Sporting immigrants

Australia has a long history of migration from many different places.  With new people and cultures come new ideas and a significant immigrant contribution to Australian sport and society.

Immigrants have been particularly prominent in sports such as soccer, basketball, volleyball, water polo and weightlifting. They have also contributed significantly to skiing, shooting, swimming, athletics and gymnastics. It took time, but other sports, such as cricket and other football codes have also benefitted.

Historically, the immigrant contribution to Australian sport has been understated and undervalued. However, increasingly there is greater recognition that sportspeople of ethnic backgrounds have made a major contribution both nationally and internationally.

You can find a range of material on sporting immigrants in Australia at the Library, including books, journals, newspapers, pictures, oral history interviews and online databases.

Using the catalogue

Quick search

Use the catalogue standard search to find titles, authors, or subjects.

• If you get too many results, use the Limit your search options (at the right of the results page) to display only the items of interest. e.g. audio (oral histories) or manuscripts
• If you need to widen your search, click on subject headings in an item’s catalogue record to find other material related to that subject.

Examples of subject searches you can try include:

Minorities in sports – Australia

Immigrants - Australia – Recreation

You can also search for specific sports e.g.

Soccer – Australia

Basketball – Australia – [State/territory]

Skis and Skiing – Australia – [Periodicals] – [History]

Selected works

• Sporting immigrants: sport and ethnicity in Australia edited by Philip A. Mosely…[et al.]
• Sport and ethnicity  by Rob Lynch, Tracy Taylor, Kristine Toohey
• Sporting nationalisms : identity, ethnicity, immigration, and assimilation  edited by Mike Cronin and David Mayall
• Ethnic involvement in Australian soccer : a history 1950-1990  by Phillip [i.e. Philip] Mosely
• The death and life of Australian soccer  by Joe Gorman
• Through thick and thin : the South Sydney Rabbitohs and their community  by Charles Little
• Boom! : inside the NBL  by Bret Harris
• Australian skiing : the first 100 years  by Wendy Cross

The Library holds several oral history interviews with sporting immigrants which can be found searching our catalogue.  The following are a selection:

Rale Rasic interviewed by Roy Hay for the Sport oral history project [sound recording] – freely available to listen online.

• Zvonimir ‘Rale’ Rasic is a Serbian born immigrant who played with and coached the Australian football (soccer) team. He was the first coach to take Australia to the World Cup finals in West Germany in 1974.

Walter Lebedew interviewed by Rob Linn for the Sport oral history project [sound recording]  - freely available to listen online.

• Walter Lebedew OAM was known as the ‘founding father’ of Volleyball Australia. After migrating to Australia from Russia as a 16-year-old in 1949, Walter taught himself to play and referee volleyball and became heavily involved in the growth and administration of the sport in Australia.

Branko Filipi interviewed by Peter Read in the Peter Read collection of interviews conducted for his book entitled, Charles Perkins : a biography [sound recording]

• Branko Filipi was a significant leader in the Adelaide Croatian Soccer Club. In 1954 he became the club’s president and remained so for 14 years. In 1958, Charles Perkins (better known as Charlie Perkins), the leading Aboriginal Arrernte activist, joined the team and later represented Australia. This is one of forty interviews conducted by Peter Read for his book Charles Perkins : a biography.