 96.

[61] ‘Brighton Aquatic Sports’, Brighton Leader, 2 March 1895, 3.

[62] Melbourne Punch, 13 January 1898, 22.

[63] ‘Unda’, ‘Swimming’, Australasian, 31 October 1896, 850.

[64] ‘Minetta’, ‘Lady's Letter’, Melbourne Punch, 27 January 1898, 19.

[65] Melbourne Punch, 13 January 1898, 22.

[66] Blake, Vision and Realisation, 991.

[67] Stell, Half the Race, 38.

[68] Raszeja, A Decent and Proper Exertion, 57.

[69] ‘Minetta’, ‘Lady's Letter’, Melbourne Punch, 27 January 1898, 19.

[70] ‘Unda’, ‘Swimming’, Australasian, 5 February 1898, 303.

[71] ‘Girls Swimming Club’, Port Melbourne Standard, 9 April 1898, 3.

[72] ‘Overarm’, ‘Swimming’, Weekly Times, 1 April 1899, 25.

[73] Raszeja, A Decent and Proper Exertion, 67.

[74] ‘Minetta’, ‘Lady's Letter’, Melbourne Punch, 24 December 1896, 519.

[75] Ibid.

[76] ‘Minetta’, ‘Lady's Letter’, Melbourne Punch, 10 March 1898, 215.

[77] ‘Unda’, ‘Swimming’, Australasian, 12 March 1898, 578.

[78] Ibid.

[79] Parker, ‘An Urban and Historical Perspective’, 306.

[80] Parratt, ‘Athletic “Womanhood”’, 149.

[81] Raszeja, A Decent and Proper Exertion, 59.

[82] See ‘Unda’, ‘Swimming’, Australasian, 2 March 1895, 403.

[83] Daly, The Splendid Journey, 49. There were two ladies' clubs in existence in 1921, though Daly does not state when they were formed.

[84] ‘Overarm’, ‘Swimming’, Weekly Times, 11 February 1899, 26. It is uncertain whether this club was affiliated with VASA under the umbrella of the Brighton club, which became affiliated in 1895, or was a stand-alone club. See McDonald, The First 100, 197.

[85] Parker, ‘An Urban and Historical Perspective’, 287.

[86] ‘Unda’, ‘Swimming’, Australasian, 4 February 1899, 245.

[87] Melbourne Punch, 16 February 1899, 147.

[88] ‘A Question of Propriety?’, Brighton Leader, 18 February 1899, 2.

[89] ‘Swimming’, Australasian, 25 February 1899, 421.

[90] ‘Overarm’, ‘Swimming’, Weekly Times, 25 February 1899, 26.

[91] ‘Ladies’ Swimming Tournament', Brighton Leader, 25 February 1899, 3.

[92] ‘A Question of Propriety?’, Brighton Leader, 18 February 1899, 2.

[93] ‘Is it Selfishness or Modesty?’, Table Talk, 24 February 1899, 12.

[94] Ibid.

[95] ‘Lady Go-Divas at Brighton’, Melbourne Punch, 23 February 1899, 188.

[96] Ibid.

[97] Ibid.

[98] ‘Stella's Ladies Letter’, Table Talk, 24 February 1899, 17.

[99] ‘Social Circle’, Leader, 25 February 1899, 37.

[100] ‘Society Letter’, Leader, 17 February 1900, 37.

[101] See ‘Ladies Swimming Matches at Middle Brighton’, Weekly Times, 25 February 1899, 9.

[102] McCrone, Playing the Game, 281.

[103] Raszeja, A Decent and Proper Exertion, 68.