Sean Fagan of RL1908.com

An edited version of this article appeared in The Daily Telegraph (Sydney) on July 25, 2003

Australia's sporting colours have changed many times across many sports including cricket, soccer, olympics, rugby union (Wallabies) and rugby league (Kangaroos).

The reasons for the selection of certain colours and emblem for many sporting teams are often lost deep in history. Sometimes there is logical and symbolic reasons for the use of specific colours and badge, sometimes there is no reason at all and their significance can be exaggerated.

While Australia's official sporting colors were adopted as blue and gold before the end of the 1800s, none of its sporting teams adopted the colours - or few perhaps even gave it a thought. Scarcely any Australian sports of the late 1890s took up the colours of the approaching Federation.

In 1897 when Harry Musgrove's troubled Australian Baseball Tour of America arrived in Pittsburgh, they were welcomed at the Duquesne Theatre which was 'decked out in blue and gold bunting for the Australians'.
[ Ref: http://www.australianbaseballhistory.webcentral.com.au/ ]

The uncertainty of the willingness of the New Zealand colony to be part of the coming Federation may have contributed to the lack of any embracing of recognised 'Australian' insignias or colours. Indeed, Federation of the colonies in 1901 into the Commonwealth of Australia, did not (and could not) in itself deliver national symbols to cover all aspects of life - the creation of an Australian flag was probably the extent of the change. It would not be until after WW1 that nationalism began to win out over colonial/state parochialism.

However, by the late 1890s, the question of colours for combined colonial sporting teams representing "Australia", began to be asked. The first to move on the issue was the 1899 Australian cricket team about to tour England. With no national cricket body yet in existence, the players that formed the team (under the captaincy of Joe Darling) adopted the use of (gum) green and (wattle) gold. The team had the colours integrated into their blazers, caps and jumpers.

While this is cited as Australian sports first use of green and gold, it would still be decades before other sports followed. Indeed, the colours were not official in cricket until the fledgling Australian Board of Control adopted them in 1908.

Also in 1908 the green and gold colours were used by some members of the Australian Olympic team - although the Wallabies played their one-off game for the "gold medal" in blue NSW Waratahs jerseys with the word "Australia" under the floral emblem.

Australia's first appearance on the rugby field was in four home Tests held in 1899 against a visiting Great Britain side - eighteen months before Federation.

The tour was organised by the NSWRU and a search of their records revealed that the choice of Australia's colours was of little consequence in the lead up to the arrival of the visitors - organising matches and negotiating with other controlling bodies was the priority of the day.

Indeed, the NSWRU's preference (and that of the public) was for the Tests to be played by "Australasia" (combining NSW, Queensland and New Zealand players) and not "Australia".

While the NZRU eventually opted out, the QRU successfully negotiated to host a Test in Brisbane. Seemingly as an afterthought, in late May 1899 the QRU wrote to the NSWRU concerning the colour of the jersey "Australia" was going to wear. It appears that the QRU proposed that the home Union's colour be used - and NSW unsurprisingly agreed.

The NSWRU considered the matter and resolved: "It was agreed that the colors [sic] of the Colony in which the match is to be played be adopted with the substitution of the Arms of Australia as a distinctive badge instead of the Colony." [State colours]

It is extremely unlikely that any discussion took place on creating an Australian test jersey. For an Australian jersey to have been made for the series would have required both the NSWRU and QRU to have reached an agreement. Time would also have been against any furthering of the matter - all rugby jerseys were imported from England and they had to be shipped to Australia.

Historians cite this 'home-town' jersey changing as a tradition - the practice endured in Australian rugby league until the 1920s and even later in rugby union. The implication is that the Australian side decided to wear the colour of the home colony/state as it would appeal to the local supporters. The 'stacking' of Australian sides with home state players reinforced the theory.

Australia's Test colours
1899: blue in Sydney / maroon in Brisbane
1903: blue in Sydney
1904: blue in Sydney / maroon in Brisbane
1905: combined maroon and blue - in New Zealand
1907: combined maroon and blue - in Sydney & Brisbane
1908 (rugby league): blue in Sydney / maroon in Brisbane
1908 Kangaroos (rugby league): combined maroon and blue - in England
1908 Wallabies (rugby union): blue - in England

While this 'home-town' concept superficially makes sense, on closer examination it fails. It implies that there was an "Australia" authority making the decision to appeal to NSW or Queensland supporters, players and officials by changing jerseys and 'stacking' team selections. Even the list above of "Australia's Test colours" shows inconsistency with the 'home-town' approach - what happened in 1907 and why did the 1908 Wallabies wear NSW's blue?

It needs to be remembered that there was no Australian rugby union body until the 1940s. When Australian sides were put on the field in 1899, 1903 and 1904 it was done by the NSWRU or the QRU depending on who had secured the rights to host and play the Test. As a representative team of the NSWRU or QRU the "Australian" side wore the official colour of the relevant Union body.

If a Test match was held in Sydney, the Australian side was a NSWRU representative team - Queenslanders were only included at the invitation of the NSWRU. The reverse applied for matches in Brisbane.

The NSWRU Annual Report of 1900 noted in regard to the 1899 Tests: "Messrs Row (NSW) and McCowan (Qld) captained the teams in their respective colonies."

Why would a state Union who had negotiated hard to get a Test match against Great Britain or New Zealand want to put a representative team on the field - even one styled as "Australia" - in anything but its own official colour? In fact, the by-laws of the NSWRU stated at the time: "The Representative Uniforms...shall be...light-blue jersey.." A change in jersey colour by the NSWRU for its Australian side may therefore have been impossible.

Similarly, their Australian sides weren't 'stacked' with locals - it was a team representing their state Union that was bolstered by invited guests from the other state.

To wear a combined maroon and blue jersey (or a national design of some other colour) would have required the NSWRU and QRU to have jointly organised and funded the Australian team. Indeed this is exactly what occurred in 1905 and 1907 - and it provides proof that the 'home-town' jersey theory is false.

The 1905 visit of Australia to New Zealand was a joint tour organised and financed by both NSW and Queensland - this saw Australia wear combined maroon and blue. The QRU was not always involved in operating overseas tours, and many later Australian rugby union sides played in the NSWRU's blue.

The agreement with the NZRU for Australia to tour in 1905 included a requirement that the All Blacks visit NSW and Queensland for Tests in 1907. No dividend from gate receipts would be forthcoming to the NZRU until the debt owed to the NSWRU and QRU from the costs of the 1905 tour were paid off.

As a result, the 1907 Tests in Sydney and Brisbane were held under the auspices of both the NSWRU and QRU - and Australia took the field wearing a combined maroon and blue jersey at home for the first time.

When rugby league began in 1908, the NSWRL and QRL independently hosted the Tests against New Zealand - meaning Australia wore blue in Sydney and maroon in Brisbane (both with an 'A' badge).

The Kangaroos toured England in a combined maroon and blue jersey representing the NSWRL and QRL who had sanctioned the tour. The jersey's badge was in the shape of the Australian continent, and featured a kangaroo. [Interestingly, the same design concept was used for Australia's first national postage stamps in 1913.]

Also touring Britain in 1908/09 were the Wallabies under the auspices of the NSWRU. The team toured under the name "Australia" and included a handful of invited Queenslanders, even though the QRU had no direct involvement. Accordingly, as a NSWRU representative team, the Wallabies wore the NSW sky blue jersey with a waratah badge.

For the first two decades of rugby league, the Australian jersey continually changed between blue, maroon or a combined maroon and blue. The "Australasian" Kangaroo tours of 1911 and 1921 were organised by the NSWRL and blue jerseys were used - though maroon (Qld) and black (NZ) colours/insignias were used to represent the involvement of the QRL and NZRL (see below).

In 1909 for home rugby league tests against New Zealand, Australia reverted to the 'state tradition' and wore sky blue jerseys for the two Sydney games and maroon in Brisbane. However, the 'A' badge was lowered to allow a kangaroo to be placed across the breast. The kangaroo was positioned between a "19" on one side and "09" on the other.

Inclusion of a kangaroo on the jersey continued for many seasons, complicating the claims of many that only players who toured Great Britain could lay claim to being a "Kangaroo". For the Kangaroos v Wallabies games held later that season both teams wore jerseys identical to what they had worn in England.

Jim Lomas' English Lions rugby league team's tour in 1910 included matches against "Australia" and "Australasia". The Australian Test jersey was once again back to maroon and sky blue in the 1908 Kangaroos style.

The appearance of an "Australasia" team was not a new sporting concept. Though the matches had no formal Test status, combining Australia's states with New Zealand into "Australiasia" afforded a wider appeal in the mind of many spectators. In rugby league's case, the first Australasian game against the 1910 Lions drew the biggest crowd of the tour - over 42,000. The Australasian team wore hooped jerseys using sky blue, maroon and black.

The 1911-12 Kangaroos set sail for England as "Australasia" - in a 28 man squad there were four New Zealanders included. They wore a sky blue jersey with a large "A" on the left breast, along with black shorts and maroon socks (that included blue piping at the top). The official logo featured the capital "A" letter imposed over a fern and a kangaroo.

For the visit of the 1914 England team Sydney's "Metropolitan" representative team wore red and black hoops with a white collar. Australia again wore sky blue and maroon jerseys with a kangaroo badge above "1914".

The effects of WW1 on the Australian pysche began to see a push to a truly national identity - and attitude. As many historians have recounted of the war years: "Here Australia became a nation".

And so the colours and emblems of Australia's sports teams sought to reflect the nation's new found parochialism - though slowly at first. By the end of the 1920s a permanent national sporting colour scheme had been found, led largely by rugby league.

For the 1920 home series against the English Lions, Australia's rugby league team wore the home state colours again in Sydney and Brisbane. While the badge was again a kangaroo, this time it was above the word "Australia".

The following visit to England in 1921 was again as Australasia, although in reality there was just one New Zealander in the 28-man party. The Kangaroos wore sky blue jerseys and navy blue shorts. The badge on the jersey was in colours of maroon, blue and black and incorporated a big "A" surmounted with a fern and kangaroo.

The 1924 Lions to Australia played for the first time in what is now the traditional Great Britain jersey of all white with a double V of red and blue. On earlier tours down-under they had worn red and white hoops (1910 & 1914) and all white (1920). Australia returned to using the maroon and sky blue jerseys, with a large badge in the shape of the island continent.

The newly formed ARL Board of Control made the decision to change to green and gold after the 1924 visit by the Lions. The Board's minutes did not record why the change to green and gold was made. The decision was not universally supported, with letters to Sydney newspapers chiding the move away from blue.

The Board resolved: "It was decided that future Australian teams wear the recognised jerseys of green and gold (gold stripe to be narrow), white knickers, green and gold top hose, and the badge to be the Australian Coat of Arms."

However, as events unfolded, the next Test match wasn't until the English returned in 1928 - and the hoop design only lasted the three Tests in that series. A commemorative version was used in 2003 to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the green and gold colours.

The 1929-30 Kangaroos to Great Britain were the first Australian team to have the honour of wearing the now traditional green jersey with the gold double V as worn today. The Australian Coat of Arms badge was retained.

Why the jersey was altered from the 1928 version is not known. One theory is that it was an attempt to follow the traditional design of vests/jumpers worn by Test cricketers, which featured coloured piping along the V-style neck line. Another possibility is that the design was merely following the style used by the British team in the preceding Lions tour (1924).

iThe most likely reason was simply a matter of costs. Stitching V's over a one colour jersey was much cheaper than a banded or hooped jersey. [Most Sydney clubs would later cite this as the reason they adopted V style jerseys during WW2.]

The "Wall Street Crash" of December 1929 that triggered "The Great Depression" would appear to be the obvious cause of the cost-cutting that led to Australia redesigning the Kangaroos jersey. However, it wasn't. The "Crash" occurred after the First Test had already been played in England.

In fact, the cause was the USA "bull-market" that existed before the "Crash". The American stock-markets were heavily attracting funds from the economies of Europe throughout 1929 - with the Australian economy so closely linked to England, both nations were already well into recession by early 1929.

Stitching hooped jerseys was probably a luxury the ARL Board of Control couldn't afford or perhaps even source a willing manufacturer. It is also possible the jerseys were made in England in time for the start of the tour.

With the continuation of hard times through the 1930s, and then the advent of World War Two, by the time Australia could again look at jersey designs almost two decades use of the V style had passed. The V jersey had become synonymous with Australia and has never been replaced or significantly modified. The V style itself became a jersey design unique to rugby league at international and club level.

Apart from a "1928 commemorative" jersey worn in 2003, the only other time the Kangaroos have used alternative designs was in 1935 (hoops in NZ) and for a seven day period in 1963. For home "Tests" against South Africa in Sydney and Brisbane, the visitors were permitted to use their traditional 'rugby' jersey which is predominately green - so Australia reverted to maroon and sky blue jerseys in the style of the 1908 Kangaroos, including a very similar badge.

Fortunately for the Australian players who were selected for the 1963 South Africa series, all of them earned a traditional green and gold V jersey in Tests either before or after those two games.

The only other variation lies with the Australian Super League teams of 1997 who played five Tests wearing green jerseys straddled with a blue and gold double V.

Ironically, of all Australia's rugby league teams, this was the only team to wear a jersey that incorporated the nation's official sporting colours of blue and gold.

Acknowledgement: Australian Rugby Union Archives, Sydney
Reference: The Rugby Rebellion

Copyright © 2006 - Sean Fagan. All rights reserved - the article above may not be reproduced (in full or part) in any form without written permission.